Federal immigration authorities say they took a known Venezuelan gang member into custody at Salt Lake City International Airport after receiving information that he planned to board a flight there.
“ICE Salt Lake City officers received a tip [that] a known member of Tren de Aragua was leaving Salt Lake City via a scheduled flight,” a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson wrote in an email. “Rather than let a violent gang member onto a domestic flight, brave officers approached [the man], a Venezuelan national, placed him into handcuffs and removed him from the airport without incident so the flight could depart on time without this public safety threat.”
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not name people until they are formally charged with a crime, and the status of the man’s case was unclear Tuesday.
A video of the encounter — which occurred on concourse B — was circulating on social media this week, garnering nearly a thousand likes on Instagram by late Tuesday afternoon. The video showed the man surrounded by officers, one of whom was wearing a mask. The officers then led him away in handcuffs.
The account that posted the video said the arrest occurred Saturday.
ICE has not confirmed what day it took the man into custody or shared why it suspected he was a gang member.
The man’s name does not appear in state or federal court records. It is unclear whether he was living in Utah at the time of his arrest; ICE did not reply to a question about his residence.
A search for documents related to his civil immigration case showed that his first scheduled court date was in November 2022. A new hearing in his case has been scheduled for Sept. 19 in Aurora, Colorado, at an ICE contract detention facility.
President Donald Trump has focused on suspected Tren de Aragua members as a part of a wider immigration crackdown in his second term. Last week, U.S. military forces destroyed a boat that had departed from Venezuela, killing all 11 people on board. The president said it was a Tren de Aragua vessel carrying drugs.
The Trump administration has often used tattoos and clothing as evidence that some Venezuelan men are members of the gang. Experts say that the organization does not use tattoos as a mark of membership. In a March court filing, a government document asserted that members of the gang dress in “high-end urban street wear” and cited Chicago Bulls jerseys as an example.
ICE’s detainee locator site confirmed the man was in federal custody Tuesday morning, but his exact location was unknown. By Tuesday afternoon, however, he was no longer listed on the site.
The agency did not respond to a question about where he was being held.
Airport spokesperson Nancy Volmer said the facility “would not be notified in advance” of ICE agents coming to the airport. She also said the airport was not involved in the arrest and that she could not share any details about it.