A suspected member of the foreign terrorist organization Tren De Aragua is heading home to Venezuela following an arrest in Traverse City on Independence Day.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Kleiber Siso Balza, 25, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, in Traverse City on July 4, alongside three other men in the country illegally.
“Our teams are working daily to remove criminal aliens and immigration violators from our communities across Michigan and Ohio,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations acting Field Office Director Kevin Raycraft said in a statement. “I’m extraordinarily grateful to our officers for their service, especially when they sacrifice time with their own families to keep our communities safe.”
Balza, a suspected member of the brutal Tren De Aragua, has an active warrant from Virginia for possession of burglary tools and a pending larceny case in Florida, according to ICE.
“Tren De Aragua is known to engage in sex trafficking, debt bondage, drug trafficking, and murder to advance their interests,” said ICE HSI Detroit acting Special Agent in Charge Jared Murphey. “We’re thankful to have the assistance of our TSA, Federal Air Marshals and IRS partners in executing this important mission.”
Balza is one of scores of bad hombres arrested in Michigan this year as part of the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, initiated as promised by President Donald Trump on the first day of his second term.
Just two days after Balza’s arrest, U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Detroit Station arrested two illegal immigrants from El Salvador in Sterling Heights, including one who told agents he’s a member of the notorious MS-13 gang who spent two decades in a Salvadoran prison for the murder of a rival gang member.
The Sterling Heights arrest also netted just over five grams of crystal methamphetamines, according to ICE.
Both MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, and Tren De Aragua are designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the U.S. Government.
“FTO designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business,” according to the U.S. Department of State website.
Another Border Patrol arrest in Lincoln Park on July 2 netted Franh Enrique Yonkaiker Machado-Rivas, a 27-year-old illegal immigrant wanted by Interpol in connection with a homicide investigation in his native Venezuela.
Machado-Rivas admitted to entering the U.S. illegally, and was processed for removal along with the others.
“This arrest highlights Border Patrol’s unwavering commitment to protecting our communities and upholding the rule of law,” John Morris, chief patrol agent, said in a statement. “Through strong partnerships with local and federal law enforcement, we are able to identify and remove dangerous individuals—like this homicide suspect—before they can pose a threat to public safety.”
The immigration arrests continue despite a 700% increase in assaults on federal immigration officers, going from 10 assaults through June 30, 2024 to 79 assaults in 2025, WPEC reports.
Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, are working to expose federal immigration agents through legislation introduced in both chambers that would ban non-medical face coverings and require agents to display agency-identifying insignia, as well as their name or badge number.
Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, introduced the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement Act in the upper chamber last week alongside Sens. Cory Booker, D-NJ, and Alex Padilla, D-CA. Sen. Gary Peters, D-MI, co-sponsored the bill.
Similar legislation in the House, dubbed the No Secret Police Act, is co-sponsored by Michigan U.S. Reps. Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids, Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, and Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit. Scholten has also co-sponsored legislation to provide legal status and protections for illegal immigrants.
“With a growing number of reports of individuals impersonating ICE officers in recent months, this measure is more important than ever – not just for our national security but for the safety of border states like Michigan,” Slotkin said in a statement. “These basics protect officers and the public, promote transparency, and build trust with law enforcement.”
On Tuesday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel co-led a letter to Congress from 21 attorneys general urging lawmakers to approve the legislation.
“Normalizing the practice of using masked agents who do not identify themselves is not just a shocking escalation of unscrupulous police tactics – it also presents a significant danger for residents and officers alike,” Nessel said in a statement. “It is only a matter of time before an officer is hurt resisting what appears to be a kidnapping, or before bad actors start simulating this behavior to apprehend whomever they want.”
Federal officials have defended the practice of concealing the identities of immigration agents, who are facing doxxing, death threats, shooting attacks, ambushes and other violence.
“We ran an operation where Ice officers were doxed,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said at a June press conference cited by The Guardian. “People are out there taking photos of the names and their faces and posting them online with death threats to their family and themselves, so I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is.”
