By Deporting 200,000 Salvadorans, Trump May Be Boosting Gang Recruitment

At the 30 January State of the Union, President Trump made a point of talking about the danger of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a primarily Salvadoran gang.

Last month, the Trump administration announced plans to revoke Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans, which allows nearly 200,000 Salvadorans to live and work in the United States. The decision stems not only from the president’s immigration agenda but also from deep anxieties in the United States about MS-13.

The irony is that MS-13, like its 18th Street gang rivals, is itself the consequence of a previous massive U.S. deportation wave that returned Salvadoran gang members from Los Angeles, starting in the 1990s. This cycle could repeat itself, even for returnees without any criminal record, if they overwhelm El Salvador’s capacity to receive them.

My research, which looks at detailed data on deportations and crime and is featured in Crisis Group’s recent report, El Salvador’s Politics of Perpetual Violence, examines the unanticipated consequences of some four decades of U.S. immigration policy.

The full article can be read at The Washington Post.