Residents have until 10 a.m. on Sept. 12 to vacate the hotel.
Texas authorities say they are shutting down a crime-ridden hotel housing Tren de Aragua gang members and investigating the gang’s criminal involvement in other cities.
El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez filed a lawsuit on Aug. 27 to close the Gateway Hotel on Stanton St. in downtown El Paso, Texas, for multiple code violations, noting 693 police and service calls to the location over the past two years.
The lawsuit names as defendants the Gateway Hotel; Gigante Enterprises LLC, which owns the business; and hotel owner Howard Yun.
Tren de Aragua gang members have occupied the Gateway Hotel since at least June, according to court documents obtained by The Epoch Times.
Elhiu Dominguez, special projects coordinator with El Paso County, told The Epoch Times that a judge granted an order to close the hotel by Sept. 12.
The temporary injunction signed by District Judge Maria Salas-Mendoza will shut down the hotel pending a Dec. 9 hearing on a permanent injunction. Residents will have until 10 a.m. on Sept. 12 to vacate the hotel.
Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang with an estimated 5,000 members, is feared in Latin America and has been connected to murder, drugs, and human trafficking.
Their members are believed to be taking advantage of the border crisis chaos, illegally slipping across the U.S. southern border.
“Watch out for this gang. It is the most powerful in Venezuela, known for murder, drug trafficking, sex crimes, extortion, & other violent acts,” Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in April as a warning about the gang.
President Joe Biden designated Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization in July at the urging of Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“Over the last year, the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has managed to move their operations north by taking advantage of our porous southern border,” Salazar said.
“My constituents in Miami, many of them Venezuelans themselves, should not have to endure living amongst the same kinds of criminals that forced them to leave their home country.”
