EL PASO, Texas — Migrants Darwin and Graciela Suarez were standing by the carton box that’s become their temporary home in El Paso, Texas, when Spectrum News 1’s Adolfo Muniz met them.
In Venezuela, Darwin Suarez was in law enforcement, first as a police officer and then a part of the Caracas Fire Department. He had to leave because of threats made to him from gangs.
It’s cold and miserable, but to put himself and his family through the hardships of fleeing their country was, for him, the only way to safety.
“The weather is hard, but we have to put up with it to move forward,” Darwin Suarez said.
In the alley behind the Sacred Heart Church, Suarez is but one of hundred migrants waiting patiently. As the weather warmed up a little, they allowed themselves to break a smile and chat with their neighbors — a semblance of a nice day.
Then, out of nowhere, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the gang Unit for El Paso PD arrived at the alley. Suarez took it with a cool head as they passed him and his family.
Escaping gang violence is the number one reason for claiming U.S. asylum, and catching gang members on U.S. soil has been a top priority for operation Lone Star.
Darwin Suarez understands perfectly what’s going on and the tactics used by DPS and El Paso PD in their joint operation. “They come by surprise. Suddenly they walk by you, and then some time passes that they don’t come, and then again. It’s the sudden surprise factor,” he said while troopers were taking to migrants along the alley.
The last thing migrants and the Juarez family want to see are gang members among them, but that’s exactly what it seems happened.
The gang unit was checking for tattoos and snapping pictures to identify them as suspected gang members. One of the migrants who had been their neighbor just steps away allegedly was a match after officers saw his wrist tattoo. At almost the same time, just around the corner, another migrant was being handcuffed and transported out of the area in a police unit.
All of this happened in plain sight, but the fear of even talking about gang members or gangs is still too powerful for some. Graciela was steps away, but when we asked her if she had seen gang members along the trip, she nodded at first and then quickly simply said “No, I didn’t see.”
Since the beginning of Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott has touted good results from the National Guard and DPS troopers in detaining gang members along the border, and stopping illegal drug operations.
Many who’ve come forward about gang members infiltrated among them have been the migrants along the border, but they’re just too afraid to denounce them publicly.
And it’s not only local smaller gangs or drug cartels who infiltrate migrants to make a profit out of them. In most cases, it’s gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha and the MS-13 — gangs who formed on the streets of Los Angeles that expanded to Central America and Mexico when members were deported.
It’s dangerous for migrants to denounce them openly, but Suarez, on the other hand, is bold. “First of all, we are safer, and I keep insisting to all that who owe nothing, fears nothing. If there are bad people, take them out of here.”
To learn more about this operation to find gang members and how many have been arrested, we placed several requests to Texas DPS and El Paso PD for comment but didn’t hear back.
As for Suarez, if granted asylum, he wants to continue his law enforcement career in the U.S.
