Albert DeAmicis, a faculty member for Justice, Law, and Security Criminal Justice Program at LaRoche College, supports my idea that no necessary action was taken to fix the problem of MS-13 gang activity in the United States and Brentwood, NY, in particular. In his article called “Mara Salvatrucha: The deadliest street gang in America,” DeAmicis demonstrates how dangerous gangs such as MS-13 affect American citizens and law enforcement. The article also states that for the past eight years, law enforcement “on the federal, state and local levels has been restrained by certain failed laws and policies and laws, like Catch-and-Release and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act” (DeAmicis 22).
The MS-13 gang activity was caused by the civil war in the Central American county of El Salvador, which created the wave of immigration of about a million Salvadorians to the US. The new immigrants organized a gang called Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13. The street gang has become one of the fastest-growing in the state of New York and one of the most violent, leading to the epidemic of brutal murders and unprecedented violence in communities across the state. I agree that MS-13 is incredibly cruel and atrocious, as I personally witnessed the families losing their children and our devastated community crying for help.
The Catch and Release program started by the President Obama administration harmed national security since the policy allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, who could be deported, to remain in the US. 68,000 aliens, or 35% out of all released in 2013, had criminal convictions (DeAmicis 5). Under current policies, the deportation process might be terminated because of certain family relationships, support of advocacy groups, and factors not related to public safety (DeAmicis 6). The policies ensuring the placement of 80 percent of all minor illegal immigrants allowed the illegal youth to stay in the US, which made them easy targets for MS-13 recruitment.
Overall, DeAmicis approaches the problem of MS-13 gang activity underlining the ineffectiveness of current immigration policies and argues that measures should be taken to increase national security and prevent tragedies like the one in Brentwood, NY. The views of DeAmicis shed light on my understanding of the gang violence problem. While I was aware that the Brentwood community was affected by MS-13, I did not notice how seemingly positive government policies could change the situation for the worse.
Joseph J. Kolb, an Executive Director of the Southwest Gang Information Center and an award-winning criminal justice journalist, supports the view that the US government should do further reforms in immigration law in response to gang-related crimes. Kolb indicates that Brentwood has a high number of El Salvadorian communities, bringing immigrants to the country and recruiting minors to MS-13. According to Pedro Sanchez, consul for the government of El Salvador in New York City, 3,709 Unemployment Action Centers (UAC) have been placed in Suffolk County, where Brentwood is located, attracting minors from El Salvador and giving them an opportunity to stay in the US (qtd. in Kolb 2). I feel for the children and teenagers who had to escape their dangerous homeland, but after reviewing the data provided by Kolb, I think that the creation of UACs was a poor choice, since it increased the number of illegal immigrants and potential gang members.
After several killings in Brentwood, the community was terrified and demanded law enforcement to take action. As a result, 30 members of MS-13 were arrested, but the gang grew even stronger and more violent, killing teenagers Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, in 2015, and Dewann Stacks, 34, in 2016 (Kolb 4). As the examples above show the ineffectiveness of law enforcement, Kolb argues that immigration reforms should be considered as a way to maintain public safety for citizens and legal immigrants. I completely support the initiative to introduce the change because I believe that the government should make more effort to prevent tragedies like that in Brentwood.
The opposite approach is taken by Christopher Palmer, a staff member on the Virginia Governor’s Task Force for Prescription Drug and Heroin Abuse and a Master of Public Policy Candidate at the Frank Batten School and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Palmer served in the Peace Corps, where he taught “at-risk youth” life skills to Jamaican teenagers (Palmer 56). His approach to the problem of minor immigrants and growing gang violence does not involve the further restrictions in immigration policies of the US, but instead, focuses on the issue of drug trafficking.
Christopher Palmer argues that the problem of gang activity cannot be solved merely by restrictive immigration laws against minors from countries such as El Salvador. Gangs like MS-13 gain their funds by selling drugs in the US, therefore, gang violence can be reduced through the measures against drug trafficking. From 2002 to 2012, the US government increased military and economic support to Central American and the Caribbean countries to address the problem of drug trafficking, spending $20 billion in the process (Palmer 59). Additionally, the US federal government has attempted to reduce the supply of drugs by fighting against drug-trafficking gangs, including MS-13. In 2013, 236 gang members were arrested, and a substantial amount of drugs was seized (Palmer 60).
All in all, Palmer’s view is that the US government has been gradually taking necessary measures to stop gang violence through the raids and operations against gang drug trafficking. The facts and numbers provided by Palmer helped me understand another side to the issue, however, I still believe that the immigration reform is the first step that should be taken by the US government, while the issue of drug trafficking is more complex and should be gradually resolved.
Works Cited
DeAmicis, Albert. Mara Salvatrucha: The Deadliest Street Gang in America. 2017. Web.
Kolb, Joseph J. Brentwood, NY, Consumed by MS-13 Crime Wave. 2016, Web.
Palmer, Christopher. “Drug Trafficking, Gang Violence, and the US Immigration Crisis.” Michigan Journal of Public Affairs, vol. 12, 2015, pp. 56-70, Web.