More than 50,000 Hondurans who have been allowed to live and work in the United States since 1999 will have 20 months to leave the country or face deportation, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced Friday, the latest in a series of DHS measures aimed at tightening U.S. immigration controls.
The Hondurans were granted temporary protected status (TPS) in 1999, shielding them from deportation, after Hurricane Mitch slammed their country and left 10,000 dead across Central America.
Under President Trump, DHS has been eliminating TPS programs one by one, arguing they were never designed to grant long-term residency to foreigners who may have arrived illegally or overstayed their visas.
In the past six months, DHS has ended TPS for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans, 50,000 Haitians and 9,000 Nepalis, giving those groups 12 to 18 months to prepare a departure or secure some other form of legal status.
According to a DHS statement, Nielsen “carefully considered conditions on the ground” before making the Honduras decision.
“The Secretary determined that the disruption of living conditions in Honduras from Hurricane Mitch that served as the basis for its TPS designation has decreased to a degree that it should no longer be regarded as substantial,” the DHS statement read.
“Since 1999, conditions in Honduras that resulted from the hurricane have notably improved,” the statement continued, adding that the country has made “substantial progress in post-hurricane recovery.”
It was not clear from the DHS statement which improvements Nielsen was referring to.
Honduras remains one of the most violent countries in the world and has been roiled by political instability since presidential elections last year whose legitimacy was rejected by the Organization of American States and other international observers.
Congress established TPS as a humanitarian program in 1990 to avoid deporting foreigners to countries that have been destabilized by natural disasters or civil strife.
The Trump administration hasn’t ended the protections for every eligible nation; in January, Nielsen extended TPS for nearly 7,000 immigrants from war-torn Syria.
More than 86,000 Hondurans received TPS protections after the hurricane, and the latest government estimates show that about 50,000 still depend on the designation to remain in the United States.
Last November, DHS ended TPS for 2,500 Nicaraguans who were also allowed to stay after Hurricane Mitch.
Hondurans were the second-largest group of TPS recipients after Salvadorans, and many have lived most of their adult lives in the United States, running businesses, purchasing homes and raising American-born children.
Critics of the Trump administration say forcing otherwise law-abiding immigrants out of the United States is shortsighted and heartless, particularly at a time when Honduras and some other nations are teetering from gang warfare and political unrest.
“There is little doubt that the White House has been driving these TPS decisions based on ideology, not based upon what is best for our foreign policy interests and for the region,” said Kevin Appleby, senior director of international migration policy at the Center for Migration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank.
“It makes the situation in Honduras and Central America worse and will assuredly come back to haunt us in time,” ¬Appleby said.
Honduras is a significant source of illegal immigration to the United States, and many of the families who joined the migrant caravan through Mexico that captured the attention of President Trump last month said they fled their country in fear for their lives.
They joined thousands of other Central Americans who arrive every month at the U.S. border with Mexico to request asylum, many of them families or women with children.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MUSLIMS OR LATINOS.
IT’S SOLELY ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY.
Sources: Yahoo News, CBC News, Fox News, Youtube
Tuesday night, January 30, 2018 Donald J. Trump our 45th legally elected leader of the Free world (USA), delivered his first State of the Union address before the entire world.
During his speech Trump talked about his administration’s first year achievements as all U.S. Presidents have done when delivering their SOTU speeches.
Trump then proceeded to provide an update on the cornerstone topic of his administration’s agenda and the topic which helped to secure his 2016 election.
That topic is ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM.
Trump mentioned during his SOTU address that he is halting the FAKE Syrian Refugee program until further notice.
Considering how most of the Men who entered America’s borders under the guise of “Syrian Refugees” were actually from IRAQ and were actually members of ISIL, I can see how choosing to halt this program although not POLITICALLY CORRECT, would be in the best interest of our country as it relates to NATIONAL SECURITY.
Trump then went on to discuss his agenda for dealing with GANG WARFARE as in the notorious, most Cold-Blooded Gang to ever exist.......the MS-13.
MS-13 is an international Gang comprised solely of Young LATINO Men, not BLACK Men.
These Young LATINO Men hail from MEXICO, South America, Central America and Honduras.
MS-13 Gang Members are so cold-blooded and violent, they also target and viciously MURDER LATINO citizens just as easily as they frequently Kill American citizens.
This Gang uses MURDER to Terrorize, Intimidate and Control entire American Communities.
In many instances even the POLICE are afraid of MS-13 Gang Members.
Choosing to prosecute and deport Young LATINO Men who are active members of MS-13 is not a POLITICALLY CORRECT decision for Trump’s administration because for years Politicians and other Elected Officials have feared throwing Latino or Middle Eastern Men into Jail, or Deporting them even for MURDER or TERRORISM because it’s not POLITICALLY CORRECT.
However these Politicians and Elected Officials had absolutely No Fear of throwing Young BLACK Men into Jail in a New York minute, even for minor offenses.
Can you say Double Standard based on RACE??
Yet were it not for BLACK Voters, neither VIRGINIA nor ALABAMA Democrats would have won the 2017 elections.
So I commend Pres Trump for standing up for what is right for the USA even when it’s not Popular or POLITICALLY CORRECT to do so.
To wrap it up........
If you are from MEXICO and have been living in the United States for more than 10 years and enjoying America’s FREEDOM and RESOURCES, yet you have NEVER applied for LEGAL CITIZENSHIP, you should be made to Apply ASAP or be Deported.
One of the longest standing ovations during President Trump’s first State of the Union address came when he introduced the parents of two teenage victims of gang violence.
Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado and Robert Mickens were invited by the White House to attend Tuesday’s speech. Their daughters — Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens respectively — were killed by members of the MS-13 gang on Long Island in September 2016, on the eve of Nisa’s 16th birthday. Federal authorities later arrested 13 gang members in connection with their deaths. Ten of those arrested had entered the country illegally.
Trump used their killings to highlight what he views as America’s “open borders” that “have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities.”
“These two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown,” Trump said. “Six members of the savage gang MS-13 have been charged with Kayla and Nisa’s murders. Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors — and wound up in Kayla and Nisa’s high school.”
The president turned to their parents, who were seated next to first lady Melania Trump.
“Evelyn, Elizabeth, Freddy, and Robert: Tonight, everyone in this chamber is praying for you,” Trump said. “Everyone in America is grieving for you. And 320 million hearts are breaking for you. We cannot imagine the depth of your sorrow, but we can make sure that other families never have to endure this pain.”
The parents then received a long standing ovation as they wiped away tears.
Trump called on Congress to “finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13 and other criminals to break into our country.”
“We have proposed new legislation that will fix our immigration laws and support our ICE and Border Patrol agents, so that this cannot ever happen again,” he continued. “So tonight, I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties — Democrats and Republicans — to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion and creed. My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans — to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American Dream. Because Americans are dreamers too.”
BALTIMORE TO LOSE FEDERAL $$$ AS A SANCTUARY CITY (MS-13 GANGS):
DOJ TOP CHIEF JEFF SESSIONS REMINDS MUNICIPALITY LEADERS THEY ARE NOT ABOVE FEDERAL LAW IN HARBORING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
SANCTUARY CITY LEADERS ENDORSE IMPRISONING BLACK MEN WHILE PROTECTING ILLEGAL LATINO MEN.
IT SHOULDN'T BE ABOUT RACE, ONLY ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY.
Sources: Fox News, Youtube
**** DOJ threatens to withhold crime-fighting funds from four sanctuary cities
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reinforcing threats to go after sanctuary cities, warning the administration may withhold federal crime-fighting funds for four places struggling with gun violence.
It is the latest threat made by Sessions in his public campaign to force cooperation between local authorities and federal immigration officials.
The Justice Department sent letters to police departments in Baltimore, Md., Albuquerque, N.M., Stockton and San Bernardino, Calif. telling them if they wanted federal help to root out drug trafficking and gang crime, they’d have to work with federal immigration authorities.
Among other things, the Justice Department said they must give the authorities access to jails and provide advance notice before releasing someone in custody who is wanted on immigration violations.
The four cities targeted had all expressed interest in the DOJ’s new Public Safety Partnership, which enlists federal agents, analysts and technology to help communities find solutions to crime.
“Based on our review, we have concluded that your jurisdiction has levels of violence that exceed the national average, that your jurisdiction is ready to receive the intensive assistance the Department is prepared to provide, and that your jurisdiction is taking steps to reduce its violent crime,” the Aug. 3 letter said.
The letter sent by the DOJ to the four prospective cities’ police departments also asks them for proof of their compliance to step up efforts to help detain and deport people in the United States illegally. The deadline is Aug. 18.
Separately last week, Sessions told jurisdictions they need to meet the same conditions or lose out on millions of dollars from a separate program that aims to send grant money to support law enforcement.
The attorney general rolled out the rules as part of his promised crackdown on sanctuary cities.
His threat didn’t sit well with some – prompting a defiant pushback on the request.
Under old rules, cities seeking grant money needed only to show that they weren't prohibiting local law enforcement from communicating with immigration authorities.
Police use the money for everything from bulletproof vests to body cameras.
Sessions unveiled the policy amid speculation about whether he would retain his job following President Trump's blistering public criticism for his recusal from the Russia probe. The terse warning from the president seems, for now, to have subsided.
DOUGLAS ALEXANDER HERRERA HERNANDEZ ARRESTED FOR MURDER (ICE AGENTS):
MS-13 GANG MEMBER CAPTURED FOR MURDER IN VIRGINIA.
HERRERA-HERNANDEZ WILL BE DEPORTED BACK TO EL SALVADOR.
TRUMP'S NATIONAL SECURITY AGENDA IS WORKING.
Sources: ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, WTOP, Youtube
***** Known gang member arrested in Va. for Texas homicides
X known MS-13 gang member wanted in connection with two homicides in Texas was caught in Arlington, Virginia.
Arlington County police, along with federal agents, arrested 20-year-old Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez on Saturday, while he was walking near Four Mile Run Drive and Columbia Pike.
The Texas Department of Public Safety issued an all-points bulletin for Herrera’s arrest on July 26. Local law enforcement and ICE agencies received information that the suspect was possibly in Virginia.
Herrera is wanted in connection with two murders in the Houston area. The first warrant is for a shooting in Missouri City, Texas, on June 13, 2016; the second is in connection to a homicide on July 9, 2017.
Herrera, a Salvadoran national known as “Terror,” was one of the 10 most wanted fugitives in Texas, according to an ICE statement.
ICE records indicate that Herrera was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol in December 2014 when he entered the country illegally in Texas.
An immigration judge ordered his removal to El Salvador after Herrera failed to appear in court in June 2015 for his hearing.
Herrera is in jail in Arlington County, pending extradition to Texas.
The Trump administration’s push to deport more Central American gang membershas alarmed officials here who fear that the returning gangsters could exacerbate violence in one of the deadliest countries in the hemisphere.
This year the U.S. government has deported 398 gang members to this country, compared with 534 in all of 2016, according to Salvadoran government statistics. This sharp increase in the rate of gang deportations — and the prospect of more gang roundups in the United States — has prompted Salvadoran authorities to hold emergency meetings and propose new legislation to monitor suspected criminals who are being sent home.
“This clearly affects El Salvador. We already have a climate of violence in the country that we are combating,” said Héctor Antonio Rodríguez, the director of the country’s immigration agency. “If gang members return, of course this worries us.”
In tweets and speeches, President Trump has made MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, the leading symbol of the dangers of illegal immigration and the need for more and faster deportations. He has compared the gang’s “meanness” with that of al-Qaeda. He promised last week that the organization will be “gone from our streets very soon, believe me.” Recent high-profile killings, such as that of a 15-year-old Salvadoran girl in Springfield, Va., and a string of slayings on Long Island, have fueled concerns of an MS-13 resurgence in the United States.
In El Salvador, this gang and rivals such as the 18th Street gang have terrorized neighborhoods for decades. MS-13 formed in Salvadoran immigrant communities in Los Angeles in the 1980s, building its ranks with refugees from the country’s civil war. Waves of deportations over the years helped MS-13 take root in El Salvador and grow into a powerful criminal organization with tens of thousands of members across Central America.
In El Salvador, this gang and rivals such as the 18th Street gang have terrorized neighborhoods for decades. MS-13 formed in Salvadoran immigrant communities in Los Angeles in the 1980s, building its ranks with refugees from the country’s civil war. Waves of deportations over the years helped MS-13 take root in El Salvador and grow into a powerful criminal organization with tens of thousands of members across Central America.
Law enforcement officials in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities have launched raids recently to capture dozens of MS-13 and other Latino gang members. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced this month the arrest of more than 1,300 gang members across the country in what it described as the largest anti-gang crackdown in agency history.
Salvadorans are dreading the return of those captured in the U.S. raids.
“Probably we won’t feel the symptoms today or tomorrow or the next week. But probably in six months or a year we’ll be feeling the symptoms of what these deportations are causing now,” San Salvador Mayor Nayib Bukele said in an interview.
Gang members make up a small fraction of the deportee total. Salvadoran authorities say 6,922 people were brought back here from the United States in the first four months of the year, up slightly over last year.
This year the total number of deportations by United States has dropped about 12 percent, to around 56,000 people, compared with the same period last year. Officials have attributed the decline to the fact that the federal immigration court system is overtaxed.
But the Trump administration is clearly working to expel more gang members.
“You know about MS-13?” Trump said during a speech in April to the National Rifle Association. “Get them the hell out of here, right?”
Salvadoran officials worry that although the number of killings has fallen this year, gangs could quietly be strengthening or reorganizing. MS-13 has at least 49 “cliques” in El Salvador, according to Guadalupe de Echeverría, the head of the homicide and anti-gang unit at the attorney general’s office. Over the years, some of these cliques have named themselves after the cities in the United States where members lived before being deported.
One important dynamic within MS-13, Echeverría said, is a recent rupture between the historic leaders, most of whom have long been imprisoned, and an offshoot known as the “503” — the telephone country code for El Salvador.
“They have already formed a new group, and very probably with deported people,” she said. “We’ve already seen a certain amount of violence between them.”
To prepare for moredeportations, the Sánchez Cerén administration recently proposed legislation to monitor gang members who return to the country. Under the measure, if the suspected gangster had no warrant for crimes in El Salvador, he would be asked to check in with police once a month and notify authorities whether he moved. The law also would create “internment centers,” possibly guarded by the military, that would be something like a halfway house for returning gang members.
Rodríguez, the head of the immigration agency, said that many gang members in the United States had fled conflicts with rivals in El Salvador.
“To return,” he said, “some run the risk of danger for having escaped. That’s why we think there is an opportunity in the internment centers to protect them and be able to reinsert them into society.”
Human rights workers here have questioned the legality of holding suspected gang members if they have not been charged or convicted of a crime in their home country.
Recent high-profile cases of unarmed black men dying at the hands of the US police have sparked protests and civil unrest in several American cities.
The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, and Freddie Gray are - some claim - evidence of long-standing problems with police racism and excessive violence.
Four expert witnesses talk to the BBC World Service Inquiry programme, including the head of President Obama's taskforce on police reform, Charles Ramsey.
"I'm 24 years old. I'm a black man. It's incredibly depressing to see people just like me who have been killed.
"I started the project to provide answers in the wake of the shooting of Mike Brown. It's very heavy to read these stories, and yet it feels like the right work to do. It's important.
"There are statistics on all kinds of violent crimes. And yet, when it comes to people being killed by police officers, there's no data on that. So a light bulb went off in my head. I looked at two crowd-sourcing databases which collected all of the names. I then went through the media reports listing each of those people who were killed."
He counted 1,149 people of all ethnic groups killed by the police in 2014.
"I identified whether they were armed or unarmed. I identified them by race by looking at if there was an obituary or another picture of them online.
"In the aftermath of Ferguson [where the unarmed teenager Michael Brown was killed], there was this big question 'Is this a pattern, is this an isolated incident?' What [my data] shows is that Ferguson is everywhere. All over the country you're seeing black people being killed by police."
The youngest recorded was 12, the oldest 65. More than 100 were unarmed.
"Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police in the United States than white people. More unarmed black people were killed by police than unarmed white people last year. And that's taking into account the fact that black people are only 14% of the population here.
"It goes back to this question of how do they perceive young black men? There's something in the US called Vision Zero, a commitment by mayors to achieve zero traffic fatalities in a specified timeframe.
"We haven't seen mayors step up and make clear commitments to eliminate the level of police violence in their communities. I think that says a lot about the relative value that they place on those constituents' lives."
"I'm a white, middle-class professional woman. I enjoy a great deal of privilege. And I certainly have the black crime implicit bias: I am more likely to see threat in African Americans than I would Caucasians.
"Racial profiling was the number one issue facing police [in the 1990s], and I came to understand two things. Bias in policing was not just a few officers in a few departments; and, overwhelmingly, the police in this country are well-intentioned. I couldn't put those two thoughts together in my head until I was introduced to the science of implicit bias.
"We all have implicit biases whereby we link groups to stereotypes, possibly producing discriminatory behaviour - even in individuals who are totally against prejudice.
"The original 'Shoot, Don't Shoot' studies have a subject sitting in front a computer monitor and photos pop up very quickly, showing either a white or black man. That man either has a gun in his hand or a neutral object like a cell phone. The subject is told 'if you see a threat, hit the 'shoot' key and if you don't see a threat, hit the 'don't shoot' key'. "
The studies suggest that implicit biases affect these actions - for example in some studies people are quicker to 'shoot' an unarmed black man than an unarmed white man. A Department of Justice report released in March looking at the use of deadly force by Philadelphia police, supports the idea that police are susceptible to implicit bias:
"One of the things they looked at is what they called threat perception failure. The officer believed that the person was armed and it turned out not to be the case. And these failures were more likely to occur when the subject was black [even if the officers were themselves black or Latino].
"Officers, like the rest of us, have an implicit bias linking blacks to crime. So the black crime implicit bias might be implicated in some of the use of deadly force against African-Americans in our country.
"An important message in our training is that stereotypes are based in part on fact, and we have to recognise this because in our country, people of colour are disproportionately represented amongst the people who commit street crime.
"That does not give you licence to treat every individual in a group as if they fit the stereotype, that's where we go wrong."
"The first rule of law enforcement is to go home at the end of your shift. The key principle is officer survival. That's what all training is designed to promote. But it ends up endangering civilians rather than preserving their safety.
"The warrior culture - the belief that police officers are soldiers engaged in battle with the criminal element - that has contributed to some shootings that were most likely avoidable.
"It starts in police recruitment videos that show officers shooting rifles, strapping on hard body armour, using force. That attracts a particular type of candidate, and the Police Academy further entrenches this.
"It teaches officers to be afraid by telling them that policing is an incredibly dangerous profession.
"Officers are trained to view every encounter as a potential deadly force incident: you walk up to a person who is loitering outside of a convenience store, their hands are in their pockets. You as the officer begin talking to them, and without saying a word they pull a gun out of their pocket and begin shooting you.
"Training involves an average of about 60 hours on deadly force - the use of firearms - and just over 60 hours on self-defence. Compare that to de-escalation conflict resolution training: the average there is only eight hours of training, and most of that is classroom-based.
"When the military is designing a mission, they have in mind the fact that they're going to lose soldiers. The police profession has strongly repudiated that notion. No officer fatalities are acceptable.
"If all of the states had the same approach and the same numbers of officer-involved homicides as the best states, the states that had the fewest, we could expect about 300 to 600 lives to be saved every year."
"We live in a society where everybody wants to point fingers, but we have a lot of deeply-rooted societal problems: poverty, education, poor housing stock.
"We've got to deal with the issue of extreme poverty. Philadelphia has the highest rate of poverty among US cities. You have an underground economy that supports many of these neighbourhoods - drugs, prostitution, illegal cigarette sales.
"Why are police in large numbers in some of these neighbourhoods? We have to deal with the reality that there's a disproportionate amount of crime occurring in many of these neighbourhoods.
"We've had several police officers shot and killed during the past seven years. I've had eight officers killed in the line of duty - five shot dead. So there is violence that takes place against police as well, and that needs to be taken into consideration."
To tackle the problem, he has divided Philadelphia into separate areas with their own teams:
"They have monthly community meetings to talk about crime and disorder. Cadets that come out of the academy are assigned to foot patrol right away, they don't automatically go into cars. So that they actually get to know people in these challenged communities, good folks that are there entrapped in certain conditions."
In response to the Department of Justice report criticising Philadelphia police's use of force, Commissioner Ramsey introduced new training that focuses on de-escalation, as well as armed response:
"Putting them in scenarios where they have to exercise good judgement and being able to critique that so that when they are in these real live situations, their reaction, their response, is really more consistent with what the actual threat is."
Speaking at a rally in Harrisburg, PA, President Donald Trump assured American citizens that the Salvadoran gang known as MS-13 would be quickly removed from the country.
Following chants of “build that wall,” President Trump addressed the crowd in relation to the deadly Salvadoran gang MS-13:
“We will build a wall folks, don’t even worry about it. Go to sleep. As the final thing we needed, we need it.” said President Trump in relation to the wall, adding:
If the Democrats knew what the hell they were doing, they would approve it so easy because we want to stop crime in our country. Obviously, they don’t mind illegals coming in. They don’t mind drugs pouring in. They don’t mind MS-13 coming in.
We are getting them all out of here. Members of congress who will be voting on border security have a simple choice. They can either vote to help drug cartels and criminal aliens trying to enter the United States, like frankly, the Democrats are doing, or they can vote to help American citizens and American families be safe.
That is the choice.
President Trump continued:
At the heart of my administration’s efforts to restore the rule of law has been a nationwide crackdown on criminal gangs, and that means taking the fight to the sanctuary cities that shield these dangerous criminals from removal. The last very weak administration allowed thousands and thousands of gang members to cross our borders and enter into our communities, where they wreaked havoc on our citizens. The bloodthirsty cartel known as MS-13 has infiltrated our schools, threatening innocent children.
We have seen the horrible assaults and many killings all along Long Island where I grew up. We are seeing the vicious spread of transnational gangs into all 50 states and the human suffering they bring with them. I have been with the parents.
It is devastation. A very respected General recently told me that MS-13 are the equivalent in their meanness to Al Qaeda. My administration will not rest until we have dismantled these violent gangs, and we are doing it rapidly, and we are sending them the hell out of our country.
At this point, President Trump received. thunderous applause. He went on to say, “We are sending them back home where they belong. One by one, we are finding the illegal immigrant drug dealers, members and killers and removing them from our country. Once they are gone, you see what we are doing. They will not let them back in. They are not coming back.”
MS-13 GANG VIOLENCE INCREASED UNDER OBAMA LIKE ISIL:
MS-13 GANG MEMBERS CONSIST MAINLY OF LATINO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
UNDER OBAMA MEDIA ONLY FOCUSED ON BLACK GANG VIOLENCE.
US TROOPS SHOULD PATROL TEXAS-MEXICO BORDERS.
TIME FOR GOP & DEMS TO UNITE AGAINST ALL GANG VIOLENCE.
Sources: Fox News, CBS, Business Insider, YouTube
***** How MS-13, One of America’s Most Dangerous Gangs, is Funded
President Donald Trump is ready to crack down on the infamous, money-making MS-13 gang, after a violent quadruple homicide in Long Island, N.Y. last week left four teenagers dead and badly beaten. Trump is promising to remove the gang from U.S. streets “fast.”
MS-13, a group that was started by Central American immigrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s, is known for its ruthless and violent tactics. Most of the founding members were from El Salvador and fled to the U.S. during the country’s civil war that lasted 12 years, from 1980-92. Since then the gang’s membership has ballooned to at least 10,000 members in the United States and more than 30,000 worldwide, according to the FBI and Treasury Department.
“[MS-13] is one of the most dangerous and rapidly expanding criminal gangs in the world today,” Philip Holloway, a legal analyst and former police officer, told FOX Business. “MS-13’s mottos is ‘Mata, roba, viola, controla’ (Kill, steal, rape, control),” he noted.
The gang has managed to expand its business tentacles into a variety of illegal activities, despite sanctions levied against the group by the U.S Treasury Department under the Obama administration. “They are involved in multiple crimes including murder, racketeering, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and human trafficking including prostitution,” Holloway said.
MS-13 also uses violence as a means for extortion, which constitutes much of its income, University of Houston sociology professor Luis Salinas told FOX Business.
“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,” Salinas said.
In 2015 the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of three members of the gang who were funneling funds back to higher-ups in El Salvador from prison. These actions were an attempt “disrupt” MS-13’s financial network by cutting off profits from illegal activities in the United States, the Treasury Department said. In 2012 the Obama administration designated MS-13 a transnational crime organization and implemented sanctions against six members in 2013.
While the U.S. government attempts to target MS-13’s earnings, targeting its culture is proving more difficult. The fierce loyalty among members is unique, Ron Hosko, former assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, told FOX Business.
“They're very cohesive and often directed by imprisoned bosses in El Salvador to recruit and expand in American communities. That tends to mean there's an aggressive internal enforcement mechanism which equates to internal discipline involving physical violence and murder for disrespect or betrayal,” he said.
Membership in street gangs showed no signs of decreasing, according to the FBI’s 2015 National Gang Report, and MS-13 was identified as one of the top gangs involved in cross-border crimes. Recently, law enforcement has taken a tougher stance on making arrests; a move spurred by Attorney General Jeff Session’s focus on illegal immigrant crime, Hosko said.
“MS is a clear example [of illegal immigrant crime]. Affiliates would cross the border and make their way to American enclaves where they found friends and relatives living here already,” he said. “Citizenship is a combination of American born (many to illegals) and illegal immigrants.”
Salinas said about 60-70 percent of current U.S. members in MS-13 are immigrants, the majority of which could be illegal.
On Tuesday during an interview on Fox News, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he believes the gang “could qualify” as a terrorist group. In El Salvador, MS-13 has already been designated as a terrorist organization.
Hosko said President Trump’s administration is changing the narrative quickly for both gang members and law enforcement in the United States.
“[The FBI] believed that claiming of ‘credible fear’ of persecution, gang retaliation, other bad acts in their homeland to immigration authorities likely resulted in widespread release of bad actors into the U.S. as their claims were being evaluated. With Obama, that was acceptable risk. I think that's changing fast.”
North Carolina has a serious Gang problem and its time everyone else knew about it.
Lurking among the Majestic Mountains, Research Triangle Park, NCAA Championships and the Light Rail system, lies an ugly problem threatening to eclipse all of the hard earned, positive accomplishments within this once peaceful southeastern region of the United States.
No sprawling, metropolitan city is immune to this criminal disease which promises to destroy the core of successful Urban growth. No socio-economic group can escape its clutches. Its just a natural fact that without swift, direct Anti-Gang laws being readily enforced, Gang problems will continue to spread in a community like a killer virus.
Since it appears as though N.C. Legislators and Police Chiefs of the Tarheel state's two largest cities (Charlotte and Raleigh) has failed to properly address this issue, then it looks as if the U.S. Dept. of Justice may have to intervene. Or better yet the Obama Administration's Homeland Security Department.
(Sidebar: The Police Chiefs appear to be hiding the actual number of Gang-related reported incidents. Perhaps they are being instructed by state and local Politicians in denial, to not frighten away prospective businesses seeking to invest in the state's economy by refusing to allow the nitty gritty Truth about North Carolina's Gang problem to be exposed.)
Now don't get me wrong as it relates to what the "powers that be" have really done to help curb this destructive, growing Urban epidemic.
Former N.C. Governor Mike Easley, a few state lawmakers and a couple of Mayors, did attempt to half-heartedly enact legislation as a band-aid hoping to hide this embarrassing blemish plaguing the residents of North Carolina. They did so by drafting one or two very lame Gang Prevention bills into law.
They also received some funding from the Federal Anti-Gang Initiative program (for Raleigh only).
Surely that was sufficient right? Wrong!
Such efforts were just enough to mask the problem. The result: Failure to reduce North Carolina's Gang Violence statistics.
What then did the "powers that be" suggest?
Throwing Gang members as young as 11 to 12 years of age into Adult populated prisons.
Hello??!! But isn't that akin to throwing gasoline on fire?
Do tell. If you place children in an Adult prison with real hard core criminals, once they are released back into society do you think they will be rehabilitated or worse criminals than ever??
Unless of course.....Crooked Prosecutors find ways to keep these children imprisoned for life on trumped up Federal charges.
The only Elected official who proposed a plan somewhat good enough to help eliminate North Carolina's Street Gang problem was Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory (R).
He was one of the first Politicians and Leaders to alert Legislators how seriously this issue should be considered.
However as always when it comes to North Carolina Democrats, due to McCrory's Political Party affiliation (Republican) he was wrongly accused of "Grandstanding" by a few offended, Elected Legislators. (This was an example of Partisan Politics at its finest.)
Thus McCrory's Gang proposal was basically placed on the back burner until the problem increased almost beyond control of local Law Enforcement agencies.
The only critical component lacking in McCrory's Gang Prevention proposal was that there didn't seem to be enough emphasis placed on reaching out to At-Risk Adolescents, thus deterring them away from wanting to join Gangs.
That was a component too critical not to include in Successful Gang Prevention legislation.
Why ask many of the victimized, Fearful voters was this component so important?
When drafting any type of Gang legislation it has to include efforts that will attack the cause of Gang problems at the roots.
At the root of all nationwide Gang-related crimes are communities lacking in necessary Constructive Activities or Programs to help keep a large population of Kids (mainly Minority Kids) with little Hope left in their everyday lives, from ruining their futures at the hands of Manipulative Gang Leaders.
Note: The United States Dept. of Justice reports that Most participants in gang crimes tend to be young, male, and either black or Hispanic. C. Maxson, Ph.D., supra. Gang cocaine sales involve more young, black males in transactions that more often include crack rather than powder form. Id. The increased likelihood of black and young gang offenders has also characterized the sales of other drugs by gang members. Id. Hispanics have been more involved in sales of drugs other than cocaine.
Another reason why ruthless gangs are taking over this Southeastern region, is due to state legislators allowing businesses to attract Cheap Labor in the form of Illegal Immigrants.
Most of those companies thought it was more prudent to hire Illegal Immigrants and pay them $6.00 or $7.00 per hour for a $12.00 an hour job, than to hire legal, American citizens to perform the work.
While its true this foolish move motivated by greed earned the CEOs of those companies more profits, the caveat of their decision making in the long run produced more heartache for North Carolina because many of those Illegal Immigrants or their kids were Gang members.
Now as it relates to Mayor McCrory "Grandstanding" before NC Legislators to get their attention about Gang Activity, at least he caused some ears to perk up within the NC State Capitol. More importantly he caused those Elected officials to finally listen to their Constituents.
Which brings us back to the first point....
North Carolina still has a serious Gang problem. Ruthless Gangs such as MS-13s, Kings, Crips and Bloods are taking over.
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