President Donald Trump Must Extinguish Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)

EDINBURG, Texas – Agents across the Rio Grande Valley arrested three members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang. On Friday, agents assigned to the Weslaco station arrested a Salvadoran man near Hidalgo, Texas. His records revealed that the man is a member of the MS-13 gang. Saturday, McAllen agents apprehended a Salvadoran national near Granjeno, Texas. The man entered the country illegally with his minor daughter. His record later revealed that he is a member of the MS-13 gang. Later that day, Rio Grande City agents arrested a Salvadoran national whose records showed that he is a member of the MS-13 gang. The men will be processed accordingly. Photo provided by: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Writing at The Federalist, Jacob Perry takes media outlets like Vox and ProPublica to task for defending the likes of MS-13. I have written many times about the MS-13 scourge (for instance here, here, here, and here). MS-13, and all violent gangs like it, must be extinguished in America. Perry writes (abridged):

Vox and ProPublica take aim at President Trump’s heightened concern for gangs in the United States in a recently published video, claiming his harsh characterizations of MS-13 are unfair.

The gang, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, numbers in the tens of thousands and is composed primarily of outlaws from El Salvador, Honduras, and other Central American countries. Trump’s hardline stance on crime and border security has made MS-13 a more widely recognized public menace. But instead of acknowledging the rising violent threat that MS-13 poses to the American people, progressive media outlets like Vox and ProPublica are casting the Trump Administration’s actions with regard to illegal immigration and law enforcement as irresponsible, dangerous, and factually unsound.

Make no mistake about it: MS-13 is a growing criminal syndicate that directly deals with larger cartels

This criticism of Trump’s characterization of MS-13 is part of a longer trend. Back in May, Trump called MS-13 members “violent animals.” The comment was seized upon by his political opponents in an effort to paint him as an anti-immigrant extremist.