Free Republic

The nation’s most violent street gangs—including Mara Salvatrucha—are actively recruiting new members at U.S. shelters housing illegal immigrant minors and they’re using Red Cross phones to communicate, a Homeland Security source tells Judicial Watch. JW has reported extensively on the crisis created by the sudden influx of mostly Central American minors that have crossed into the U.S. through the Mexican border in recent weeks. It has created havoc and will end up costing American taxpayers billions of dollars to house, process, medically treat, feed and inevitably educate the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) which are being dispersed throughout the country. They...

Federal authorities Thursday designated the notorious Mara Salvatrucha MS-13 as a “transnational criminal organization,” giving federal authorities more tools to fight the street gang that has its roots in Los Angeles. Under the designation, federal officials said they can now seize assets of gang members found within the United States jurisdiction. The designation is the first for a U.S. street gang. Among the organizations similarly designated are Japan’s Yakuza and Mexico’s Zetas, whose leader, Heriberto Lazcano, was killed by Mexican Marines on Sunday. An armed gang later stole his body from a funeral parlor. ... MS-13 began among El Salvadoran...

PROJECT: COUNTERINTELLIGENCESUBJECT: ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION / US LOCAL RESPONSEFILE: OPPOSITION RESEARCHTRANSLATION: SPANISH to ENGLISH (w/BABELFISH)Original Title: "Hispanics No Longer Feel Welcome in Virginia Due To Anti-Immigrant Measures" (Original Spanish: "Hispanos no se sienten bienvenidos en Virginia por medidas anti-inmigrantes") Text: "July 18, 2007 04:45pm ET by Reporter Isabel Conde "Washington, 18 July (EFE). - Because of the passage in the County of Loudoun (Virginia) of measures to prohibit to the undocumented immigrants to have access to county services, just like occured a week ago in the Prince William County also in Virginia, this causes the Hispanic community to not feel...

THE FACE OF CRIME: Two members of MS-13 in an El Salvador prison L.A.'s latest export: gangs By Gloria Goodale | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Los Angeles has long fed the global popular culture with TV and films, but now the city is in the spotlight for a new, more lethal export: Hispanic street-gang violence. Gangs certainly aren't new. But as the National Geographic Channel's upcoming documentary "Explorer: World's Most Dangerous Gang" illustrates, the allure of all things from the Golden State is giving this familiar story a particularly sinister new spin. "There's an unintended phenomenon...

September 3, 2004 - Al Qaida may have an alliance with a violent Central American gang that has established a presence near the Texas-Mexico border, according to members of the U.S. House Select Committee on Homeland Security.Mara Salvatrucha, an El-Salvador-based gang, has met with the terrorist group and may attempt to infiltrate the U.S. border, committee member U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Texas, said Thursday at the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates."We have been in contact with El Salvadoran officials and they have verified that al-Qaida has been active in these gangs," Ortiz said."(The gang members) are all over...