Up to 90% of gang's criminals are immigrants

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Thursday, October 22, 2020

Most MS-13 gang members charged with federal crimes are in the country illegally, according to a new Justice Department report that underscores just how much the violent criminal cartel relies on foreigners for its mayhem.

Out of 749 MS-13 defendants charged over the last four years, at least 74% had no right to be in the U.S. in the first place, according to the report. Another 3% were legal migrants, and the status of another 15% is unclear, meaning migrants — legal and illegal — could make up more than 90% of MS-13 criminals.

The revelation came in a new repeat documenting the violence of La Mara Salvatrucha and the administration’s attempts over the last four years, at President Trump’s orders, to try to rein it in.

In some cases, gang members manage to sneak into the U.S., while at other times young illegal immigrants cross and are then recruited into the gang.

The surge of Unaccompanied Alien Children and families from Central America over the last six years has created a recruiting bonanza for the gang.

For example, MS-13 gang members charged with murder in Baltimore came to the U.S. as UACs, while a third came as part of a family unit.

In Georgia, a 15-year-old charged in a vicious stabbing death — part of his initiation into MS-13 — also came as a UAC.

And in the Seattle area, two MS-13-related murders last year have been laid at the feet of young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as UACs.

In the Seattle and Baltimore cases, local authorities had the suspects in custody on other charges before the murders, and ICE had sought to deport them. But in each case they were released under sanctuary policies, leaving them out on the streets at the time of the murders.

Some MS-13 members, meanwhile, have showed up at the border and tried to lie about their age, claiming to be juveniles in order to try to take advantage of the UAC loophole.

Homeland Security and the Justice Department are working with Central American authorities to try to identify gang members before they reach the U.S.

Homeland Security runs a program known as BITMAP, which stores biometrics of key targets, allowing authorities to track them as they make their way north, encountering authorities along the path from Central America to the U.S.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...al-immigrants/