IMMIGRATION

MS-13

When 17 people were murdered in 17 months in Suffolk County, Long Island, MS-13 was to blame. And I was there to cover it. 

La Mara Salvatrucha was formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants escaping civil war, and has since formed cliques across the United States, with its headquarters back in El Salvador. The spate of violence, in a Long Island county that voted for President Trump, became Exhibit A for his immigration crackdown.  

The gang killed two girls with machetes and baseball bats on a suburban cul-de-sac in September 2016, which ignited an all-out local police and immigration response. Then four latino young men were killed in April 2017 by MS-13, authorities said. I wrote the definitive story of those murders, of the boys who were immigrants who had fled the gang in their home countries. And I then wrote about the mother of one of the murdered girls who became an activist and met President Trump, before she herself was killed in a dispute with a neighbor.

Read here:

The Gang Murders in the Long Island Suburbs 07/12/2017
“They Keep Finding Bodies:” Gang Violence in Long Island Town Fuels Immigration Debate 10/03/2016
Police Fear Trump Immigration Orders May Handcuff Effort to Fight Gangs 02/22/2017
MS-13 Gang Members Arrested in Girls’ Killings 03/02/2017
Long Island MS-13 Gang Killings Arrests 07/19/2017
Her Daughter was Killed by a Gang, She has a Message for Trump 07/27/2017
Why Was MS-13 Targeted in Trumps Speech 01/31/2018
Trump Targets MS-13, a Violent Menace, if Not the One He Portrays 03/01/2018
Evelyn Rodriguez, Mother of Girl Killed by MS-13, is Dead 09/15/2018