New report warns bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang's footprint will remain in US ‘for decades'

Tren de Aragua, a violent Venezuelan gang that has sparked national headlines, will likely remain in the U.S. for decades, according to a new report being released this week.

"During the past few years, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have been released or paroled into the United States, allowed to stay in Temporary Protected Status, or just slipped in without being encountered by authorities (the "gotaways")," the brief by Simon Hankinson and Erin Schnierderjan, an early copy of which was obtained by Fox News Digital, says. "Blending among them are hundreds of members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), which, like all migrant gangs, begins by preying on its own countrymen." Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.

He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter.

The researchers say that Tren de Aragua began in the Tocoron prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua and has since expanded into Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and the U.S. They say the threat from TdA echoes the Salvadoran MS-13 gang, which arrived in the 1980s and is regularly linked to crimes throughout the country.