A government app intended to screen migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border and allow them to legally enter the US was used by two men now accused of being vicious Tren de Aragua gang members, DailyMail.com can learn reveal.
Two Venezuelan men currently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Aurora, Colorado and believed to be members of the bloodthirsty South American gang entered the US via the CBP One Mobile App, their relative told exclusively to DailyMail.com.
The uncle, a resident of the Edge of Lowry apartment in suburban Denver, claims his two cousins were not involved in a brutal kidnapping of other migrants on Tuesday.
After the two victims, a man and a woman, were beaten, stabbed and held against their will for hours, they were released and called 911.
Local police raided the apartment complex, which the city acknowledges has been controlled by the criminal organization for months since the video of the armed thugs surfaced in August.
A total of 19 migrants were arrested and turned over to ICE. Charges have been filed against eight migrants over the kidnapping.
ICE later said three of those people had been released, but the remaining 16 are all Venezuelan migrants who were TdA members or associates of the mafia — considered such a threat to public safety that the U.S. government declared TdA a transnational criminal organization. .
The gang is also responsible for a wave of crime in American cities, including beatings of police officers, rapes, murders and child prostitution.
The Edge at Lowry Apartments was the second property taken over by the South American gang
The uncle of the two men denies that they are TdA gangsters.
“They are hard-working guys,” he explained, sharing their names, dates of birth and alien ID numbers.
DailyMail.com is withholding their names because police have not yet filed criminal charges against the men, but police did say they have ties to TdA.
“They legally entered the US over a year ago through the CBP One App. They are here legally and trying to do the right thing.”
The app allows migrants in certain parts of Mexico to request an asylum appointment at a port of entry along the border with Mexico.
If the migrant meets the minimum criteria for the asylum application and if their name does not appear in the FBI or ICE database, the migrant will be allowed into the country legally and even receive a work permit.
‘The CBP One App is a huge fraud. It was never the intention to do what the Biden administration is making it do. It was never intended to investigate asylum claims,” John Fabbricatore, the former director of ICE in Colorado, told DailyMail.com.
Venezuela does not maintain diplomatic relations with the US and does not share the criminal history of its citizens with US law enforcement officials.
Any citizen of that country would automatically not appear in US crime databases unless he had previously been arrested in the US.
A migrant uses the CBP One app to request an appointment to seek asylum in the US
Migrants seeking asylum in the United States who previously requested an appointment through the CBP One application attend their appointment
Venezuelan Jorluis Ocando (left) walks with other migrants after attending their CBP One appointment and crosses into El Paso, Texas on October 22
Tren de Aragua gang tattoos (photo above) were part of a Department of Homeland Security bulletin recently shared with federal agents
Your browser does not support iframes.
“Things like the CBP One App have made the United States less safe,” the former ICE chief added.
“We let thousands of people in through an app to be minimally vetted.”
The former agent turned border security expert added that the obvious question is how many other TdA gangsters have been allowed into the country legally.
“This is a perfect example of how the Biden administration failed to have a well-thought-out plan to allow people to enter safely. The Biden administration’s plan for migrant entry is simply chaos. ‘
Republican lawmakers have called for an end to the use of the CBP One App at the border for this reason.
Since 2021, over a million Venezuelans have been admitted to the US by the Biden administration.
Since January 2023 through the end of November 2024, more than 904,500 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico have gained legal access to the US through the app. according to the CBP.