MS-13 BRAG LEADS TO DEPORTATION.
Federal judge upholds refugee board’s decision
While he was in jail awaiting trial, René Pacheco was visited by a Canada border agent and, for whatever reason, bragged to him of his ties to MS-13, a notorious crime gang.
He showed the agent a tattoo of the number 13 on the back of his left hand. He gave a colourful account of enduring a 13-second beating as an initiation rite and how the 10 to 20 members his Toronto chapter, known as a clique, controlled territory in the Jane and Sheppard area of the city.
For the El Salvadoran man who has lived in Canada for 20 years, his braggadocio meant a move by the Canada Border Services Agency to deport him for membership in a criminal organization.
At a hearing in front of the Immigration and Refugee Board last year, Pacheco, 26, changed his story. He said the “13” tattoo was just his “lucky number” and any talk of gangs was fuelled by drugs and a compulsion to lie to make him seem more powerful.
A Federal Court of Canada judge rejected the new version of his life story last week, moving Pacheco closer to a return to El Salvador. He is a permanent resident of Canada but not a Canadian citizen, according to IRB records.
His trouble started when he was arrested in 2016 for several criminal charges, including attempted murder. While awaiting trial, a CBSA enforcement officer interviewed him in jail, where he revealed the detailed gang account, according to court and IRB records.
Later, the serious criminal charges were dropped when the complainant said her allegations against him weren’t true. He pleaded guilty to minor offences and was sentenced to just one day in jail. His mouth, however, brought him bigger trouble.
At his immigration hearing, the IRB heard from gang experts that Pacheco’s information on MS-13 was accurate, from the tattoo, the area of Toronto MS-13 activity and the initiation rite.
Pacheco, however, told a different account, disavowing any gang links. All he knew about MS-13, he said, he learned from YouTube and he complained he was high on drugs when talking to the CBSA and remembered nothing about it. He couldn’t explain why his Facebook page featured MS-13 gang graffiti.
He was deemed inadmissible to Canada, a decision he appealed to the Federal Court.
Last week, Judge George R. Locke, said the IRB’s decision was reasonable based on the evidence, largely the jailhouse admission corroborated by the tattoo, the Facebook photograph and his accurate knowledge of the gang.
Locke said a transcript of his interview with CBSA showed Pacheco to be “logical and straightforward” and showed no sign of impairment.
The MS-13, also called Mara Salvatrucha, became notorious on the streets and in law enforcement for liberal use of brutal violence, including a fondness for machetes.
The gang became particularly famous recently when U.S. President Donald Trump started branding them as public enemy No. 1. Last month Trump called MS-13 members “animals” at an immigration roundtable. Afterward, the White House released a fact sheet titled, “What you need to know about the violent animals of MS-13.”
In other speeches Trump called MS-13 members “stone cold killers, vicious killers” and highlighted MS13 victims in his State of the Union address.
The MS-13 was started in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles and has had a presence in Toronto for at least 10 years. In the United States and Central America, the gang has a wide and troubling presence associated with brutal violence, drug trafficking, murder, prostitution, robbery and a litany of other crimes.
Officials estimate approximately 10,000 MS-13 members in the United States and 50,000 throughout Central America. The U.S. Treasury Department lists MS-13 as a transnational criminal organization.