Border Surge Brings Wave of Gang Violence in New York! MS-13 machete attacks, scalpings, other violent crimes

The surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America at the U.S.-Mexican border has caused more than administrative headaches — it is bringing gang violence to the American heartland, an immigration researcher said Friday.

The Center for Immigration Studies, which favors lower levels of immigration, released a pair of studies pointing to tens of thousands of children that federal authorities have lost track of after temporarily placing them in the United States. Thousands of those youths have joined the violent Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, according to the studies.

Many have ended up in Suffolk County on Long Island, New York. One of the reports released Friday cites a September story in the Long Island Press estimating that Suffolk County, alone, has had more than 1,000 MS-13 members over the previous decade. The Associated Press reported last month that the gang is responsible for some 30 homicides on Long Island since 2010. Authorities have arrested 35 alleged gang member just in the last several weeks.

Lenny Tucker, president of the Brentwood Association of Concerned Citizens in Suffolk County, told reporters on a conference call that extreme violence has struck the community.

“The residents feel like they’re under siege,” he said...

Gang violence is a persistent problem across the country. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, federal prosecutors convicted 250 gang members between 2003 and 2015 of a variety of charges. From 2010 to 2015, prosecutors convicted 35 gang members in connection with 20 homicides...

Kolb cited a 2015 report by the Texas Department of Public Safety concluding that the increase in youths from Central America has exacerbated gang violence, particularly in the Houston metropolitan area.

The agency upgraded its assessment from a Tier 2 to a Tier 1 threat. The report specifically blames the influx of Central Americans since 2014 for swelling the gang’s membership in Texas...