Donald Trump's immigration crackdown 'may have emboldened MS-13 street gang'

Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration may be emboldening the transnational street gang MS-13, which the President has vowed to “dismantle, decimate and eradicate”.

While addressing law enforcement officials on Long Island, New York, the President asserted that previous weak immigration enforcement has allowed the gang to terrorise communities.

“And they were all let in here over a relatively short period of time,” Mr Trump said. “Not during my period of time, believe me. But we’re getting them out. They’re going to jails, and then they’re going back to their country. Or they’re going back to their country, period.”

MS-13, whose formal name is La Mara Salvatrucha, formed decades ago among Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles and has since built a criminal network that spans across the US. It is estimated to have 10,000 members nationwide.

Mr Trump's visit to the New York county that has been racked by violence attributed to the gang – 17 murders over 18 months, according to The Washington Post – aimed to give “power and poignancy” to his message that more must be done to fight immigration, the newspaper said.

But while Mr Trump has promised to wipe out the gang, the FBI has said it is growing, according to CNN.

Several people familiar with MS-13, including two gang members themselves, told the network they think the President’s crackdown on immigrants is helping the gang because witnesses of crimes are more reluctant to come forward for fear of being deported.

“It's not like before, where ... they (the gang) were more hidden,” said Margarita, whose teenage son was attacked by the gang in suburban New York.

“People can get deported, so they don't call the police. So they [MS-13] feel more free,” she said.

“I think it's emboldening them, because this gives them the opportunity to tell immigrants, ‘What are you gonna do? Are you going to report us? They're deporting other innocent people ... [so] they're going to associate you with us by you coming forward,’” said Walter Barrientos, Long Island coordinator with Make the Road, an immigrant advocacy group.

Mr Trump used stark language in his speech on Friday, saying MS-13 gang members have “transformed peaceful parks and beautiful, quiet neighbourhoods into bloodstained killing fields,” a phrase often used to describe a site in Cambodia where thousands of people were killed by the Khmer Rouge – a group responsible for one of the worst mass killings of the 20th Century.

Mr Trump also appeared to conflate immigration with crime, even though several studies – over many years – have concluded that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the US.

Unlike what Mr Trump suggested, the members of MS-13 were not all “let in here”.

According to CNN in May, the departments of Justice and Homeland Security have been unable to provide reporters with any estimates of how many MS-13 members nationwide came into the US illegally – and how many members joined the gang after coming to the US.

However, the network also reported that the gang actively recruits in the US’s immigrant communities and often victimizes undocumented immigrants, who are vulnerable to extortion because they are afraid law enforcement officials will discover their status.