Hundreds arrested in MS-13 crackdown: report

Hundreds of people have been arrested in connection with a federal crackdown on MS-13, CBS News reported early Thursday ahead of a briefing from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The deputy director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Tom Homan, and the deputy assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s criminal division, David Rybicki, later Thursday will detail the results of an operation aimed at taking down the gang throughout the U.S.

The update comes several months after President Trump gave a speech in Long Island meant to detail the administration’s plan to crack down on MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha. Speaking in a town where MS-13 has launched attacks, Trump linked the gang violence to soft immigration enforcement.

“It is the policy of this administration to dismantle, decimate and eradicate MS-13,” Trump said at the time. 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month declared MS-13 a priority for his department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). 

“Now they will go after MS-13 with a renewed vigor and a sharpened focus.  I am announcing that I have authorized them to use every lawful tool to investigate MS-13—not just our drug laws, but everything from RICO to our tax laws to our firearms laws,” Sessions said at the tim, referring to a federal anti-racketeering law.

“Just like we took Al Capone off the streets with our tax laws, we will use whatever laws we have to get MS-13 off of our streets.”

Homan told CBS News that he has been able to detain more people under the Trump administration because he can make individuals who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border a priority. 

“People can make allegations all day long. I got 20,000 American patriots that work for ICE,” Homan told the news outlet when asked about accusations of racial profiling. 

“These are men and women who do their job honorably. They get up every morning, strap a gun to their hip and leave the safety of their homes and their families to protect communities, to protect people they’ll never meet and they’ll never know,” he said.