Homeland Security greenlighted refugee applications for Venezuelan gang members after immigration officers failed to spot their gang tattoos, The Washington Times has learned.

Kevin Grigsby, head of refugee operations at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said “several” members of the vicious Tren de Aragua gang were approved and made it to the U.S. border before a different agency spotted the tattoos and blocked them from entering.

Experts said tattoos are a common indicator of gang membership and expressed shock that USCIS was missing those red flags, particularly given the heightened concerns about TDA, whose members have been linked to a series of high-profile crimes.

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Mr. Grigsby, in an email obtained by The Times, scolded his employees for failing to do basic checks.

“Unfortunately we did not ask about the tattoos during our adjudication or did not identify that the tattoos asked about were consistent with gang membership,” he wrote in the Sept. 16 message. “The potential entry of suspected gang members into the United States represents a serious public safety concern that we need to make sure we are being vigilant against.”

Rosemary Jenks, policy director at the Immigration Accountability Project and a close observer of USCIS, called the snafu unforgivable.

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“This is one of the most absurd things I’ve seen,” she said. “We have a real problem with importing gangs here. That got a whole lot worse over the last 3.5 years. This is a stunning national security failure.”

Emilio Gonzalez, who ran USCIS in the Bush administration, called the lapse “scandalous.”

“It is egregious that the Biden-Harris administration knowingly continues to admit individuals that belong to transnational criminal organizations whose only purpose is to enter the United States and prey on U.S. citizens,” he said.

He said there’s no way to know how many TDA members managed to sneak in under the radar.

The Washington Times has reached out to USCIS for comment.

TDA originated in Venezuela and spread to other South American nations before making headlines in the U.S. this year.

Authorities say members have come as part of the record migrant surge. TDA members have been implicated in the beating of two New York City police officers. The illegal immigrant brother of the man accused of murdering Laken Riley, a nursing student in Georgia, was also identified as a TDA member based on his tattoos.

NBC News reported this week that Homeland Security has identified 100 migrants who are known TDA members and 500 more who may be connected to the gang, though some outside experts believe the actual number is much higher.

The experts also debate the reach and danger of the gang, with some saying MS-13 remains a larger problem, while others say TDA is more organized and appears to be better armed.

The gang bungle is the second major black eye for USCIS in recent months.

It had to halt a “parole” program for Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans this summer after discovering rampant fraud.

Mr. Gonzalez said in both the parole program and the new refugee-gang bungle, it was Customs and Border Protection that revealed the problems in people the USCIS was approving.

Ms. Jenks said Homeland Security should sideline USCIS when it comes to programs with national security implications.

“If nobody in DHS leadership is telling these people national security should be your No. 1 priority — which they obviously aren’t — that’s just a complete leadership failure,” she said.

Mr. Grigsby, in his email, ordered employees to be more aggressive in trying to spot gang indicators and zealous in denying those cases where gang membership is possible.

He specifically warned officers against accepting weak excuses for why someone would have a gang tattoo — such as a clock or a crown, both popular TDA designs — but claimed not to be part of the gang.

He said there could be rare cases where someone is legitimately able to explain it away, but “the discretionary analysis will almost always lead to a denial, as there would need to be strong and compelling positive factors to overcome the negative factor of approving a suspected gang member to come to the United States who would be a public safety concern.”

Mr. Grigsby also indicated that USCIS might be missing gang members beyond TDA. He said officers must ask every migrant age 14 and older from Venezuela or the Northern Triangle region of Central America, where MS-13 predominates, about their tattoos.

He ordered officers to record a full description of every tattoo in the immigration file and urged them to ask for help from experts in trying to figure out if a tattoo is a gang symbol.

Mr. Grigsby said gang membership should “almost always” be a reason to reject the migrant, but said there may be some exceptions for cases with “strong and compelling positive factors.” He did not say what might qualify.