The Department of Homeland Security greenlighted refugee applications for Venezuelan gang members after immigration officers failed to spot their gang tattoos, The Washington Times has learned.
Kevin Grigsby, head of refugee operations at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said several members of the vicious Tren de Aragua gang were approved and made it to the U.S. border before a different agency spotted the tattoos and blocked them from entering.
Experts said tattoos are a standard indicator of gang membership and expressed shock that USCIS was missing those red flags. Concerns have been heightened about TDA, whose members have been linked to a series of high-profile crimes.
In an email obtained by The Times, Mr. Grigsby scolded his employees for failing to perform basic checks.
“Unfortunately we did not ask about the tattoos during our adjudication or did not identify that the tattoos asked about were consistent with gang membership,” he wrote in the Sept. 16 message. “The potential entry of suspected gang members into the United States represents a serious public safety concern that we need to make sure we are being vigilant against.”
Rosemary Jenks, policy director at the Immigration Accountability Project and a close observer of USCIS, called the snafu unforgivable.
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“This is one of the most absurd things I’ve seen,” she said. “We have a real problem with importing gangs here. That got a whole lot worse over the last 3½ years. This is a stunning national security failure.”
Emilio Gonzalez, who ran USCIS in the George W. Bush administration, called the lapse “scandalous.”
“It is egregious that the Biden-Harris administration knowingly continues to admit individuals that belong to transnational criminal organizations whose only purpose is to enter the United States and prey on U.S. citizens,” he said.
He said there is no way to determine how many TDA members managed to sneak into the U.S. under the radar.
The Washington Times has reached out to USCIS for comment.
TDA originated in Venezuela and spread to other South American nations before making headlines in the U.S. this year.
Authorities say members have come to the U.S. as part of the record migrant surge. TDA members have been implicated in the beatings of two New York City police officers. The illegal immigrant brother of the man accused of killing Laken Riley, a nursing student in Georgia, was also identified as a TDA member based on his tattoos.
NBC News reported this week that Homeland Security had identified 100 migrants who were known TDA members and 500 more who may be connected to the gang. Some outside experts suspect the number is much higher.
The experts also debate the reach and danger of the gang. Some say MS-13 remains a larger problem, while others say TDA is more organized and appears to be better armed.
The gang bungle is the second major black eye for USCIS in recent months.
It had to halt a “parole” program for Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans this summer after discovering rampant fraud.
Mr. Gonzalez said Customs and Border Protection revealed the problems in USCIS approvals for the parole program and the new refugee gang bungle.
Ms. Jenks said Homeland Security should sideline USCIS from programs with national security implications.
“If nobody in DHS leadership is telling these people national security should be your No. 1 priority — which they obviously aren’t — that’s just a complete leadership failure,” she said.
In his email, Mr. Grigsby ordered employees to be more aggressive in trying to spot gang indicators and zealous in denying cases where gang membership is possible.
He warned officers against accepting weak excuses for having gang tattoos, such as a clock or a crown, on people who deny gang ties.
He said reasons for the tattoos could be legitimate in rare cases, but “the discretionary analysis will almost always lead to a denial, as there would need to be strong and compelling positive factors to overcome the negative factor of approving a suspected gang member to come to the United States who would be a public safety concern.”
Mr. Grigsby indicated that USCIS might be missing gang members beyond TDA. He said officers must ask every migrant 14 and older from Venezuela or the Northern Triangle region of Central America, where MS-13 predominates, about their tattoos.
He ordered officers to record a full description of every tattoo in the immigration file and urged them to seek help from experts in determining whether a tattoo is a gang symbol.
Mr. Grigsby said gang membership should “almost always” be a reason to reject the migrant, though exceptions could be made for cases with “strong and compelling positive factors.” He did not say what might qualify.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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