President Trump has said violent gangs with ‘tattoos all over their faces’ are pouring into America across the southern border, as he launches a nationwide immigration crackdown days into his presidency.
The 78-year-old Republican sat down for his first TV interview as president with Fox’s Sean Hannity and covered a wide range of issues, from his intent to release more files on JFK’s assassination to Biden’s decision to pardon his family.
Tackling the migrant crisis, he told Hannity: ‘Who would ask for open borders, with people pouring in. Some of whom, who… I won’t get into it… but you can look at them and you can say ‘could be trouble, could be trouble’.
‘There are people coming in with tattoos all over their face. Their entire face is covered in tattoos,’ he added. ‘Typically, you know, he’s not gonna be the head of the local bank.’
Last month, DailyMail.com reported how heavily-tattooed gangsters belonging to the Tren de Aragua crime group are coming across the border and spreading their tentacles across the country, often carrying out violent crimes.
Hours after being sworn in on Monday, Trump declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico, saying ‘America’s sovereignty is under attack’ – and he now appears to be making good on his repeated campaign promises to tackle migration.
In one of his first acts in office the president has ordered the deployment of more than 1,500 troops to the southern border, adding to the 2,000 already there, who will help with the instalment of physical barriers.
It is expected to be the first of a series of new measures after an internal government memo, seen by CBS, indicated that he plans to send up to 10,000 service personnel to assist the Customs and Border Protection agency.
The memo also reportedly suggests that US Department of Defense bases could be converted into ‘holding facilities’ for migrants who are awaiting deportation.
As part of his crackdown, Trump also halted arrivals of refugees already cleared to enter the US, according to a State Department email to groups working with new arrivals sent yesterday.
Trump discussed illegal migration during his interview with Fox News in the Oval Office
Migrants rest on a sports court before leaving in a caravan bound for the northern border with the U.S., in Huixtla, Chiapas state, Mexico
Immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S., who are stuck in a makeshift camp between border walls between the U.S. and Mexico, sit as a Customs and Border Protection officer keeps watch
Hours after being sworn in on Monday, Trump declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico , saying ‘America’s sovereignty is under attack’
President Trump has condemned lax controls on the southern border for being to blame for violent gangs ‘pouring in’ to the US
The memo asked the UN International Organization for Migration not to move refugees to transit centers and said that all processing on cases has also been suspended.
Refugees already resettled in the US will continue to receive services as planned, it said.
Trump in each of his presidential campaigns has run on promises to crack down on undocumented immigration, but the refugee move also targets a legal pathway for people fleeing wars, persecution or disasters.
In his executive order, he said he was suspending refugee admissions as of January 27 and ordered a report on how to change the program, in part by giving ‘greater involvement’ to states and local jurisdictions, which he said were being ‘inundated.’
In the 2024 fiscal year, more than 100,000 refugees resettled in the US, the most in three decades.
New Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said Wednesday that the State Department will ‘no longer undertake any activities that facilitate or encourage mass migration. ‘
‘Our diplomatic relations with other countries, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, will prioritize securing America’s borders, stopping illegal and destabilizing migration and negotiating the repatriation of illegal immigrants,’ Rubio said in a statement.
Elsewhere in Trump’s interview with Hannity yesterday, the president expressed dismay over Biden’s decision to issue preemptive pardons to some of the Democrat’s family members and some of the Republican president’s political enemies.
As their time came to a close, the Fox News host told Trump ‘let me get to the economy’ and ‘I’m running out of time’.
‘I don’t care,’ the new president responded.
‘This is more important because right now the economy is going to do great. I’m here, so the economy – but you have to understand, he had bad advisers on almost everything,’ Trump said of Biden.
Hannity interjected saying he was ‘being yelled at for time,’ but Trump kept going.
‘It’s like in the old days when the Secretary of State said he never made a correct decision on foreign policy,’ Trump said, meaning to quote a former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
Over the course of Hannity’s hour-long program, Trump also hinted at scrapping the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), claiming it is ‘getting in the way of everything.’
Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity scored the first sit-down television interview with President Donald Trump. Hannity was at the White House Wednesday morning to pretape the interview to air on his primetime program Wednesday night
Trump repeatedly turned the attention back to Biden’s pardons throughout the interview.
‘The precedent that he set on pardons is amazing. That’s a much bigger story but people don’t like talking about it. He pardoned everybody,’ Trump said. ‘But he didn’t pardon himself.’
‘Remember this, those people that he pardoned are now mandated, because they got a pardon, to testify and they can’t take the Fifth,’ Trump claimed.
Hannity asked Trump if he would like to see Congress investigate Biden’s pardons, which House Speaker Mike Johnson already suggested he was open to.
‘I think we’ll let Congress decide,’ Trump said.
Hannity asked the same question about his attorney general, who is expected to be former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi once she passes Senate confirmation.
‘I was always against that with presidents,’ Trump replied.
‘Hillary Clinton, I could have had Hillary Clinton, a big number done on her,’ the president added.
He then pointed to his own legal issues – having been indicted in four separate cases for a mix of crimes related to hush money payments, the storage of classified documents and the effort to overturn the 2020 election and January 6.
‘I went through four years of hell,’ the newly sworn-in president said. ‘I spent millions of dollars in legal fees and I won, but I did it the hard way.’
‘It’s really hard to say they shouldn’t have to go through it all,’ Trump added.
Trump also spoke with Hannity about his first trip as president – he’ll head to Asheville, North Carolina, on Friday to see how the rebuilding effort is coming along after Hurricane Helene flooded the region.
The president will then fly to Los Angeles to survey wildfire damage.
Trump’s comments on migration and ‘violent gangs’ flooding in across the border comes after a series of warnings from law enforcement experts on the issue.
Estefania Primera, 36, allegedly has links to the Tren de Aragua gang that operated out of the Gateway Hotel in Texas. Her street name is La Barbie and she is a heavily-tattooed and pierced illegal migrant
Tren de Aragua gang tattoos (pictured above) were part of a Department of Homeland Security bulletin that was recently shared with federal agents
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com late last year, former immigration and customs enforcement director for Colorado and Wyoming, John Fabbricatore, said: ‘We’re going to start hearing stories about them getting arrested everywhere.
‘They’re in 17 states now. I wouldn’t be surprised if by February, that’s higher than 25.’
Known as TdA to law enforcement, the gang originated in a Venezuelan prison.
Members of the South American mafia have since crept into the US via the southern border, hidden among the one million Venezuelan migrants who have entered the country under the Biden administration.
Last year, the horrific murder of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley by an undocumented migrant brought the issue of border security into sharp focus.
Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela, was sentenced to life in jail after being convicted of her kidnapping and murder.
Responding to the case in March, the House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act, a bill that would require federal detention of illegal immigrants arrested for burglary or theft.
It failed to get through the then-Democrat-controlled Senate and an amended version wasn’t brought to the Senate until January 20 this year, as part of the 119th Congress.
It was finally passed and became the first bill sent for President Trump’s signature in his second term in office.
In June, the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl, allegedly by two illegal migrants, also left the nation reeling.
Last year, the horrific murder of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley by an undocumented migrant brought the issue of border security into sharp focus
Ibarra had arrived in Texas illegally in 2022 and his case sparked renewed debate about the border crisis and illegal immigration. Ibarra has also been confirmed to have ties with the deadly Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, confirmed Franklin Pena, 26, and Johan Martinez-Rangel, 22, could be put to death by lethal injection if a jury finds them guilty in the death of Jocelyn Nungaray.
Pena and Rangel are accused of luring the girl from a Houston convenience store late at night and were allegedly seen walking under a bridge with her where they spent two hours before emerging alone, police said.
Nungaray’s body was found hours later floating in a bayou. The pre-teen had been raped and strangled.
Authorities believe both suspects have ties to TdA.
Members of TdA can often be identified by telltale tattoos, including a train, a crown, a clock and an AK-47.
Estefania Primera, 36, recognisable by her distinctive face tattoos and known as La Barbie, is an illegal migrant who allegedly has ties to the gang.
Primera was arrested in El Paso, Texas, on September 27 on suspicion of sex trafficking a woman reportedly at the Gateway Hotel in Downtown El Paso.
Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, was found raped and murdered near her home in Houston, Texas, in June
Her activities have been compared to brutal gangs like MS-13, and although she was supposed to be monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since crossing the border in 2023, she removed her ankle monitor and vanished soon after arriving.
Another alleged Venezuelan gang member was arrested in Miami, the US Border Patrol announced in December.
‘On 12/6, USBP agents in Miami, FL, arrested a Tren de Aragua gang member, a Venezuelan national with an arrest in 2022 for illegal entry,’ agency chief Jason Owens announced on X.
The agency told DailyMail.com the gangster, 19, was detained in West Palm Beach Florida, not far from the home of President-elect Donald Trump.
‘Custody of the individual was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. When individuals are encountered with derogatory information, we deny admission, detain them, or refer them to other federal agencies for removal or further vetting, investigation and/or prosecution as appropriate,’ a Border Patrol spokesman said.
A Venezuelan dissident running for office in Salt Lake City, Utah, has warned that the gangsters have been linked to at least two separate crimes in the state – including an alleged prostitution ring and shooting.
Carlos Moreno told the New York Post: ‘Our law enforcement people are not ready. They are not ready yet to face these kinds of gangs in Utah because the way that they do things are totally different than criminals here in the United States.’
‘That’s why people right now are very afraid,’ he added.
