ICE lodges detainer for violent Tren de Aragua gang member arrested in Oregon

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Monday that it has lodged an arrest detainer for a violent Tren de Aragua gang member who was recently apprehended in Oregon. Jesus Ruben Lopez Gonzalez, of Venezuela, has an extensive criminal history spanning across Oregon, Washington, and New York, with charges including sex trafficking, theft, assault, criminal possession of a firearm, and obstructing law enforcement, according to court records.

Lopez Gonzales was taken into custody by the US Marshals Service on February 17 while he was walking to a store in Hillsboro, Oregon, a self-declared sanctuary city. He is one of the 27 members of the Anti-Tren faction charged on February 14 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for his alleged role in the Tren de Aragua terrorist organization offshoot.

A 38-count superseding indictment hit the Anti-Tren members with charges including sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, kidnapping in aid of racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering in connection to a 2024 double murder in the Bronx, New York, and other serious charges. The majority of the defendants face life in prison, including Lopez Gonzales. 

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Lopez Gonzales illegally entered the United States on September 11, 2022. He was arrested by Border Patrol and then quickly released into the US under Biden-era policies.

"The Biden administration RELEASED this gang member into our communities. His cross-country crime spree ends today," said Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis in a press release. "He will face justice for his crimes, including sex trafficking, illegal possession of a firearm, assault, and obstruction of law enforcement. Then, he will be REMOVED and NEVER able to return to our country."

President Donald Trump signed an executive order, dated January 20, 2025, that designated cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations, including Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua (TdA), whose gang members "rape, maim, and kill for sport." There have been several high-profile immigration enforcement operations targeting TdA gang members in Oregon over the past year.

On January 8, 2026, Border Patrol agents were forced to fire gunshots at two Tren de Aragua gang-affiliates during a high-profile operation to take the pair into custody. The assailants, unlawfully residing in Oregon, rammed their car into federal vehicles in an attempt to evade arrest, nearly striking Border Patrol agents in the process, according to court documents. 

In October 2025, Border Patrol's Special Operations Group (SOG) targeted an apartment complex next to a Portland elementary school that was being used by Tren de Aragua gang members as a stash house full of weapons, ammunition, and illicit drugs. The high-risk operation netted eight Venezuelan Tren de Aragua-affiliated terrorists unlawfully present in the US.

Additionally, an April 2025 high-profile case involving the arrests of Tren de Aragua gang members accused of kidnapping, torturing, and attempting to kill a woman in Washington state revealed that the suspects had been unlawfully residing in a taxpayer-funded home in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The matter was first revealed in a Post Millennial investigation.