Donald Trump tweeted
at 5:39 a.m. on April 18 that the spread of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) resulted from weak immigration enforcement under Obama. The gang is actually a homegrown
product whose power and extent were increased by the policy of deporting aliens with criminal
convictions under Bill Clinton—the same policy that Trump boasts about continuing now.
Here's what we say in The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers, second edition, Chapter 8, “Are Immigrants a Threat?”:
…Deporting someone for a violent crime may
actually make us less safe....[I]f the offender is truly a danger to others,
deportation makes no sense. It simply takes offenders out of the parole system,
and their criminal record may not follow them across the border. Whether they remain
in their country of birth, go elsewhere, or return to the United States without
permission, no one is monitoring them to ensure they don’t put someone else at
risk….
Thousands of Central Americans were deported
as “criminal aliens” after IIRIRA and AEDPA were enacted. Among them were
youths who belonged to Mara Salvatrucha (known as MS-13), a Los Angeles-based
street gang. Crime experts say the deportations made it possible for the U.S.
gang to take root in Central America, especially in El Salvador, fueling
criminal violence there. As a result of its connections in both Central America
and the United States, MS-13 grew into a real force in the smuggling and
distribution of drugs. In October 2012 the U.S. Treasury declared MS-13 a
significant “transnational criminal organization” because of its “serious
transnational criminal activities, including drug trafficking, kidnapping,
human smuggling, sex trafficking, murder, assassinations, racketeering,
blackmail, extortion, and immigration offenses.” MS-13 members now reportedly
see deportations from the United States as a way to get “free rides” to other
countries in order to expand the gang’s operations.
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