the below is from the open borders advocates at the wsws. org communist party
Immigrant arrests up 33 percent since Trump inauguration
Immigrant arrests up 33 percent since Trump inauguration
By Patrick Martin
18 April 2017
18 April 2017
Arrests of immigrants have jumped by
nearly one-third since President Donald Trump took office, compared to the same
period a year ago. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit of the
Department of Homeland Security arrested 21,362 allegedly undocumented
immigrants from January 20 through mid-March, according to statistics released
to the Washington Post, compared to 16,104 in the same period of
2016.
Despite Trump’s claim that he is targeting “criminals” among
the undocumented immigrant population, the largest increase in arrests is among
immigrants with no criminal record of any kind, more than doubling to 5,441.
Arrests of immigrants with some type of criminal record—which could include a
drunk driving charge from 20 years ago—rose from 13,404 to 15,921, an increase
of 18.7 percent.
The Post wrote of
“newly empowered federal agents intensifying their pursuit of not just
undocumented immigrants with criminal records, but also thousands of
BLOG: LAW-ABIDING? WHEN THE JUMP OUR BORDERS THEY HAVE BROKEN OUR LAWS! WHEN THEY SHOW UP FOR A JOB WITH A POCKETFUL OF STOLEN IDENTITIES, THEY HAVE BROKEN OUR LAWS!
HALF THE MURDERS IN CA ARE NOW BY MEX GANGS!
illegal immigrants who have been otherwise law-abiding.”
Some regional ICE offices reported much greater increases in arrests for immigrants with no criminal record: Philadelphia was up 500 percent to a total of 356, Atlanta was up 300 percent to nearly 700.
BLOG: LAW-ABIDING? WHEN THE JUMP OUR BORDERS THEY HAVE BROKEN OUR LAWS! WHEN THEY SHOW UP FOR A JOB WITH A POCKETFUL OF STOLEN IDENTITIES, THEY HAVE BROKEN OUR LAWS!
HALF THE MURDERS IN CA ARE NOW BY MEX GANGS!
illegal immigrants who have been otherwise law-abiding.”
Some regional ICE offices reported much greater increases in arrests for immigrants with no criminal record: Philadelphia was up 500 percent to a total of 356, Atlanta was up 300 percent to nearly 700.
There was also a 75 percent increase in immigration
detainers, requests from ICE to local police agencies and prisons asking that
they hold prisoners beyond their scheduled release date for transfer to federal
custody and deportation. The total since Trump’s inauguration through mid-March
was 22,161, greater than the number of ICE arrests.
Despite the increase in arrests and detainers, actual
deportations fell by 1.2 percent, to 54,741 in January, February and March,
compared to the same months in 2016. That is because the greater number of
recent arrests is putting more prisoners into already clogged immigration
courts, where caseloads have soared and the time required to process cases has
lengthened.
The total number of ICE arrests is still below the peak
levels of 2014, when the Obama administration had 29,238 immigrants arrested
during the first months of the year. This corresponded to a surge of refugees,
mostly mothers and unaccompanied children, who fled the Central American
countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras fearing violence from gangs
and right-wing US-backed regimes.
In November 2014, DHS began to curb arrests of immigrants
systematically, limiting detentions to those with violent criminal records and
recent border-crossers. Under Trump, however, the DHS has greatly expanded the
categories of immigrants targeted for arrest.
DHS Secretary Robert Kelly, a former Marine general, told
the NBC program “Meet the Press” that the Trump administration was expanding
policies already in place under the Obama administration. “It is fair to say
that the definition of criminal has not changed,” he said, “but where on the
spectrum of criminality we operate has changed.” Even a single DUI conviction,
no matter how remote, can now be grounds for prioritizing an undocumented
immigrant for deportation, he said.
Kelly boasted that Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, as well
as the recent visit to the border zone by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, had
played a role in reducing the number of people crossing the US-Mexico border,
mainly from Central America. “It’s injected enough confusion in their minds, I
think, and they’re just waiting to see what actually does happen,” he
concluded.
Local newspaper and television reports across the country,
collected by immigrants’ rights groups, are filled with accounts of
undocumented workers with no criminal records, well-established lives in the
United States and US citizen children being picked up by ICE and deported.
One report from Naples, Florida,
noted, “For undocumented immigrants in Collier County, a traffic offense is now
enough to end up at Krome, where they face deportation, according to recent
arrest records. In the month after Trump’s order, at least 35 people and as
many as 48 arrested by Collier deputies were transferred to ICE, according to
hundreds of arrest records and court documents reviewed by the Naples
Daily News.”
The newspaper found, “Three-fourths of those cases alleged
only misdemeanor traffic offenses, such as driving with no valid license, driving
with an expired license or driving with a suspended license, according to
arrest records. Only three were for alleged felonies, and charges in two of
those cases were dropped, and reduced to a misdemeanor in the third, court
records show.”
An undocumented worker married to a US citizen and father to
three US citizen children, who has lived in Indiana for two decades, crossed
into Canada on a vacation to Niagara Falls and was arrested when he returned
across the border. He was deported to Mexico. An Ohio woman is fighting
deportation after she became a victim of domestic violence and had to go to
court as a witness against her abuser.
Those who are arrested and detained disappear into an
increasingly overloaded court and prison system. The number of backlogged cases
has soared from 236,415 in 2010 to 508,036 this year, about 1,700 cases for
each of the 301 immigration judges. The processing time is extended because
under Trump’s immigration directives, set down in executive orders just after
his inauguration, prosecutors are going forward with every possible immigration
case, rather than setting aside those involving immigrants with long US
residence and no criminal record.
The Trump administration is pushing ahead with plans for
another 30,000 beds in detention facilities. GEO Group, one of the big
contractors operating detention centers, announced Monday it would build a $110
million prison in Conroe, Texas, outside of Houston, to hold as many as 1,000
detainees.
The deteriorating conditions in the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement gulag were underscored by the death April 13 of a Mexican
immigrant, Sergio Alonso Lopez, who had been held at the Adelanto Detention
Facility in California. He was transferred to Victor Valley Global Medical
Center in Victorville on April 1 when he began vomiting blood, but he died 12
days later from internal bleeding. He had a history of alcohol abuse leading to
hypertension and cirrhosis of the liver, which could not be properly treated in
a prison.
Lopez, age 55, was the sixth detainee to die in ICE custody
during the current fiscal year, which began last October 1. He was arrested
February 7 in the Los Angeles area, where he had lived for nearly two decades.
Meanwhile, on Friday, a federal judge in California began
hearing the suit filed by two large metropolitan counties, San Francisco and
Santa Clara (San Jose), against Trump’s executive order to withhold federal
funds from cities and counties which decline to turn their local police forces
into branches of the ICE and DHS (so-called sanctuary cities).
The two counties are seeking a nationwide preliminary
injunction against Trump’s executive order, describing it as a “weapon to
cancel all funding to jurisdictions” that violated the 10th Amendment to the US
Constitution, which upholds the division of powers between the federal
government and state and local jurisdictions.
Chad Readler, a Justice Department attorney, said the
executive order was limited to grants provided by the Justice Department and
the Department of Homeland Security, not all federal funds, sharply curtailing
the scope of Trump’s decree. He said that as little as $1 million out of the $1
billion in federal funds received by Santa Clara County, and perhaps none of
the $1.2 billion going to San Francisco would be affected.
He also claimed, “There is no actual enforcement action on
the table or that has been formally threatened,” and that the two counties were
giving “the broadest possible reading” to the executive order.
The sanctuary city issue has also became a major legislative
question in Washington, after Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, sought to
insert language restricting federal funds to cities that resist federal
immigration policies in legislation that must pass by the end of April to raise
the federal debt ceiling and extend funding for federal agencies through the
end of the current fiscal year.
Mulvaney said that Trump would veto any budget legislation
that did not shut off funds to sanctuary cities and provide the initial funding
to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
YOU REALLY WANT THESE PEOPLE CROSSING OUR OPEN AND UNDEFENDED BORDERS AT WILL?
THE LA RAZA MEX DRUG CARTELS NOW OPERATED IN ALL MAJOR CITIES!
Mexican Cartel Throwing
People Off Planes to
Punish Rivals
LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/Getty
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·
An old method of execution commonly used by the Sinaloa Cartel appears to be making a comeback after three men were thrown off an airplane.
Earlier this week, employees at the local hospital in the town of Eldorado, Sinaloa discovered the body of a man who had been thrown off a passing airplane, Mexico’s El Financiero reported. The bodies of two other victims are believed to have been taken by gunmen in SUVs who fled the scene; the victims are believed to have also been thrown off the passing plane.
Mexican authorities confirmed that the victim who fell on the hospital’s rooftop was in fact thrown and did not show signs of previous execution.
Breitbart Texas’ access to various U.S. intelligence files revealed that the Sinaloa Cartel has a history of using airplanes for executions. The practice is used primarily in the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahua. This is the first reported execution of its kind in a populated area.
Sinaloa is currently under the control of the cartel faction of the same name, led by Damaso “Mini Lic” Lopez, the son of the now jailed capo Damaso “El Lic” Lopez, who at one time was one of the closest allies of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Currently, the Lopez faction has been waging a war for control of the criminal organization and its key lucrative drug smuggling areas with the faction led by Guzman’s sons. Since El Chapo’s highly publicized arrest and subsequent extradition to the U.S., his empire has been rocked by infighting and the encroachment of other cartels such as the Beltran Leyva, Jalisco Nueva GeneraciĆ³n, and others.
As Breitbart Texas reported in August 2016, a team of gunmen stormed an upscale restaurant called La Leche in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. The gunmen kidnapped various individuals including at least one of Guzman’s sons. It remains unclear how many victims were actually taken and how the Sinaloa Cartel was able to get their freedom since Mexican authorities did not take part in a rescue operation.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
Mexican Cartel Throwing
HALF THE MURDERS IN LA RAZA-OCCUPIED CALIFORNIA ARE NOW BY MEX GANGS
Sheriff: MS-13 Gang Brings Machetes,Rape, Scalping to Texas
BY BOB PRICE
Members of the hyper-violent MS-13 transnational criminal gang are bringing severe tactics like machete-hacking murders, rape, and scalping to Texas according to the Texas Sheriff’s Association.
Tucker Carlson: MS-13 Street Gang ‘Is a Far Greater Threat to Your Life Than ISIS’
Carlson offered examples of MS-13 violence and pointed out that while there are likely a “few hundred” active ISIS members in the United States, there were 6,000 members of MS-13 domestically and 30,000 abroad.
Transcript as follows:
It’s fair to say, ISIS is the new global gold standard for offal. Combined the Orlando, San Bernardino and Chattanooga terror attacks, and the groups is responsible for at least 68 deaths here in the U.S. over just the past three years and that is bad. On the other hand, it’s nothing compared to MS-13. That organization, a mostly immigrant street gang is a far greater threat to your life than ISIS is. It’s the numbers.
It’s not just the body’s pile up in smaller numbers and the coverage isn’t a splashy when they’re covered at all because often they are not. Besides the four killings you just heard about in New York today, there’s Raymond Wood. He’s the Lynchburg teenager apparently murdered and left by the side of the road two weeks ago by a group of MS-13 members. All of them were here illegally by the way.
There Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, a pair of teenage girls butchered with machetes by MS-13. They’re walking off from school in Brentwood, New York. We could go on and on and on. And in the future editions of the show, we will. But killing is not the end of the problem with MS-13, its members have been caught running child prostitution rings, they’ve been contacted by Mexican drug cartels, and paid their operations. And of course, they engage in the usual extortion, drug trafficking and human smuggling.
But unlike ISIS, MS-13 makes it hard to live in certain neighborhoods here in this country. Also unlike ISIS, there are a lot of them. ISIS may have a significant pass of supporters in the U.S. and a lot of a suspected does but true active ISIS members — pretty small, maybe a few hundred and most. MS-13, by contrast, has approximately 6,000 members according to the government in this country. And they’re supported by more than 30,000 abroad. Yes, abroad.
Because MS-13 is fundamentally a foreign threat. Now, the administration is using a lot of firepower to defeat insurgents in the Middle East right now and good for them. But what about the insurgency right down the road from you here in America? Because that’s exactly what it is.Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
SANCTUARY CITIES = NO LAWS APPLY TO INVADING
ILLEGALS…. But Legals still get the tax bills for their welfare
and crime tidal wave even if they voted Democrat!
SANCTUARY CITY NEW YORK LETS
LOSE A MS-13 GANG THUG!
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
OBAMA’S INVASION OF ILLEGALS IS WORKING!
They’re already signed up to vote LA RAZA SUPREMACY DEM!
“According to Immigration and Customers
Enforcement data first obtained by the
Associated Press this week, about 70
percent of the 40,000 migrant family
members arrested at the border since May
did not follow up their arrest with a
necessary visit to an immigration office.”
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
SABOTAGE of HOMELAND SECURITY:
BARACK OBAMA PARTNERS WITH MEXICO’S DRUG CARTELS TO BRING DOWN THE U.S. MIDDLE-CLASS
As soon as the UACs started arriving, Homeland Security sources told Judicial Watch that many had ties to gang members in the U.S. In fact, JW reported last July that street gangs—including Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13—went on a recruiting frenzy at U.S. shelters housing the illegal immigrant minors and they were using Red Cross phones to communicate.
The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
OBAMA and the MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS SERVE UP HEROIN TO THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS.
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
SANCTUARY CITIES = NO LAWS APPLY TO INVADING
ILLEGALS…. But Legals still get the tax bills for their welfare
and crime tidal wave even if they voted Democrat!
SANCTUARY CITY NEW YORK LETS
LOSE A MS-13 GANG THUG!
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
OBAMA’S INVASION OF ILLEGALS IS WORKING!
They’re already signed up to vote LA RAZA SUPREMACY DEM!
“According to Immigration and Customers
Enforcement data first obtained by the
Associated Press this week, about 70
percent of the 40,000 migrant family
members arrested at the border since May
did not follow up their arrest with a
necessary visit to an immigration office.”
Enforcement data first obtained by the
Associated Press this week, about 70
percent of the 40,000 migrant family
members arrested at the border since May
did not follow up their arrest with a
necessary visit to an immigration office.”
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
SABOTAGE of HOMELAND SECURITY:
BARACK OBAMA PARTNERS WITH MEXICO’S DRUG CARTELS TO BRING DOWN THE U.S. MIDDLE-CLASS
As soon as the UACs started arriving, Homeland Security sources told Judicial Watch that many had ties to gang members in the U.S. In fact, JW reported last July that street gangs—including Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13—went on a recruiting frenzy at U.S. shelters housing the illegal immigrant minors and they were using Red Cross phones to communicate.
The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
OBAMA and the MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS SERVE UP HEROIN TO THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS.
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
GRAPHIC IMAGES of America coming under Mex Occupation
The NARCOMEX drug cartels now operate in all major American cities and haul back to NARCOMEX between $40 top $60 BILLION from sales of HEROIN!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/10/america-la-raza-mexicos-wide-open.html
BELOW LINK IS TO THE LA RAZA “THE RACE” MEXICAN FASCIST SEPARATIST MOVEMENT (WARNING! GRAPHIC!)
They claim all of North America for Mexico!
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/10/america-la-raza-mexicos-wide-open.html
BELOW LINK IS TO THE LA RAZA “THE RACE” MEXICAN FASCIST SEPARATIST MOVEMENT (WARNING! GRAPHIC!)
BELOW LINK IS TO THE LA RAZA “THE RACE” MEXICAN FASCIST SEPARATIST MOVEMENT (WARNING! GRAPHIC!)
They claim all of North America for Mexico!
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
"More than 728,000 illegal immigrants have been shielded from being deported and
granted work permits through President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty
program, according to the Migration Policy Institute."
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
"More than 728,000 illegal immigrants have been shielded from being deported and granted work permits through President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty program, according to the Migration Policy Institute."
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
US Features
Fear Grips Communities as MS-13 Gang Proliferates
The murder of Evelyn Rodriguez's daughter by MS-13 gang members spotlights the growing threat schools and communities face nationwide
Transnational street gang MS-13 encourages members to illegally enter the United States from Central America, and recruits new members from schools and communities around the country.
NEW YORK—At first, Evelyn Rodriguez thought her teenage daughter had forgotten to charge her phone—it kept going straight to voicemail. Or maybe she had just lost track of time. But Kayla Cuevas and her best friend Nisa Mickens never blew through their 9 p.m. curfew, especially without checking in.
“She would call me if she was going to be two minutes late,” said Rodriguez. Sept. 13 was a typical Tuesday in Brentwood, New York, and the girls had gone for a walk while it was still daylight.
Earlier in the evening, Cuevas, who had turned 16 two months prior, and Mickens had been planning Mickens’s birthday party. Mickens was turning 16 the next day.
Rodriguez got home from work after 11 p.m. She drove past an accident site about a block away from her home. Yellow police tape cordoned the area off, and she remembers thinking, “Wow, I hope the person is OK.”
At home, Mickens’s parents were there waiting, but there was still no sign of the girls.
“My heart starts pumping,” Rodriguez said. “I start calling her friends.” No one had heard from either girl for hours, and both of their phones were going straight to voicemail.
Mickens’s parents went up the road to the accident site to tell the police that the two girls were missing. Soon, Rodriguez and her husband got a call telling them to get up there, too.
“So I’m there with Nisa’s mom, and we’re both keeping each other sane,” said Rodriguez. “And that’s when the Mickens family found out their news.”
Mickens’s body had been discovered with such significant trauma to the face and head that she was almost unrecognizable, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York. She had been attacked with baseball bats and a machete.
“At the time, they couldn’t locate Kayla,” Rodriguez said. “And my response to that is, Kayla would never leave Nisa, as well as Nisa would never leave Kayla. So she has to be somewhere here.”
, mother of Kayla Cuevas
That’s when my world crumbled. She was going to become someone, for sure. And it was stolen from her.
Rodriguez got the dreaded phone call at 6:02 p.m. the next day. Her daughter had also been brutally murdered and the police had found her body nearby.
“And that’s when my world crumbled,” Rodriguez said on March 28. “She was going to become someone, for sure. And it was stolen from her.”
The attorney’s office said Cuevas had some run-ins with members and associates of the MS-13 gang in the months leading up to the murders. The dispute escalated about a week before the murders, when Cuevas and several friends were involved in an altercation with MS-13 members at Brentwood High School, the attorney’s office said.
After that incident, the MS-13 members vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas, the statement reads. One of the gang’s mottos is “Mata, viola, controla” (“Kill, rape, control”).
On Sept. 13, several members of MS-13’s Sailors clique had agreed to drive around Brentwood in different vehicles and hunt for rival gang members to kill, prosecutors said.
One car, with four gang members inside, saw Cuevas and Mickens out walking. They called the leaders of the Sailors clique, who authorized them to kill the two girls. So they did. And then they drove away.
Fear Grips Communities as MS-13 Gang Proliferates
The murder of Evelyn Rodriguez's daughter by MS-13 gang members spotlights the growing threat schools and communities face nationwide
Transnational street gang MS-13 encourages members to illegally enter the United States from Central America, and recruits new members from schools and communities around the country.
NEW YORK—At first, Evelyn Rodriguez thought her teenage daughter had forgotten to charge her phone—it kept going straight to voicemail. Or maybe she had just lost track of time. But Kayla Cuevas and her best friend Nisa Mickens never blew through their 9 p.m. curfew, especially without checking in.
“She would call me if she was going to be two minutes late,” said Rodriguez. Sept. 13 was a typical Tuesday in Brentwood, New York, and the girls had gone for a walk while it was still daylight.
Earlier in the evening, Cuevas, who had turned 16 two months prior, and Mickens had been planning Mickens’s birthday party. Mickens was turning 16 the next day.
Rodriguez got home from work after 11 p.m. She drove past an accident site about a block away from her home. Yellow police tape cordoned the area off, and she remembers thinking, “Wow, I hope the person is OK.”
At home, Mickens’s parents were there waiting, but there was still no sign of the girls.
“My heart starts pumping,” Rodriguez said. “I start calling her friends.” No one had heard from either girl for hours, and both of their phones were going straight to voicemail.
Mickens’s parents went up the road to the accident site to tell the police that the two girls were missing. Soon, Rodriguez and her husband got a call telling them to get up there, too.
“So I’m there with Nisa’s mom, and we’re both keeping each other sane,” said Rodriguez. “And that’s when the Mickens family found out their news.”
Mickens’s body had been discovered with such significant trauma to the face and head that she was almost unrecognizable, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York. She had been attacked with baseball bats and a machete.
“At the time, they couldn’t locate Kayla,” Rodriguez said. “And my response to that is, Kayla would never leave Nisa, as well as Nisa would never leave Kayla. So she has to be somewhere here.”
, mother of Kayla Cuevas
Rodriguez got the dreaded phone call at 6:02 p.m. the next day. Her daughter had also been brutally murdered and the police had found her body nearby.
“And that’s when my world crumbled,” Rodriguez said on March 28. “She was going to become someone, for sure. And it was stolen from her.”
The attorney’s office said Cuevas had some run-ins with members and associates of the MS-13 gang in the months leading up to the murders. The dispute escalated about a week before the murders, when Cuevas and several friends were involved in an altercation with MS-13 members at Brentwood High School, the attorney’s office said.
After that incident, the MS-13 members vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas, the statement reads. One of the gang’s mottos is “Mata, viola, controla” (“Kill, rape, control”).
On Sept. 13, several members of MS-13’s Sailors clique had agreed to drive around Brentwood in different vehicles and hunt for rival gang members to kill, prosecutors said.
One car, with four gang members inside, saw Cuevas and Mickens out walking. They called the leaders of the Sailors clique, who authorized them to kill the two girls. So they did. And then they drove away.
35 Murders
Thirteen MS-13 gang members were arrested on March 2 and charged in connection with the murders of Cuevas and Mickens, as well as five other murders, an attempted murder, and two assaults. Drugs, racketeering, arson, and firearms charges make up the remainder of the 41 charges the defendants face.
The defendants are aged between 19 and 29, with the exception of two minors who were not named.
Ten of the 13 suspects are illegal immigrants, two are U.S. citizens, and one is a green card holder, according to Robert Capers, then-U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“For far too long, on Long Island, MS-13 has been meting out its own version of the death penalty,” Capers said at a March 2 press conference. “The brutal murders … exemplify the depravity of a gang whose primary mission is murder.”
Since 2010, MS-13 members have been charged with more than 35 murders in the Eastern District of New York.
Thirteen MS-13 gang members were arrested on March 2 and charged in connection with the murders of Cuevas and Mickens, as well as five other murders, an attempted murder, and two assaults. Drugs, racketeering, arson, and firearms charges make up the remainder of the 41 charges the defendants face.
The defendants are aged between 19 and 29, with the exception of two minors who were not named.
Ten of the 13 suspects are illegal immigrants, two are U.S. citizens, and one is a green card holder, according to Robert Capers, then-U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“For far too long, on Long Island, MS-13 has been meting out its own version of the death penalty,” Capers said at a March 2 press conference. “The brutal murders … exemplify the depravity of a gang whose primary mission is murder.”
Since 2010, MS-13 members have been charged with more than 35 murders in the Eastern District of New York.
National Problem
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is one of the largest criminal organizations in the country, with 6,000 to 10,000 members in at least 42 states, the FBI estimates. In addition, more than 60,000 members operate internationally, mostly in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
MS-13 continues to grow its membership and now targets younger recruits more than ever before, the FBI said. In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force.
MS-13 was initially formed by Salvadoran immigrants that came to the United States in order to escape the civil war in their home country, according to a study published in the Journal of Gang Research in 2009.
“The gang is well-organized and is heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, being notorious for its use of violence to achieve its objectives,” authors Jennifer Adams and Jesenia Pizarro wrote.
El Salvador’s supreme court designated MS-13 as a terrorist group in August 2015. The U.S. Treasury deemed MS-13 to be a transnational criminal organization in 2012, prohibiting U.S. citizens and businesses from engaging in any transactions with the gang.
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is one of the largest criminal organizations in the country, with 6,000 to 10,000 members in at least 42 states, the FBI estimates. In addition, more than 60,000 members operate internationally, mostly in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
MS-13 continues to grow its membership and now targets younger recruits more than ever before, the FBI said. In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force.
MS-13 was initially formed by Salvadoran immigrants that came to the United States in order to escape the civil war in their home country, according to a study published in the Journal of Gang Research in 2009.
“The gang is well-organized and is heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, being notorious for its use of violence to achieve its objectives,” authors Jennifer Adams and Jesenia Pizarro wrote.
El Salvador’s supreme court designated MS-13 as a terrorist group in August 2015. The U.S. Treasury deemed MS-13 to be a transnational criminal organization in 2012, prohibiting U.S. citizens and businesses from engaging in any transactions with the gang.
Surge From Central America
Capers said MS-13 gets gang members to illegally enter the United States from Central America and recruits new members from schools and communities around the country.
During the 10-year period between 2005 and 2014, Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested 4,000 members of MS-13, according to numbers obtained by Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) through freedom of information requests. CIS is a pro-immigration enforcement think tank based in Washington.
Of the 4,000 arrested, 92 percent were in the United States illegally, according to data obtained by CIS. And while they comprised 13 percent of ICE gang arrests during that period, they accounted for 35 percent of the murders.
Joe Kolb, a research fellow at CIS, has been studying the connection between MS-13 growth and the surge of unaccompanied minors coming across the southwest border from Central American countries, predominantly El Salvador.
, research fellow, Center for Immigration Studies
The reality is … wherever the unaccompanied minors appear, MS-13 crime isn’t far behind.
“It was a perfect storm,” Kolb said. “We had a very lenient administration [under Obama]. We are a compassionate country—which I’m always proud to say—but we’re reaping the consequences of these policies now. I don’t want to sound like a total alarmist or a xenophobe, but the reality is … wherever the unaccompanied minors appear, MS-13 crime isn’t far behind.”
The number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the southwest border has jumped dramatically since 2012, when 24,120 minors were caught crossing the border. In fiscal year 2014, more than 68,000 minors were apprehended; the numbers dropped to almost 40,000 in 2015 and spiked again to almost 60,000 in 2016. The increases came from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The surge in unaccompanied children coincided with President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy introduced in 2012, Kolb said.
“The misinterpreted perception that permeated around the region was that this was the golden ticket to get into the United States—but nobody read the fine print,” he said. The fine print Kolb is referring to is that, among other criteria, DACA was only available to minors who had been in the country since 2007.
Capers said MS-13 gets gang members to illegally enter the United States from Central America and recruits new members from schools and communities around the country.
During the 10-year period between 2005 and 2014, Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested 4,000 members of MS-13, according to numbers obtained by Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) through freedom of information requests. CIS is a pro-immigration enforcement think tank based in Washington.
Of the 4,000 arrested, 92 percent were in the United States illegally, according to data obtained by CIS. And while they comprised 13 percent of ICE gang arrests during that period, they accounted for 35 percent of the murders.
Joe Kolb, a research fellow at CIS, has been studying the connection between MS-13 growth and the surge of unaccompanied minors coming across the southwest border from Central American countries, predominantly El Salvador.
, research fellow, Center for Immigration Studies
“It was a perfect storm,” Kolb said. “We had a very lenient administration [under Obama]. We are a compassionate country—which I’m always proud to say—but we’re reaping the consequences of these policies now. I don’t want to sound like a total alarmist or a xenophobe, but the reality is … wherever the unaccompanied minors appear, MS-13 crime isn’t far behind.”
The number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the southwest border has jumped dramatically since 2012, when 24,120 minors were caught crossing the border. In fiscal year 2014, more than 68,000 minors were apprehended; the numbers dropped to almost 40,000 in 2015 and spiked again to almost 60,000 in 2016. The increases came from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The surge in unaccompanied children coincided with President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy introduced in 2012, Kolb said.
“The misinterpreted perception that permeated around the region was that this was the golden ticket to get into the United States—but nobody read the fine print,” he said. The fine print Kolb is referring to is that, among other criteria, DACA was only available to minors who had been in the country since 2007.
Unaccompanied Minors
When an unaccompanied minor crosses the southwest border and is apprehended, he or she is placed in a facility under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
ORR is responsible for the placement of the child, home assessments, and follow-up. Kolb said the follow-up is a phone call around 30 days after placement. ORR did not return a request for comment.
By definition, an unaccompanied alien child is under 18 and has no parent or legal guardian in the United States, or no parent or legal guardian in the United States who is available to provide care and physical custody, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Related Coverage
Regardless, Homeland Security determined that about 60 percent of the children initially determined to be “unaccompanied alien children” are released by ORR to a parent already living illegally in the United States.
The counties absorbing the greatest number of these children are Harris County in Texas, Los Angeles County, Suffolk County in New York, and Miami-Dade County in Florida.
These four counties have absorbed around 30,000 unaccompanied minors into their communities and schools in the last several years.
All four counties are also struggling with the proliferation of MS-13 gang violence.
When an unaccompanied minor crosses the southwest border and is apprehended, he or she is placed in a facility under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
ORR is responsible for the placement of the child, home assessments, and follow-up. Kolb said the follow-up is a phone call around 30 days after placement. ORR did not return a request for comment.
By definition, an unaccompanied alien child is under 18 and has no parent or legal guardian in the United States, or no parent or legal guardian in the United States who is available to provide care and physical custody, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Related Coverage
Regardless, Homeland Security determined that about 60 percent of the children initially determined to be “unaccompanied alien children” are released by ORR to a parent already living illegally in the United States.
The counties absorbing the greatest number of these children are Harris County in Texas, Los Angeles County, Suffolk County in New York, and Miami-Dade County in Florida.
These four counties have absorbed around 30,000 unaccompanied minors into their communities and schools in the last several years.
All four counties are also struggling with the proliferation of MS-13 gang violence.
Schools Swamped
Schools are hotbeds for gang recruitment, and with so many young men entering from Central America, there is no shortage of potential recruits.
The Brentwood school district takes the lion’s share of the minors coming up from Central America to Suffolk County, New York. In the last 3 1/2 years, the county has taken in more than 4,500 children from the ORR—the third highest number in the country. Since October last year, the county has already received 841 more minors from the ORR.
, safety director, Brentwood school district
We have an average of between 10 to as many as 25 new students being registered a day.
The Brentwood school district serves 20,000 students and is reaching capacity, according to district safety director Carlos Sanchez.
“We have an average of between 10 to as many as 25 new students being registered a day,” he said. Class sizes are bursting at 30 to 35 pupils per class, he said. The schools are not given any information on the children as far as immigration status, criminal record, or special needs.
“They are vulnerable, because they’re the new kids on the block,” Sanchez said. Sanchez said MS-13 members will try to recruit the new students by acting like they’re family to them. The gang members also threaten to harm the new students’ families and loved ones back home, which forces them to comply with demands or make recurring extortion payments.
“As long as we’re placing these kids in these communities—whether they’re gang members or not—we have to also remember the culture that these kids are coming from,” Kolb said.
Kolb traveled to El Salvador in December to research the violent communities.
“These are the most violent non-war countries in the world. If you have a conflict with somebody, you kill each other,” he said. “We’re not prepared as a society to address this.”
Schools are hotbeds for gang recruitment, and with so many young men entering from Central America, there is no shortage of potential recruits.
The Brentwood school district takes the lion’s share of the minors coming up from Central America to Suffolk County, New York. In the last 3 1/2 years, the county has taken in more than 4,500 children from the ORR—the third highest number in the country. Since October last year, the county has already received 841 more minors from the ORR.
, safety director, Brentwood school district
The Brentwood school district serves 20,000 students and is reaching capacity, according to district safety director Carlos Sanchez.
“We have an average of between 10 to as many as 25 new students being registered a day,” he said. Class sizes are bursting at 30 to 35 pupils per class, he said. The schools are not given any information on the children as far as immigration status, criminal record, or special needs.
“They are vulnerable, because they’re the new kids on the block,” Sanchez said. Sanchez said MS-13 members will try to recruit the new students by acting like they’re family to them. The gang members also threaten to harm the new students’ families and loved ones back home, which forces them to comply with demands or make recurring extortion payments.
“As long as we’re placing these kids in these communities—whether they’re gang members or not—we have to also remember the culture that these kids are coming from,” Kolb said.
Kolb traveled to El Salvador in December to research the violent communities.
“These are the most violent non-war countries in the world. If you have a conflict with somebody, you kill each other,” he said. “We’re not prepared as a society to address this.”
Crime in School
In one recent case that received nationwide attention, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped during school hours by two other students in Rockville, Maryland, on March 16.
Jose Montano, 17, and Henry Sanchez, 18, allegedly forced her into the boy’s bathroom, where they took turns raping her, according to official documents. Both teens have been charged as adults with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sexual offense.
Sanchez, from Guatemala, is in the country illegally, according to authorities. The immigration status of Montano is unknown because he is a minor, but he is originally from El Salvador.
Prosecutors found photos on the suspects’ phones of them flashing MS-13 gang signs, but attorneys for both teens deny they are members of the gang, according to a WTOP report on March 30.
ICE arrested Sanchez’s father on March 24 after discovering he was in the country illegally. Adolfo Sanchez-Reyes, 43, a citizen of Guatemala, is currently detained and has been issued a notice to appear in an immigration court.
Rockville is in Montgomery County, Maryland, and, along with neighboring Prince George’s County, has a high number of unaccompanied minors being sent up from the border by ORR—a combined total of more than 7,500 in the last 3.5 years.
Both counties also have a growing issue with gang violence.
Related Coverage
Montgomery County police said last June that the county had seen an “unprecedented level” of gang-related violence over the previous eight months.
Most notable were nine gang-related homicides that occurred during that timeframe—including five murders involving MS-13. The other four homicides are attributed to smaller, but just as violent, local cliques, the police department said.
The police department attributed the uptick to “a substantial increase in violence in EI Salvador that is contributing to the mass migration from the country and other parts of the region to include the influx of unaccompanied minors to the United States.”
The department said over 67 percent of known gang-related violent crimes were committed by youths aged 21 and under in 2015. Youths were responsible for all but one of the gang-related homicides with closed cases and over 85 percent of street robberies.
In one recent case that received nationwide attention, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped during school hours by two other students in Rockville, Maryland, on March 16.
Jose Montano, 17, and Henry Sanchez, 18, allegedly forced her into the boy’s bathroom, where they took turns raping her, according to official documents. Both teens have been charged as adults with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sexual offense.
Sanchez, from Guatemala, is in the country illegally, according to authorities. The immigration status of Montano is unknown because he is a minor, but he is originally from El Salvador.
Prosecutors found photos on the suspects’ phones of them flashing MS-13 gang signs, but attorneys for both teens deny they are members of the gang, according to a WTOP report on March 30.
ICE arrested Sanchez’s father on March 24 after discovering he was in the country illegally. Adolfo Sanchez-Reyes, 43, a citizen of Guatemala, is currently detained and has been issued a notice to appear in an immigration court.
Rockville is in Montgomery County, Maryland, and, along with neighboring Prince George’s County, has a high number of unaccompanied minors being sent up from the border by ORR—a combined total of more than 7,500 in the last 3.5 years.
Both counties also have a growing issue with gang violence.
Related Coverage
Montgomery County police said last June that the county had seen an “unprecedented level” of gang-related violence over the previous eight months.
Most notable were nine gang-related homicides that occurred during that timeframe—including five murders involving MS-13. The other four homicides are attributed to smaller, but just as violent, local cliques, the police department said.
The police department attributed the uptick to “a substantial increase in violence in EI Salvador that is contributing to the mass migration from the country and other parts of the region to include the influx of unaccompanied minors to the United States.”
The department said over 67 percent of known gang-related violent crimes were committed by youths aged 21 and under in 2015. Youths were responsible for all but one of the gang-related homicides with closed cases and over 85 percent of street robberies.
Being Part of the Solution
For Evelyn Rodriguez, part of the grieving process is pushing to make sure Brentwood is safer. She still travels to a nearby town to take her 7-year-old daughter to the park. And she’s afraid to have a barbecue over the summer.
But she does see some progress.
“It’s not there yet,” she said. “But I do see some type of change.”
Police are more visible on the streets, and she is working to bring programs into the school. “To help the ones being targeted, bullied, or those at risk of being recruited,” Rodriguez said.
, mother of Kayla Cuevas
I’m working to help the ones being targeted, bullied, or those at risk of being recruited.
She is advocating to introduce the STRONG program in Brentwood. STRONG, or Struggling to Reunite Our New Generation, is a youth, family, and community organization on Long Island that focuses on preventing gang and gun violence.
“I want families, parents, to know that there’s resources out there.” Rodriguez said the school let her down by not intervening when problems boiled up between her daughter and the gang members.
“I’m fighting for her—for Kayla. You’re never going to forget who Kayla Cuevas or Nisa Mickens were.”
For Evelyn Rodriguez, part of the grieving process is pushing to make sure Brentwood is safer. She still travels to a nearby town to take her 7-year-old daughter to the park. And she’s afraid to have a barbecue over the summer.
But she does see some progress.
“It’s not there yet,” she said. “But I do see some type of change.”
Police are more visible on the streets, and she is working to bring programs into the school. “To help the ones being targeted, bullied, or those at risk of being recruited,” Rodriguez said.
, mother of Kayla Cuevas
She is advocating to introduce the STRONG program in Brentwood. STRONG, or Struggling to Reunite Our New Generation, is a youth, family, and community organization on Long Island that focuses on preventing gang and gun violence.
“I want families, parents, to know that there’s resources out there.” Rodriguez said the school let her down by not intervening when problems boiled up between her daughter and the gang members.
“I’m fighting for her—for Kayla. You’re never going to forget who Kayla Cuevas or Nisa Mickens were.”
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