Nearly 30% of illegal immigrant children at border have ties to MS-13 or other gangs
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Nearly 30 percent of the illegal immigrant children the U.S. is holding in its dormitories have ties to criminal gangs, the government revealed Wednesday, suggesting that the Obama-era surge of Central Americans has fed the country’s growing problem with MS-13 and other gangs.
Federal officials refused even to guess at the true scope of the problem, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that they can give only small snapshots of what they see. But they said the devastation on communities across the country is clear: killings and chaos, particularly among other immigrants — both legal and illegal.
The Border Patrol identified 160 teens who were known or suspected gang members when they first showed up at the border, but whom the Obama administration said it had to admit under U.S. law.
Meanwhile, a spot check this month of 138 teens being held by the federal Health and Human Services Department identified 39 with gang ties. Four of them were forced into cooperating with the gangs and 35 joined voluntarily, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
“It is well-known that MS-13 actively targets and recruits children as young as 8 years old,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee who called Wednesday’s hearing.
“While their illegal status and Central American heritage are a key factor in MS-13’s targeting, without a doubt the failures of the current system for handling these children is also to blame,” he said. “The current system is fraught with abuse, systematic errors and a lack of effective cooperation.”
He was stunned that no agency could say how many “UAC,” as the government dubs unaccompanied alien children, have been recruited.
The agencies point to one another and to federal laws, saying their hands are tied.
UACs are usually arrested by the Border Patrol, which is required to turn them over to the social workers at HHS within 72 hours, ending the Border Patrol’s involvement. HHS says that under the law it must try to place the children with sponsors.
Other than limited circumstances, the department says, its involvement ends soon after it sends the children off.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t get involved until a UAC is ordered deported.
That usually leaves the children with no federal supervisions once they are released to sponsors — where they are often prime recruiting targets.
Scott Lloyd, director of the HHS office that handles UAC, said his team is looking to increase monitoring of the minors and is reviewing Obama administration interpretations of policy.
He also said the population of children has dropped dramatically under the Trump administration, as stiffer interior enforcement and tough talk from the president have discouraged children — and indeed all migrants — from attempting to cross the border.
That still leaves a large presence in the U.S., and MS-13 — with roots in El Salvador — is a growing threat, authorities said.
Officials said MS-13 is involved in some drug dealing and does engage in human trafficking, but its real money-making operation is extortion. The gang threatens families — including American citizens — with violence against relatives back in Central America unless those in the U.S. pay them off.
Gang members in the U.S. take directions directly from gang commanders in El Salvador, authorities say.
Kenneth A. Blanco, acting assistant attorney general in the criminal division at the Justice Department, also said immigrants who fail to report crimes to local police are often not afraid of being deported by federal authorities, but rather fear retaliation from the gang members and other criminals who live in their neighborhoods.
He said witnesses’ names become public, making them targets for retribution.
“That really, in my 28 years, has been the fear they have of calling the police.
Not so much the other way around,” he said. “They’re really scared of these people.”
That runs counter to the argument made by Democrats and some local police chiefs that illegal immigrants refuse to report crimes because they fear entanglement with federal deportation agents.
Democrats pointed to calculations by some police agencies that crime reporting among Hispanics has dropped dramatically in the months since President Trump took office.
The Democrats say that is one justification for sanctuary city policies — though Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, offered another one Wednesday. He said Chicago, which in 2011 pioneered blanket sanctuary policies, doesn’t want to protect illegal immigrants but is too poor to assist federal agents.
“Come on, Uncle Sam, where’s the money?” Mr. Durbin said.
He said Chicago and Cook County are eager to keep serious criminals and other gang members out of their communities but added that it’s up to the federal government to fund the training he said local authorities need.
“Please help us. Send us some resources,” he said.
Federal officials, though, said they are not looking for locals to do the job, but rather to allow federal officers into their facilities and to share information about releases.
“We’re asking for their cooperation,” said Matthew Albence, executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mr. Albence singled out the Chicago area as one of the most prominent sanctuaries. “Chicago is a large one. We haven’t been able to get into the Cook County Jail for a long time,” he said.
He also named New York City and San Francisco as top sanctuary cities.
The conversation sprang from questioning by Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, who asked about MS-13 and other gang members who are nabbed by local authorities in sanctuary cities.
“These are evil people. It’s pretty hard to miss them. There are tattoos all over their body,” Mr. Kennedy said. “If they’re arrested and they’re in a local jail, there are some cities in the United States that would prevent you from coming in and talking to them?”
“Correct,” Mr. Albence replied.
“We know who they are, we know they’re gang members, we know they’re criminals. But if the city, the county, doesn’t allow us to get into that jail then they’re released back into the community,” he said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ave-gang-ties/
Sanctuary Cities Protecting MS-13 Gang Members from Deportation, Says ICE
by EDWIN MORA
22 Jun 2017
WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is a “rather long list” of sanctuary cities across the United States that choose to release incarcerated members of the notoriously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang back into U.S. communities rather than allow immigration agents to prosecute and deport them, testified a federal officer under oath before lawmakers.
“We are not asking the state of local institutions to do anything besides give us access and transfer that individual to our custody at the completion of their criminal process so we [can]…remove them from the country or prosecute them,” declared Matthew Albence, the executive associate director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, during a Senate panel hearing.
On Wednesday, June 21, 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled, “The MS-13 Problem: Investigating Gang Membership, its Nexus to Illegal Immigration, and Federal Efforts to End the Threat.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked the witnesses, which included officials from various law enforcement segments of the federal government, about the role “so-called sanctuary cities” play in the problem.
Albence identified Chicago, New York, and San Francisco as being part of an extensive list of sanctuary cities that ignore federal immigration laws and are a contributing “factor” to the deadly MS-13 problem facing the United States.
“I think there are some major cities in this country where…I can’t even send my officers to go into the [local] jail to interview someone who has 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 him. Certainly, that’s a problem,” responded the high-ranking agent from ICE, a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“In many cases, we know who these individuals are. We have biometric identifiers. They’ve been arrested by the Border Patrol [USBP] or been arrested by ICE previously and removed and then re-entered the country unlawfully,” he added, later noting:
"We know they’re gang members. We know they’re criminals, but if the county or the city does not allow us to get into the jail to make that final determination, to process that individual for removal and take custody of that person, then they’re released back into the community to re-victimize."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) appeared to defend Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city, blaming President Donald Trump’s administration of allegedly refusing to devote federal funds to help Chicago combat violent crimes.
“I’m proud to represent it [Chicago] and make no mistake if MS-13 members engage in criminal activity, they’re going to be prosecuted. We’re not going to look the other way,” said Sen. Durbin. “When it comes to our state and local law enforcement to be immigration agents, they have the same reaction as a lot of other communities: come on Uncle Sam where’s the money?”
“If you want us to play immigration agents for the United States of America then come forward with the training and resources to make it happen,” he continued.
Since Trump assumed the office of the presidency, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has defiantly defended the city’s status as a sanctuary city to the dismay of the new administration.
Currently, there are “more than” 10,000 MS-13 gang members — accused of extortion, murder, and rape, among other crimes — operating in “at least” 46 states and the nation’s capital, according to the federal government.
“The MS-13 threat is everywhere in the U.S.,” warned Kenneth Blanco, the acting assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ), while testifying alongside Albence.
Asked by Sen. Kennedy, “I want to make sure I understand. These are evil people…If they’re arrested and they’re in a local jail, there are some cities in the United States that would prevent you from coming in and talking to them, interviewing them?”
“Correct,” responded ICE’s Albence.
The gang’s motto is known as “kill, rape, control.”
MS-13, primarily based in El Salvador, has taken advantage of the flow of illegal immigrants in the last few years, particularly unaccompanied alien children (UACs), to bolster their ranks within the United States.
UACs refer to illegal aliens under the age of 18.
“Of the approximately 5,000 individuals apprehended by USBP [Border Patrol] with confirmed or suspected gang affiliations since FY 2012, 159 were UACs. Of those 159, approximately 56 UACs were suspected or confirmed to be affiliated with MS-13,” testified Carla Provost, the acting chief of U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), during Wednesday’s hearing. USBP is also a component of DHS.
El Salvador-based MS leaders are intentionally sending UACs to cross the U.S.-Mexico onto American soil and “commit acts of violence,” including murders, Scott Conley, a detective for the Chelsea Police Department in Massachusetts and member of the FBI’s North Shore Gang Task Force, told lawmakers in May.
DHS officials on Wednesday confirmed the validity of documents recently released by a whistleblower showing that former President Barack Obama’s administration released at least 16 UACs affiliated with MS-13 members into U.S. communities.
Federal officials could not say if the practice has continued under President Donald Trump. Illegal immigration, including the flow of UACs, has dropped under the Trump administration.
MS-13, officially labeled by the U.S. government as a transnational criminal organization, primarily operates in the Northern Triangle countries in Central America — El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...tion-says-ice/
