{"id":23204,"date":"2020-07-10T15:11:53","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T19:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23204"},"modified":"2020-07-10T15:11:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T19:11:56","slug":"ms-13-gang-remains-threat-expanding-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/07\/10\/ms-13-gang-remains-threat-expanding-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"MS-13 Remains an Ever-Present \u2013 and Expanding &#8211; Threat to Communities Nationwide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Two years ago, the ruthless MS-13 gang was at the center of the ongoing national debate over illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2018\/05\/17\/nancy_pelosi_ms-13_gang_members_are_not_animals.html?rel=outbound\" target=\"_blank\">criticized<\/a> President Trump for calling them \u201canimals,\u201d while Vox published a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CgKpACQyhgk&amp;t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">video<\/a> claiming brutal gang members were misunderstood kids who liked to take selfies and ride their bikes. While they may not grab national headlines now, MS-13 remains a concern of federal and local law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contrary to those who wish to downplay the threat of the Mara\nSalvatrucha gang, their brutality and disregard for the communities on which\nthey prey can be seen in local headlines over the last few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>In July, an MS-13 gang member <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/public-safety\/immigration-officials-say-all-six-suspects-in-montgomery-county-ms-13-slaying-were-unlawfully-present-in-the-us\/2020\/07\/06\/69a13fec-bfbd-11ea-9fdd-b7ac6b051dc8_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">was arrested<\/a> for the murder of Francisco Medrano-Campos outside his Wheaton, Maryland, apartment. Five other suspects with MS-13 ties <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/bethesdamagazine.com\/bethesda-beat\/police-fire\/sixth-man-charged-in-may-killing-of-glenmont-man\/\" target=\"_blank\">were arrested in June<\/a>. All suspects are illegal aliens. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>On July 1, an El Salvadoran MS-13 member <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsday.com\/long-island\/crime\/ms-13-gang-murder-sentencing-1.46283484\" target=\"_blank\">was sentenced<\/a> in a New York State court to 34 years to life in prison for the 2018 murder of Ian Cruz and Harold B. Sermeno, who was shot four times in the head. The trial of other gang members are pending.  <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>In June, police officers in Baltimore County, Maryland, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/news\/crime\/bs-md-ci-cr-ms-13-stabbings-baltimore-20200618-iggf6aexzzfvhpgs5pdwp4mueu-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">began investigating<\/a> the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Michelle Tenezaca and the non-fatal stabbing of her teenage sister and boyfriend. All three attacks had links to the notorious MS-13 gang, according to police. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Two adults and one teen <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.insidenova.com\/headlines\/leesburg-police-arrest-three-alleged-gang-members-in-weekend-attacks\/article_d89e1b4e-b05a-11ea-8fee-bf7e0c8d2e39.html\" target=\"_blank\">were arrested<\/a> for their involvement in three separate attacks that took place in mid-June and which Leesburg, Virginia, police determined were related to MS-13 gang activity. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>On May 14, federal prosecutors in New York <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edny\/pr\/ten-alleged-ms-13-members-and-associates-charged-three-murders-attempted-murder-murder\" target=\"_blank\">unsealed indictments<\/a> against 10 members of the Indios Locos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13 on various federal crimes that prosecutors described as \u201ccold-blooded, senseless and brutally violent.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the June <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edva\/pr\/ms-13-members-sentenced-prison-violent-2018-attack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">sentencing<\/a> of two MS-13 members for their involvement in the 2018 shooting and stabbing of a 40-year old man in Virginia, G. Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, did not mince word about the culpability of local officials who claim they support sanctuary policies in order to protect immigrant communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBy burying their heads in the sand and lacking courage to\naddress a problem because they mistakenly deem it to be politically\nincorrect,&nbsp;various community leaders in Northern Virginia simply refuse to\nacknowledge the gang problem to the detriment of the same Hispanic community\nthey claim to be defending,\u201d he argued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, statistics from <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/stats\/cbp-enforcement-statistics\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show<\/a> that arrests of MS-13 gang members have increased rapidly over the last two years. In FY2017, there were 228 total arrests of MS-13 members, but that figure almost doubled to 413 in FY2018 and rose again last year with 464 gang apprehensions. So far in FY2020, 61 arrests of MS-13 gang members have been made. Additionally, Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations personnel made over 450 arrests of MS-13 members in FY2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/news\/releases\/ice-hsi-sees-increase-criminal-arrests-fy-2019-dc-virginia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">the latest data available<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather than fading away, the notorious gang is expanding\nbeyond the communities where they\u2019ve had a decades-long presence. For example,\nMS-13 is branching out beyond the suburbs of Washington, D.C., into several\ncounties in Maryland, a known sanctuary state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last September, seven MS-13 gang members \u2013 six of whom are illegal aliens &#8211; were arrested\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/foxbaltimore.com\/news\/local\/update-7-accused-in-gang-related-murder-of-man-found-outside-towson-area-apartment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">in Baltimore County<\/a> for a brutal July 2019 murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are starting to see a presence spreading throughout\nMaryland and areas where we traditionally have not,\u201d FBI and Assistant Special\nAgent in Charge Cheyvoryea Gibson told WJZ-TV, CBS News\u2019 Baltimore affiliate in\nJanuary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, MS-13\u2019s presence has become so pervasive in Maryland that the state took the unprecedented step of <a href=\"https:\/\/baltimore.cbslocal.com\/2019\/12\/03\/ms-13-information-hotline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">setting up a tip line<\/a>\u00a0for anonymous tips. Local and national officials and the media may be blissfully ignorant about MS-13\u2019s continued threat, but for those living in the communities they lead, that ignorance has deadly consequences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two years ago, the ruthless MS-13 gang was at the center of the ongoing national debate over illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized President Trump for calling them \u201canimals,\u201d while Vox published a\u00a0video claiming brutal gang members were misunderstood kids who liked to take selfies and ride their bikes. While they<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/07\/10\/ms-13-gang-remains-threat-expanding-immigrationreform-com\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":17956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[961,1524,1564,1647],"yst_prominent_words":[1927,4232,9218,9220,9222,9219,9221,2918,2072,2068,2008,2252,8113,3214,3865,6161,7970,6167,2331,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23205,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23204\/revisions\/23205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23204"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}