Are Sanctuary City Polices giving safe haven to violent gangs like MS-13? In 2017, President Donald Trump put Sanctuary City laws front and center in his battle against the rise of savage violence at hands of gangs like MS-13.
Today MS-13 an international gang with at 30,000 - 50,000 members in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. It is estimated that there are 8,000 to 10,000 members living in the United States. They are known for very violent attacks using weapons such as a machete to hack their victim to death. They list one of MS-13's motto as being "Mata, roba, viola, controla” (“Kill, steal, rape, control”), and even other gangs fear them. Back in 2008, Tom Tancredo from Colorado made the MS-13 gang one of his campaign issues in the Republican presidential primaries, when few others were talking about it. MS-13 also known as Mara Salvatrucha was mostly first-generation Salvadoran-Americans, but Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans and other immigrants of Latin America were also included in their ranks. In 2008, MS-13 had already at least 6,000 members across 42 states and the District of Columbia.
Since the 1990s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken initiatives to crack down on MS-13 activities, and in some regions of the country, they saw some success as they decimated their leadership and put many members in jail. In 2013, the Obama administration declared MS-13 to be a transnational criminal group, and made plans to put a freeze on all of it's U.S. financial assets, and to seize what was estimated to be millions of dollars of profit from illegal drug and human smuggling. The U.S. Treasury department explained that "MS-13 is being targeted for its involvement in serious transnational criminal activities, including drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling, sex trafficking, murder, assassinations, racketeering, blackmail, extortion, and immigration offenses." Yet, the violence continued. According to Time magazine, in 2017 Federal officials blamed MS-13 for decades of violence and drug activity across the country. MS-13 was believed it to be responsible for 15 murders in Suffolk County, New York alone, and in early 2017, four young Latino men were hacked to death by machete on Long Island. In response to the growing threat of violence from MS-13 in his State, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called these gang members thugs: "MS-13 are thugs. That is what they are they are thugs."
Throughout the 2016 election cycle, Donald Trump repeated the theme that MS-13 gang members were thugs. He called them "thugs", "bad hombres", "bad ones" and more. Mr. Trump blamed the rise of MS-13 on illegal immigration, and promised to decimate the gang, deport their members and build a wall to keep the gangs and drugs out of America. In his first State of the Union Address, President Donald Trump returned to the subject of illegal immigration and the border. In February President Trump, said that "As we speak tonight, we are removing gang members, drug dealers, and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our very innocent citizens." Yet, there was opposition to the Trump administration policies, especially in the form of sanctuary cities and states which refused to cooperate with the federal government. Trump spoke to them directly, asking "What would you say to the American family that loses their jobs, their income, or their loved one because America refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders?"
"At the same time, my administration has answered the pleas of the American people for immigration enforcement and border security. By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions and billions of dollars, and make our communities safer for everyone. We want all Americans to succeed, but that can't happen in an environment of lawless chaos. We must restore integrity and the rule of law at our borders.On April 12, 2017 the Washington Post reported "An internal Department of Homeland Security assessment obtained by The Washington Post shows the agency has already found 33,000 more detention beds to house undocumented immigrants" and "opened discussions with dozens of local police forces that could be empowered with enforcement authority". According to the Post, one way that the Trump administration could increase it's deportation capacity was to expand the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996 to grant local law enforcement agencies more immigration enforcement powers. This act implemented under Bill Clinton required local law enforcement agencies to share information of individuals arrested with Federal Immigration authorities, but the program fell out of favor during Obama's second term. President Trump promised to do just that, but in response, many cities and some states with the support of some Democratic Congressmen have begun to implement sanctuary sate laws, refusing to abide by the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act. The 1996 Act required sharing of information and the detainment of illegal immigrants upon request for up to 48 hours until ICE could transfer them for deportation hearings. The Trump administration fought back, claiming that these sanctuary cities are harboring criminals, including MS-13 gang members.
For that reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great, great wall along our southern border. As we speak tonight, we are removing gang members, drug dealers, and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our very innocent citizens. Bad ones are going out as I speak, and as I've promised throughout the campaign.
To any in Congress who do not believe we should enforce our laws, I would ask you this one question: What would you say to the American family that loses their jobs, their income, or their loved one because America refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders?"
On June 2, the U.S. Senate held a Judiciary Committee hearing titled “The MS-13 Problem: Investigating Gang Membership, its Nexus to Illegal Immigration, and Federal Efforts to End the Threat.” In this hearing, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska pressed federal law enforcement Officials on whether sanctuary city policies are “inhibiting efforts by federal law enforcement to protect our communities from human trafficking, drug trafficking, and other gang-related criminal activity.” Senator Sasse continued, "These gangs, drug runners, and human traffickers threaten our communities and we should all be troubled when law enforcement can’t do their jobs effectively. Our policies shouldn’t operate as a shield to protect the most dangerous criminal". Matthew T. Albence the Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Washington, D.C. responded:
"There are some major cities in this country where I can’t even send my officers to go into the jail to interview someone that’s been arrested for a gang activity or is a known gang member, and we can’t go in there and identify that person and take an enforcement action against them".
Later in July, Thomas Homan, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told reporters outside the White House that "cooperation is critical. It is often state and local law enforcement not ICE that first come into contact with transnational criminal organizations". Finally as Fox News reported on October 23, 2017, "U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday promised an all-out assault on the brutal MS-13 street gang 'just like we took Al Capone off the streets.'" This new designation directed federal prosecutors to target the MS-13 gang members and use all legal avenues including racketeering, gun and tax laws to prosecute them. Sessions also designated the MS-13 gang as a priority for the Organized Creme Drug Enforcement Task Forces.
Today, the Trump administration is determined to defeat MS-13, and it has become quite clear, that the administration is putting sanctuary cities front and center in it's battle against MS-13, accusing their policies of providing a safe haven for violent criminals and thugs in their efforts to shield illegal aliens.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=123408
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/january/ms13_011408
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/street_gang_ms-13_declared_int.html
https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1733.aspx
http://time.com/4783163/ms-13-gang/
http://pix11.com/2017/04/26/gov-cuomo-speaks-in-brentwood-about-ms-13-gang-activity-day-after-ag-sessions-announces-visit/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/nyregion/ms-13-murders-long-island.html
https://www.sasse.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/7/sasse-presses-feds-on-sanctuary-city-policies-toward-violent-criminals
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/27/trump-admin-targets-ms-13-gang-sanctuary-cities/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-moving-quickly-to-build-up-nationwide-deportation-force/2017/04/12/7a7f59c2-1f87-11e7-be2a-3a1fb24d4671_story.html?utm_term=.a062a6e7e170
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/24/sessions-all-bets-are-off-in-hunt-for-ms-13-street-gang.html
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/MS-13_tattoo_2.jpg
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