At a press conference in Houston, Abbott signed a proclamation designating the group as a “foreign terrorist organization.” He pointed to recent arrests at a hotel in El Paso, where the county attorney said no specific gang had taken over.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has directed state police to focus on a violent Venezuelan crime syndicate that has gained attention amid a divisive presidential election. Tren de Aragua started as a South American prison gang but has grown into an international organization that dominates human trafficking and has proliferated in Texas in recent months,