The growth of migrant crime, including the arrests this week of members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang in a drug raid in New York City, shows that every city in the country is now a border city under the weak policies of the Biden administration, Rep. Anthony D'Esposito said on Newsmax Saturday.
"This is a transnational criminal organization with over 5,000 members, and they're using migrant shelters to recruit new members," the New York Republican told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "In the beginning of November, you had a gang member wanted for murder in North Texas.
"In Tennessee, ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] arrested a criminal with warrants. There were four more arrested in Tennessee for sex trafficking.
"And then now in New York City, thanks to the great work of many law enforcement agencies, we have some of these criminals off the streets," he said.
New York City police, during a raid in the Bronx this week, arrested 15 suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Two of the suspects — Denyeer Aramillo Meneses, 23, and Edison Pena Angulo, 25 — are allegedly tied to an apartment invasion in Aurora, Colorado, earlier his year.
"When Democrats continue to say that they want to secure the border, they had the opportunity over a year ago," D'Esposito said Saturday.
"The way that I'm looking at it right now, there is no piece of legislation that's too conservative. We need to secure our border, and we need to make sure that these criminals are sent back to where they came from."
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed mass deportations of migrant criminals, and D'Esposito said he's confident that Trump and his team, including border czar Tom Homan, will make that happen.
"Over the last almost two years, I've had the honor to serve on the House Homeland Security Committee," he said. "We passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, which has been sitting on [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer's desk collecting dust for the last year and a half."
Democrats claim they want to secure the border, but "they're just gaslighting the American people," D'Esposito added. "They have no intention of securing the border."
But Trump and his team "are going to make this a priority on day one, because that's what the American people want," the congressman said. "I represent a district with 70,000 more Democrats than Republicans, and even the Democrats are saying that the border needs to be secured."
Immigrants who are in the country legally are also "very angry" at the resources that are being drained from cities to use for migrants coming in illegally, said D'Esposito.
"[In] New York, there's over $2 billion in the state budget for next year going to migrants for their shelter, for their food, for cellphones," he said.
"This is what the American people are paying for every day. I'm looking forward to in January when we once again, under the leadership of President Trump, begin to put America first."
D'Esposito also discussed the threats being made to members of Trump's incoming administration and transition team.
"I've had multiple death threats to myself, bomb threats to my office where people — thanks to the great work of the Nassau County Police Department — were arrested," said D'Esposito.
"I look forward to prosecutors instead of releasing criminals on the street. We should be holding those accountable who are causing the chaos amongst not only our communities but are targeting our elected officials."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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