Law enforcement officials are sounding the alarm over an increasing number of so-called "ghost criminals," recent arrivals to the United States who have criminal records in countries that refuse to share those records with the United States, NBC News reports.
Over 100 investigations have been launched by immigration officials and law enforcement into crimes allegedly committed by members of a Venezuelan gang known as the Tren de Aragua, which NBC notes illustrates the difficulty officials have in vetting the criminal backgrounds of new arrivals from Venezuela and other countries that decline to provide American officials with criminal history information about their citizens.
According to Customs and Border Protection, about 800,000 Venezuelans have attempted to cross the border into the United States since 2021, with more than 330,000 crossing the border just last year.
Ammon Blair, a former Border Patrol agent, told NBC News that "we won't know who they are" unless they already have a criminal record with Interpol or inside the United States.
Jason Savino, assistant chief of detectives for the NYPD, noted that due to a lack of records, it's easy for migrants with a criminal past to misrepresent themselves when entering the country.
"Their identity may be misrepresented; their date of birth may be misrepresented," he said. "Everything about that individual could potentially be misrepresented."
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement: "DHS screens and vets individuals prior to their entry to the United States. If an individual poses a threat to national security or public safety, we deny admission, detain, remove, or refer them to other federal agencies for further vetting, investigation and/or prosecution as appropriate."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.