{"id":23814,"date":"2020-10-28T19:36:16","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T23:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23814"},"modified":"2020-10-28T19:36:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T23:36:18","slug":"justice-department-ms-13-crackdown-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/10\/28\/justice-department-ms-13-crackdown-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Has Charged More Than 700 MS-13 Gang Members in Four Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Since taking office, President Donald Trump has directed his administration to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefings-statements\/remarks-president-trump-law-enforcement-officials-ms-13\/\" target=\"_blank\">vigorously pursue<\/a> the violent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/features\/gangs\">transnational criminal organization<\/a>, La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), across the country. Those efforts have produced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/07\/17\/administration-putting-priority-on-ms-13-animals-is-paying-off-immigrationreform-com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">significant progress<\/a> in protecting the American people from criminal aliens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On October 21, the Department of Justice (DOJ) <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/department-justice-releases-report-its-efforts-disrupt-dismantle-and-destroy-ms-13\" target=\"_blank\">announced the results<\/a> of their tenacious work fighting against MS-13 by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/ag\/page\/file\/1329776\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">releasing a report<\/a> entitled, \u201cFull-Scale Response: A Report on the Department of Justice\u2019s Efforts to Combat MS-13 from 2016-2020.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According\nto the report, the DOJ has prosecuted 749 confirmed MS-13 gang members since\n2016. So far, 500 of those defendants have been convicted of criminal offenses.\nSome of the primary offenses included illegal re-entry following deportation, human\ntrafficking, using a firearm during a crime of violence, narcotics\ndistribution, and murder in aid of racketeering. One gang leader was charged\nwith national security offenses, the first time a MS-13 member has ever been\ncharged with terrorism-related crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nimmigration statuses of the charged MS-13 members between 2016 and 2020 are as\nfollows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>74 percent were illegally present in the United States;<\/li><li>15 percent had an immigration status that was undetermined;\u00a0 <\/li><li>8 percent were U.S. Citizens;<\/li><li>3 percent had lawful status.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the Trump administration, the DOJ has employed significant personnel and other resources to counter the presence of MS-13 in the United States. In <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/cis.org\/Arthur\/Trump-Administration-Cracks-Down-Gangs-Focus-MS13\" target=\"_blank\">April of 2017<\/a>, then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a crackdown on violence perpetrated by the gang. The following year, the Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) task force was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/attorney-general-sessions-announces-new-measures-fight-transnational-organized-crime#:~:text=Attorney%20General%20Jeff%20Sess\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">created<\/a> by Sessions to coordinate law enforcement efforts in dismantling MS-13 and Mexican drug cartels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Succeeding Sessions, Attorney General William Barr has <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/07\/16\/ms13-gang-historic-takedown-immigrationreform-com\/\" target=\"_blank\">picked up the mantle<\/a> in stamping out MS-13. In August of last year, Barr created  Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV), which coordinates information between the DOJ and other law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The collaboration between the U.S. and El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico has led to several indictments of MS-13 groups and leaders, which were detailed in the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the Central American gang has been dealt a tremendous blow, more can be done to mitigate crime from MS-13. One method would be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/07\/20\/sanctuary-jurisdictions-cry-coercion-in-legal-battle-over-public-safety-funds\/\">withho<\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"l (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/07\/20\/sanctuary-jurisdictions-cry-coercion-in-legal-battle-over-public-safety-funds\/\" target=\"_blank\">l<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/07\/20\/sanctuary-jurisdictions-cry-coercion-in-legal-battle-over-public-safety-funds\/\">ding federal funds<\/a> from sanctuary jurisdictions that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/02\/22\/lax-immigration-enforcement-sanctuary-city-policies-led-resurgence-ms-13-says-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">refuse to cooperate<\/a> with immigration authorities when attempting to apprehend unlawful migrants, especially those with known or suspected ties to gangs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another measure would be enacting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loeffler.senate.gov\/loeffler-blackburn-cotton-introduce-legislation-crack-down-gangs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Cracking Down on Gangs and Deporting Criminals Act of 2020<\/a>, introduced by U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Under the proposed legislation, any illegal alien convicted of a crime that qualifies for stricter sentencing according to the bill\u2019s criteria would be jailed longer. Additionally, the alien would be referred to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for possible deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The success of effective immigration enforcement by the DOJ and its other law enforcement partners is commendable. Local and state agencies ought to follow their example if they want to emulate their triumphs in upholding public safety.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since taking office, President Donald Trump has directed his administration to vigorously pursue the violent transnational criminal organization, La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), across the country. Those efforts have produced significant progress in protecting the American people from criminal aliens. On October 21, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the results of their tenacious work fighting<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/10\/28\/justice-department-ms-13-crackdown-immigrationreform-com\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11448,"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":[848,1524,1394,1564],"yst_prominent_words":[2705,3584,2075,1922,2371,2505,7744,3743,1995,2072,1963,2030,2159,3865,8738,2295,2710,2481,1939,1933],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23814"}],"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\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23815,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23814\/revisions\/23815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23814"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}