Sessions vows to wipe out MS-13 after killing of youths
AG says targeting illegal immigration will stop gang
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday came to this Long Island area besieged by the transnational gang known as MS-13, and in a 20-minute speech to local police commissioners and sheriffs he vowed to eradicate the gang by cracking down on illegal immigration.
Sessions said the gang, which is linked to El Salvador, carries a threat similar to the Colombian cartels and the mafia. He said it smuggled gang members across the U.S. border and recruited young immigrants.
His message bore the wishes of President Donald Trump, who Sessions said was “particularly alert to” the violence affecting Suffolk County, where the bodies of four young men who had been killed were found near a park on April 13.
Authorities contend the killings had the markings of MS-13, which would bring the gang’s body count to 15 in Suffolk County since the beginning of 2016, the most violent stretch since MS-13 took hold on Long Island in the late 1990s.
“The MS-13 motto is kill, rape and control,” Sessions said at the U.S. Courthouse in Central Islip. “Our motto is justice for victims and consequences for criminals. That’s how simple it is. Prosecute them, and after they’ve been convicted, if they’re not here lawfully, they’re going to be deported.”
Sessions said he would add prosecutors to the Eastern District of New York. On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had came to the area to announce that he would add 25 state police officers to the gang-fighting efforts.
Sessions did not, however, offer assurances to the sizable immigrant community that its members could report crime to police without worrying about their immigration status.
That has been a concern for local law enforcement officials, who fear that the Trump administration’s promise to crack down on immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally will destroy trust in the community and hamper investigations. In presentations throughout the county, the Suffolk County police commissioner, Timothy Sini, said that if victims or witnesses of crimes came forward, police would not ask about their immigration status.
Sessions called the notion of strict immigration enforcement eroding trust an “exaggerated argument” and said that people could still call 911 anonymously to report crime.