By now, most people are aware that the Trump administration has made the deportation of illegal immigrants a super high priority. While progressives and social justice warriors have tried to protest this action, much of their resistance and obstruction is based on simple fantasies, rather than reality. And some of the reality in the U.S. is pretty grim these days.
Lately, more than a few Americans have become aware of a criminal scourge that’s spread across the country in the form of an underworld gang, complete with its own symbology, hand signals and aesthetic identity. But unlike local street gangs of decades past, this gang is so expansive and organized that the federal government is on the verge of declaring it a terrorist organization.
Already, the U.S. Treasury Department classifies this group in the same ranking as the Japanese Yakuza and the Italian Camorra Mafia and has ordered its assets frozen and many of its members deported. The name of this criminal enterprise? MS-13.
Just as the Italian Mafia came to our country and put roots down in the early 20th century, MS-13 originated amongst Salvadoran immigrants living in Los Angeles and now operates in 10 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and the United States. The gang claims up to 70,000 members, each of whom is expected to swear lifelong allegiance to this violent, hardcore brotherhood.
Typical MS-13 members can often be identified by their neck and facial tattoos as well as the colors of clothing they wear. In the latter respect, they’re similar to the “Crips” and the “Bloods” of Los Angeles gang history, but unlike those older gangs, MS-13 is a lot more violent, organized, and tightly knit.
“[MS-13] is one of the most dangerous and rapidly expanding criminal gangs in the world today,” notes Philip Holloway, a former police officer and legal analyst. “MS-13’s motto is ‘Mata, roba, viola, controla’ (Kill, steal, rape, control). They are involved in multiple crimes, including murder, racketeering, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and human trafficking, including prostitution.”
In many MS-13 gangland incidents, innocent people — often teenagers — have been targeted for unknowingly offending gang members or simply trespassing on their “turf” — even if they weren’t aware of the gang’s existence in the first place. In more than a few cases, these innocents have been tortured and even killed for something as simple as wearing the wrong color in the wrong part of town.
On New York’s suburban Long Island, more than 35 murders have been tied to MS-13 in the last six years. While it’s true that in some cases, the deaths were related to drug dealing or “beefs” between rival MS-13 members, many were victims who were either trying to defend themselves from robberies or simple bullying.
In the town of Brentwood, as of last year, 14 of those killings had been traced to MS-13 members who were immigrants from Central America. Currently, the town is nearly 70 percent Hispanic, with as many as 17,000 residents out of a population of 60,000 hailing from El Salvador alone. One-fifth of the former population of El Salvador now resides in the United States, either legally or illegally.
In Long Island’s Central Islip, a recent quadruple homicide that included signs of severe torture committed against the victims was blamed on MS-13. The victims’ bodies were found in a soccer field and were so mutilated that tattoos had to be used for identification. All of the victims were under 21, with the youngest being just 16. None of the victims were members of the gang.
Republican Congressman Peter King of New York’s 2nd District said that the FBI has assured him it’s working hard on the case. “It should be encouraging for [residents] to realize that Washington is aware of what’s happening,” he commented. A $25,000 reward has been offered for information leading to arrests of any gang members responsible for the horrific carnage.
MS-13 makes money from robbing people, from selling drugs, from extortion and from prostitution rackets. “A lot of the violence is part of the extortion… and prostitution. Once they get here, they get these individuals and extort money from their families. They’re also into extortion for protection of this neighborhood or that neighborhood,” notes Luis Salinas, a professor of sociology at the University of Houston.
Like other gangs, the group’s membership includes and may even be directed by people who are in prison currently. In 2015, the Treasury Department froze assets belonging to three MS-13 members who were sending money to gang higher-ups out of the country via American jails.
The Treasury Department said this was an attempt to “disrupt” the financial network of the gang by cutting off the group’s profits from illegal acts in the U.S. In 2012, the administration of President Obama gave MS-13 the designation of a transnational crime organization, but it only implemented sanctions against a mere six members of the group in 2013.
President Trump called out the Obama administration in recent tweets he wrote about the group, noting, “The weak illegal immigration policies of the Obama administration allowed bad MS-13 gangs to form in cities across the U.S. We are removing them fast!”
In describing MS-13, the president said in an interview on Fox News, “I’m talking about illegal immigrants that were here that caused tremendous crime… that have murdered people, raped people; horrible things have happened. They are getting the hell out, or they are going to prison.”
And in this latter respect, Trump is correct; he’s ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to crack down hard on MS-13 and other gangs that draw upon illegal immigrants for their membership or target hard-working people in their own communities.
“Just a few days ago, law enforcement believes that members of MS-13 murdered four young men and dumped their bodies in a park in Long Island,” said Sessions. “We will secure our border, expand immigration enforcement and choke off supply lines,” he stated.
“If you are a gang member, we will find you… We will devastate your networks. We will starve your revenue sources, deplete your ranks and seize your profits. We will not concede a single block or street corner to your vicious tactics.”
Sessions went on to criticize sanctuary cities, which ignore immigrants’ illegal status and do not make it a reason to arrest people. Sessions said that sanctuary cities are “aiding [drug] cartels to refill their ranks.” He also stated that El Salvador had declared MS-13 a terrorist organization and that the U.S. may follow its example.
Sessions will be meeting with federal law enforcement officials to discuss MS-13 and other gangs that operate within U.S. borders. Sessions specifically blamed “years of lax immigration enforcement [under former President Obama]” for the gang’s taking root in the country.
Sessions called MS-13 and gangs like it “one of the gravest threats to American safety. “Today is just the beginning,” he said. “There will be much more in the coming weeks and months as we seek to eradicate these transnational criminal organizations. Under the Trump Administration and this Department of Justice, there will be no safe quarter for gangs and those that support them.”
~ American Liberty Report
