Hundreds fleeing gang violence in Central America deported from US each week

Описание: (3 Jul 2018) Hundreds of people who fled gang violence in Central America are being deported by the United States back to those countries every week.
US President Donald Trump tweeted in June that "illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be ... pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13."
Yet very few gang members try to get into the United States.
In fiscal year 2017, the US Border Patrol carried out 310,531 detentions of people who were in the US illegally, but only 0.09 percent of them belonged to the gangs operating in Central America, according to US Customs and Border Protection statistics.
Instead, it's often people fleeing gangs who are trying to get into the United States.
Thousands of others are in the same situation, having fled from ultraviolent gangs in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, only to be caught near the US border and sent back under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy.
Migrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala - the countries where the gangs have taken root - now make up close to 50 percent of those trying to cross America's southwest border, up from 1 percent in 2000.
Fifteen years ago, the Salvadoran government began a crackdown on gangs, resulting in thousands of members being imprisoned.
Yet they continued to proliferate, even running operations with cell phones from behind bars.
El Salvador's defence minister said in 2015 that there were 60,000 gang members in the country, compared to a combined police and army strength of 50,000.
Members of those security forces contribute to the violence that is causing the northward migration.
Police and soldiers, operating both officially and in some cases with clandestine "extermination groups," are responsible for an estimated 10 to 15 percent of the threats and violence, according to non-governmental organisations.
Mere suspicion of belonging to a gang is enough to bring trouble.
There are few options for those threatened by gangs. Moving to another town is usually only a short-term solution in El Salvador, which is smaller than the state of Massachusetts.
Eventually, members of a gang are likely to ask the young person where they came from.
It could be the same gang that controls the person's former neighbourhood or village.
Or it could be the rival gang.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...