Revealed: US law enforcement claimed emojis could signal Tren de Aragua affiliation

Claims are ‘an unsophisticated, uneducated approach that demonstrates a lack of knowledge’, says one professor

US law enforcement officials have claimed that the use of certain emojis could signal affiliation with Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan gang, according to internal records reviewed by the Guardian.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the US army and other agencies have alleged in briefings, threat warnings and training materials for law enforcement that specific symbols used on social media are associated with Tren de Aragua, a group Donald Trump has regularly cited to support his immigration crackdown.

The emoji claims, repeated by the New York police department (NYPD), were made in four reports disseminated among law enforcement in 2024 and 2025 and obtained through records requests by Property of the People, a government transparency non-profit.