What is MS-13, the gang Donald Trump alleges El Salvador deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a part of? | indy100

Courts reaffirm that Trump admin must return Abrego Garcia

Fox - 5 DC / VideoElephant

US president Donald Trump’s White House insists Kilmar Abrego Garcia – the Maryland man it wrongly deported to El Salvador – is “never coming back” to America, despite the Supreme Court ordering the administration to “facilitate” his return to the United States.

On Friday, Trump sought to defend the deportation by posting a photo of himself with an image purporting to be Abrego Garcia’s hand tattoos, with the words MS-13 seen just below the knuckles of the hand.

He wrote on social media: “This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person’. They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles.”

The courts have not found that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, and Maryland district judge Paula Xinis – who on 6 April criticised the Trump administration’s “wholly lawless” and “grievous error” - noted “the ‘evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie”.

This, and “a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York - a place he has never lived”.

But what exactly is MS-13?

Allow us to explain.

First and foremost, MS-13 is short for Mara Salvatrucha 13.

InSight Crime states a Central American term for ‘gang’ is “mara”, “Salva” concerns El Salvador and “trucha” is slang for “clever or sharp”

According to an abstract of a 2009 “gang profile” on MS-13, from researchers Jennifer J. Adams and Jesenia M. Pizarro, the gang was “formed by Salvadoran immigrants that came to the United States in order to escape the civil war in their home country”.

The text, available on the website for the Office of Justice Programs - part of the US Department of Justice – continues: “In addition to local crimes, MS-13 is known to participate in numerous transnational crimes; for example, they are involved in the illegal trafficking of stolen vehicles from the United States to Central America. They also participate in weapon smuggling and illegal firearm sales.

“MS-13 also has theft crews traveling across the United States, stealing over-the-counter medications from retail stores that are then sold in the illegal market.”

InSight Crime writes that MS-13 has origins in Los Angeles in the 1980s and has caused the Northern Triangle of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to become “one of the most violent places in the world outside a warzone”.

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, launched a crackdown on MS-13 in 2022, which has since seen tens of thousands of people jailed.

Bukele has also said he won’t return Abrego Garcia to the United States.

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