Suspected Venezuelan Gang Member’s Arrest Could Give Trump a Boost in Wisconsin

The recent arrest of a suspected Venezuelan gang member in Wisconsin could be a good talking point for former President Donald Trump, who has long stoked concerns about migrant crime, at an upcoming rally in the state on Saturday.

Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in November, is scheduled to hold a rally Saturday afternoon in Mosinee, Wisconsin, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive northeast of Prairie du Chien, where Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, a 26-year-old Venezuelan, was detained Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

The Prairie du Chien Police Department wrote on Facebook Friday that Zarate was allegedly “physically and sexually aggressive” toward a woman in an altercation that also left the girl injured. Zarate was arrested and taken to the Crawford County Jail. ICE was notified and Zarate was placed under arrest.

Zarate is suspected of being linked to the international gang Tren de Aragua, known for criminal activities including murder, kidnapping, extortion, and drug, arms and human trafficking.

He was arrested for domestic violence, two counts of strangulation, physical abuse of a child, disorderly conduct, and two counts of second-degree sexual assault. Zarate also had warrants out of Dane County, Wisconsin, for strangulation, false imprisonment, assault, and disorderly conduct.

Trump, who has ratcheted up anti-immigration rhetoric since his first presidential campaign in 2016, when he called Mexican migrants “rapists,” drug smugglers, and criminals, could use Zarate’s arrest to back up his ongoing claims that migrants are dangerous criminals the United States must keep out, as his campaign has done before.

Meanwhile, the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, stated in a May 2024 article: “A large body of research shows that immigration is not associated with higher crime rates, but quite the opposite…When we look specifically at the relationship between undocumented immigrants and crime, researchers reach similar conclusions.”

Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign team by email Saturday afternoon seeking comment.

On July 24 — three days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential candidate — Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez blamed Harris for the massive influx of illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years.

“Black Border Patrolwoman Harris is responsible for the bloodbath at the southern border, including the rape, murder, and brutal assault of women like Rachel Morin and Laken Riley. Try as they might, Kamala and her allies cannot change the reality: she is responsible for the surge in migrant crimes and deadly fentanyl in our country, and the American people will hold her accountable when they vote for President Trump in November,” Alvarez said in a statement.

Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered in Athens, Georgia, while running last February. The suspect in her murder, José Antonio Ibarra, is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. Meanwhile, Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five from Maryland, was allegedly raped and murdered by 23-year-old illegal immigrant Victor Martinez Hernandez while running in August 2023.

In 2021, Biden tapped Harris to lead the administration’s diplomacy with Central American countries — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — to address “root causes” of migration. But she was never responsible for border security. While illegal immigration rose significantly under Biden, it also surged in Trump’s final months in office after bottoming out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.