The criminal gang known as MS-13 has made a comeback in the US. According to a new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies, which was released on Wednesday, this comeback is partly because of reduced immigration enforcement during the Obama administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had kept the growth of the gang in check during the George W Bush administration but, the analysis suggests, that changed during the Obama administration because of new policies.
The report says that arrests of the criminal gang fell from around 4600, in 2012, to just 1580 in 2014. This was also during the period when the administration was faced with a surge of unaccompanied immigrant minors and families from Central America crossing the southwest border, which resulted in Border Patrol officers making over 300,000 arrests.
Many immigrant teenagers were released to face later immigration hearings, offering fresh candidates for recruitment by the criminal gang. The analysis from the Center of Immigration Studies suggests that the increase in activity from the gang correlated with several metro areas in which such teens were resettled. The analysis looked at over 500 cases, where members of MS-13 were charged or arrested since 2012.
The Center’s director of policy analysis, Jessica Vaughan, also alleges that many of the cities that have become hotbeds of gang activity are also those where local officials have adopted ‘sanctuary city’ policies.