Loopholes in immigration laws being squeezed by the Trump administration but embraced by the Obama administration have allowed youthful illegal immigrants who self-identified as MS-13 gangbangers to be placed around the country instead of sent home, according to newly released documents.
Unlike illegal criminals who avoided border security, those cited by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson in a letter to a key immigration agency were initially held by the Obama administration then put in placement centers throughout the nation and eventually with “sponsors” despite their gang ties.
Among them were 16 “admitted juvenile gang members” who defaced a Customs and Border Protection facility in Nogales, Ariz., with MS-13 graffiti, according to documents referenced by Johnson, a Senate leader in tightening illegal immigration.
They were eventually transferred to Virginia, Texas, New York and Washington state. Under Obama, they were typically released from placement centers pending a court hearing for which very few ever showed up. Others were sent to California, Louisiana, Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
The documents cited by Johnson are among the first to show the extent of the problem with legal loopholes meant to aid persecuted children but that are also helping gang members gain entry into the country.
Under the rules, those from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador must be turned over to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Refugee Resettlement soon after they arrive. That agency then tries to find a sponsor, typically a family member.
Letting known criminals use the U.S. legal system to get into the U.S., where they typically join up with other gang members, has shocked and angered Congress and Johnson, who is mulling changes.
In a letter to the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Johnson said, “These documents appear to show that the federal government knowingly moved self-identified gang members from Nogales, Arizona to placement centers in communities across the country. As you know, it is common for UACs to be released from their placement center while awaiting a court date. It is unclear from these July 2014 documents whether any of these self-identified UAC game members were released.”
Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, also said that in the November arrest of 267 MS-13 gang members, 64 entered the U.S. under Obama’s unaccompanied children program, or 24 percent.
Several communities have raised alarms over the explosion of MS-13 violence, machete attacks and murders linked to illegals arriving from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
The Trump administration is also looking to change the laws to weed out criminals and MS-13 members before placing them around the nation.
The documents from Customs and Border Protection showed that officials had detailed information on self-identified MS-13 illegals who were later released. One Border Patrol document, for example, identified an illegal who said he joined MS-13 at 15 and was involved in robberies, assaults and dealing drugs. A second said he “boasting to other juveniles in his cell on his gang affiliation and stating he was a drug dealer and stating he would continue to do the same in the United States with his family.”
In a letter from ORR to Johnson and sent last June, the agency in once case said that over 25 percent of one group of illegals behind held were MS-13 members.
It said that after it places illegal youths around the country, the agency makes phone calls to check on their status and if they hear of criminal activity, they refer the case to the local police.
