U.S. police spreading ‘politically motivated distortion and paranoia’ to keep immigrant hate strong

Internal documents revealed that police agencies across the U.S. widely circulated an unverified rumor alleging a Venezuelan gang had issued a directive to kill law enforcement officers. According to The Guardian, this claim was later deemed inaccurate by federal officials. This narrative, centered on the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), was quickly adopted by politicians to bolster arguments against immigrants and certain border policies, but it’s not the first time law enforcement for Trump lied.

The intelligence report, which suggested TdA had ordered its members to “fire on or attack” law enforcement, appears to have originated in an Albuquerque police department (APD) bulletin on July 27, 2024. Citing warnings from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the APD bulletin claimed that HSI had “received information from credible human sources out of Colorado” that TdA members in Denver had been given a “green light” to attack police.

It encouraged officers to “remain vigilant,” noting that HSIs in New York had also received this information. Despite a spokesperson for APD, Gilbert Gallegos, later stating that he was unaware of any evidence of a TdA presence in his region or intelligence about attacks beyond what an HSI agent in Colorado had shared, the vague assertion was rapidly disseminated.

Politicians and police made stuff up to be harsher on immigrants

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a warning about the HSI “green light” report, telling agents to “maintain a heightened sense of awareness” and “always wear their body armor.” CBP’s alert stated it had encountered a total of “approximately 26 known/identified TdA members” in fiscal year 2024.

The supposed TdA threat was shared by multiple high-profile agencies and groups, including the National Sheriffs’ Association, the New York State Intelligence Center, and U.S. Army North. It was also picked up by conservative news outlets like Fox News, which sounds like them just pushing anything the GOP says.

The rumor was quickly leveraged by Republican politicians. Texas Governor Greg Abbott cited the “‘green light’ to fire on … law enforcement” in a September 2024 proclamation that designated TdA a “terrorist organization” and condemned President Joe Biden’s “open-border policies.” The then-Colorado Congressman Greg Lopez, a Republican, used the rumor to condemn DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, claiming the department had “chosen not to act” on “calls for brazen violence against our nation’s police officers.”

It wasn’t until months later that federal officials cast doubt on the narrative and the racial connotations. In December [2024], the FBI and the Army’s National Ground Intelligence Center held a briefing and shared materials with various agencies. In a section on “officer safety,” the FBI summarized TdA’s history of targeting police outside of the U.S. but then stated: “Despite reporting in August 2024 indicating TdA issued a ‘green light’ on violence against U.S. law enforcement, it appears the order is primarily defensive in nature, rather than a directive to actively target U.S. law enforcement.”

There has been no public acknowledgment of these misstatements. Experts on TdA have strongly rejected the alarmist claims. Rebecca Hanson, a professor at the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies, who reviewed the records, stated that there is “not a single case of Tren de Aragua using that policy in Venezuela. It is not a part of their playbook,” and that the notion of TdA ordering attacks on U.S. police was incongruent with the group’s operations.

Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People, the non-profit that uncovered the records, characterized the process as a “self-reinforcing ecosystem of politically motivated distortion and paranoia.” He explained that “Thinly sourced intelligence products get repackaged as new security reports, receive coverage from rightwing media, and then get funneled back into additional law enforcement alerts.”