This exploration of mine started, as it so often does these days, with a tweet.
Mark Morgan, head of CBP for the end of Obama’s presidency is being rehired by Trump to head up Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the wake of this announcement, while waiting to see if he will be confirmed by the senate, political commentators started to comb through old interviews of Morgan, to see what he was about. The results were…. Something. Morgan has been a strong and “unbiased” supporter of Trump’s wall, and is strongly opposed to the “catch and release” policy.
The interview that stood out to me the most was a short conversation he had on Tucker Carlson Tonight, where he was asked about MS-13. Morgan made a variety of callous statements regarding immigrant youth, including claiming that he could spot a future MS-13 gang member by sight. As reported by Politico, (and transcription-checked by me), “I’ve been to detention facilities where I’ve walked up to these individuals that are so-called minors, 17 or under,” Morgan said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in January. “I’ve looked at them and I’ve looked at their eyes, Tucker — and I’ve said that is a soon-to-be MS-13 gang member. It’s unequivocal.” (See link 1 for full interview).
There are a few distinct pieces of this interview that really jumped out and grabbed me, however, before diving into the particulars I want to talk about MS-13. The gang has been a huge talking point for Trump regarding immigration. But where did they come from? Using the research of Kristin Finklea, a Specialist in Domestic Security at the Library of Congress, in her piece “MS-13 in the United States and Federal Law Enforcement Efforts” (see link 2), as well as other sources that I will point to as I use them, I intend to lay out the basic history of MS-13. Not to defend them, nor to condemn them, but just to insure that we have all the context as we listen to Trump throw their name around.
History of MS-13
MS-13 began to emerge in the 1980’s in Los Ángeles California. It was composed, at the time, of mostly Salvadoran immigrants who banded together for protection against the Mexican gangs already in existence in the city. The moniker MS-13 is an abbreviation of Mara Salvatrucha, which references their status as a gang “mara” and their home country El Salvador, while adding “trucha” to the end, which roughly translates to “street smarts”. (See link 3) MS-13 was less about using the gang as a money making scheme and more interested in finding a sense of community amongst Salvadoran and other Central American immigrants. In the 1990’s deportations started to rise, especially with the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which according to a footnote in Finklea’s paper “expanded the definition of ‘aggravated felonies’ for which convicted individuals would be subject to deportation” (page 1, footnote 2). As members of the Salvadoran community, and of MS-13 specifically were deported, they brought the gang back to Central America with them.
These days, MS-13 is not so much one cohesive gang, but rather a collection of loosely affiliated “cliques” that all refer to themselves as being part of MS-13. In some areas there has been an effort to coordinate cliques into a more cohesive organization, but so far law enforcement has not seen this take hold anywhere. The membership of MS-13 has been estimated to be about 10,000 members in the US. Importantly, this estimate, made by the FBI, has not changed since 2005. This is an important thing to remember when you hear MS-13 talked about on the news. While they may not be growing, MS-13 IS dangerous. While their activities vary by clique, they have been connected to everything from extortion and bribery to murder. In recent years there has been an upward trend in the number of violent crimes linked with MS-13 cliques in various cities.
There are a variety of task forces domestically and abroad that are working to combat MS-13 violence. Finklea describes them in detail on pages 4-6 if you are interested in reading about them (full article linked below of course). She also goes on to say “Having a clear conceptualization of MS-13 may help to determine the most appropriate and effective tools and resources to counter their criminal activity.” This seems obvious, but apparently there is some disagreement on the issue. She follows up with “Researchers and authorities have primarily described MS-13 as either a criminal street gang or a transnational criminal organization (TCO); however, policy discussions of the gang often blur these lines” (emphasis is mine).
She then goes on to give us both the official legal definitions for each type of organization (pages 7-8 if you wish to peruse), and a handy chart which I blatantly borrowed to add here.
Finklea points out that the classifications for both a gang and a TCO overlap, and because MS-13 is an international organization, it can make classifying them even more difficult. But as she asks in the title line of her final section “Does it Matter?” The answer it seems is… It depends who you ask. For law enforcement the task remains more or less the same, regardless of classification, they just are what they are. Where it does matter is in terms of policy. Funding is allotted to various law enforcement programs specifically designed to combat either Gangs or TCOs. This is where the argument gets interesting. While funding for combating TCOs is almost exclusively put towards enforcement and prosecution, funding put towards countering gang influence in the US includes money for enforcement but also allows grants for prevention programs, as well as juvenile justice grants. So regardless of where you would like to see that money headed, it’s safe to say that MS-13’s classification does matter with regards to funding.
Finklea concludes her research by discussing the various methods and dilemmas of tracking MS-13 membership. It’s been a hot topic in the news, with conservatives drawing connections between immigration and growing MS-13 membership (Remember, the FBI has estimated their membership to be the same since 2005). She details both the FBI and ICE’s efforts to track the membership here in the US and at the border. There a variety of ways that immigrants and MS-13 are purported to be connected. The first is a push factor, it is often speculated that the rise in gang violence in Central America is sending people fleeing to the US. This seems obvious to me, but also worth remembering that the gang they are running from was born in LA. Some, especially conservatives pushing for tighter border security, argue that MS-13 takes advantage of our southern border to bring gang members through. They also accuse them of targeting Unaccompanied Minors and recruiting them as gang members once they’re in the country.
The relationship between MS-13 and Unaccompanied Minors is particularly tricky, as Finklea points out. First of all, it is difficult to ascertain with confidence if someone has a gang affiliation when they cross the border (despite what Mark Morgan claims). Secondly, it is difficult to track which unaccompanied minors get recruited after entry, because truly tracking that would mean following up with every child. Third, even amongst gang members who are proven to have been Unaccompanied Minors at entry, it can be difficult to ascertain just when they were recruited. And of course, as Finklea points out “it remains unclear the extent to which immigrant youth in the United States join MS-13 on their own for a sense of community or brotherhood or whether they are coerced to join to avoid the consequences of being unaffiliated in a gang environment.”
Bonus Thoughts
Usually I would end this post with some strong statement, but because this was mostly just a summary of other people’s research, I’m going to leave you with some bonus thoughts instead. When I was listening to that Mark Morgan interview two things stood out. First, that I needed to learn more about MS-13, so that I could contextualize his talking points. Secondly, I was really struck by his characterization of migrant children.
Remember this quote? “I’ve been to detention facilities where I’ve walked up to these individuals that are so-called minors, 17 or under”. Yeah, the one where he says he can spot a future gang member “unequivocally”. There’s a few layers of BS to dig through here. The first, obviously, is that no one can spot a future gang member just by looking in their eyes. There is no way of knowing “unequivocally” what anyone’s future holds. The second, and the one I really want to emphasize is his use of “so-called minors”. They either are minors, or they’re not. There’s no “so-called” about it. So why does he use that weird wishy-washy phrasing?
He uses it to make them sound scary. Because it’s hard to think of children as a threat. Mr. Morgan, with all his talk about spotting gang members, is pushing the theory that these kids are threatening our safety and well being. The problem, for him, is that correctly identifying them as children makes them sound much less threatening and way more sympathetic. So, instead of Unaccompanied Minors he uses “So-Called Minors”.
So why does it matter? Because not calling children “children” robs them of their childhood. Calling them “so-called minors” implies that they’re somehow lying, that they have been mislabeled as children when they’re not. It shows that Mr. Morgan has bought into the larger framework of dehumanization. By saying that Mexican and Central American children aren’t “minors” the same way American kids are, you’re implying that Mexican and Central American people aren’t “human” the same way that American people are.
It’s worth noting, before I wrap this up, that this doesn’t just happen at the border. Black and brown kids all across the US receive the same childhood-robbing treatment. If you’re not already, start to pay attention to the way young black and brown kids are treated by police. The next time you read a story or see a clip, imagine if that kid was white, and the backlash surrounding “child abuse” that would ensue. The news headlines will talk about police brutality, and racism, but often neglect to mention that these are children. So keep your eyes open, and don’t let politicians, the news or law enforcement tell you who counts as a “real child” and who doesn’t. Because we know the truth, all children are children just like all people are people.
Links for Cited Information
https://video.foxnews.com/v/5989437509001/#sp=show-clips
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R45292.pdf
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39645640