MS-13 sweep keeps even most basic details secret
Suspected members of the MS-13 gang are escorted to their arraignment in Mineola, N.Y. A sweep of alleged MS-13 gang members on Long Island has racked up impressive arrest totals but also left unanswered questions.
NEW YORK — It was a tally so impressive that President Donald Trump touted it at his State of the Union address: Since May, agents cracking down on the violent gangs terrorizing the workingclass suburbs of Long Island had swept up 428 gang suspects, including 220 members of the notorious MS-13.
But the sweep, Operation Matador, also has been shrouded in secrecy. Federal and state authorities have declined repeated requests from The Associated Press for even basic information made public in most law enforcement operations, such as the names of those arrested and the crimes they are accused of committing.
They won’t divulge their ages, immigration statuses or current whereabouts. And while they say 44 of those arrested have been deported, they refuse to say what happened to the rest, including whether they are even still in custody. They say releasing more details could endanger the suspects and jeopardize ongoing investigations.
The lack of transparency comes amid accusations by immigration rights groups that the government is using unsubstantiated rumors of gang affiliations to detain innocent people. Federal immigration judges have already ordered the release of some detainees arrested on suspicion of being MS-13 members when the government couldn’t produce any evidence of gang activity.
Some parents and activists say some of those included in the tally are innocent teenagers who came to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors, spending weeks locked in maximum-security detention centers based on flimsy and false allegations of gang activity.
Civil liberties lawyers say that in some cases their alleged “activity” was wearing a black Tshirt or making a hand gesture.
“They said we have a warrant for your arrest and we don’t have to explain anything to you now. We will tell you when you come with us,” one teenager, who asked not to be named because she is afraid of being deported, told the AP in Spanish. “Later, they told me I had been associated with gangs.”
The teenager said she was not a member of MS13. She said she knew of people in MS-13, as do most people at Brentwood High School, a File, Seth Wenig / AP large school 45 miles east of New York City. Maybe she’s talked with some of them in the hallway.
Although she was released after two months in detention, she remains worried.
“I can’t defend myself,” she said. “I can’t explain what happened because I don’t even know who is accusing me.”
Immigration attorney Dawn Guidone said she represented about seven teenagers detained on gang allegations and at least two were deported. One student said all he did was wear blue, the color of the gang. Officials said he was associating with “known gang members.”
“But the gang member he was associating with sat next to him in math class,” Guidone said. “If that’s associating, then I don’t know how to even deal with that.”