President Trump and law enforcement officials gathering for an immigration roundtable on Long Island Wednesday afternoon are expected to focus on the violent crimes MS-13 gang members have been accused and convicted of committing in the U.S., including the alleged murder of a Northern Virginia man in March, according to a Department of Homeland Security official.
Trump will sit down with officials from the Morrelly Homeland Security Center and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in Bethpage, N.Y., located in Nassau County.
The half-day trip is the Trump administration’s latest attempt to hammer down on the threats Americans, legal immigrants, and even the undocumented population whose only crime was illegally entering the country, face from the international gang’s estimated 10,000 U.S.-based members — the majority of whom it has touted as illegal immigrants from Central America.
One of the group’s talking points will be the death of a man whose body was found in a burning car in Woodbridge, Va., located outside Washington.
New information obtained from a DHS official states “a 25-year-old man was selected at random to be abducted from his home and shot to death. The victim was subsequently placed inside his vehicle and the car set on fire.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement believed the three men involved in the death were affiliated with MS-13 and issued detainers against each person.
“On March 17, officers assigned to the Prince William 287(g) program lodged a detainer on Manuel Robles Lopez, a citizen and national of El Salvador illegally present in the U.S., following his arrest on a felony charge,” ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“On March 20, officers assigned to the Wake County 287(g) program lodged detainers on Erick Yomar Contreras-Navarro and Denis Ludwin Espinal Alvares, both citizens and nationals of El Salvador illegally present in the U.S., following their arrests by Raleigh police on the charges of being fugitives from justice attempting to avoid murder charges in Virginia,” she added.
The DHS official said each suspect illegally entered the U.S. Two of the three were placed with a sponsor while awaiting an immigration hearing, which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official testified before Congress Tuesday could take multiple years to be scheduled.
All of the them have criminal convictions, including drunken driving and larceny.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has spoken at greater length about increasing DHS’s ability to go after and deport criminal aliens.
Trump slammed MS-13 during a sanctuary city meeting at the White House on May 16 and said the individuals who carry out similar crimes are “animals.”
Multiple media outlets misreported the statement as Trump saying illegal immigrants are “animals.” The issue was brought up during last Thursday’s press conference and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders clarified the president had been responding to an attendee’s reference to MS-13 members, which transcripts of the roundtable discussion support.
Trump then said the media was “begrudgingly forced” to withdraw reports regarding his Wednesday statement.
“Fake News got it purposely wrong, as usual!” Trump tweeted.
The Nassau County meeting will take place just 10 miles away from Brentwood, where two teenage girls were killed by MS-13 members in September 2016. The parents of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas attended the 2018 State of the Union as first lady Melania Trump’s guests, to illustrate gang members’ violent actions.
