- MS-13 is one of the most violent gangs in America.
- MS-13 members used this 22 caliber gun to shoot his
mother in the head and chest.
- The vicious and disgusting and horrible MS-13 gang members--
- We have machetes as a weapon of choice, chains
sometimes with a lock, baseball bat.
- This has to stop.
- The killing's going to stop.
- What is it going to take?
- The FBI says there's been a surge
in MS-13 activity and recruitment
in the last two years.
We wanted to know what leads some young people
to join MS-13.
WALTER BARRIENTOS: This gives them
the opportunity to tell immigrants,
what are you going to do?
Are you going to report us?
Look, they're deporting other innocent people.
They're going to accuse you.
They're going to associate you with us.
- These MS-13 gang members agreed to be interviewed
on the condition that we disguised their voices
and not show their faces.
Speaking out against the gang can be deadly.
The surprising thing about them is just how young they are.
At 16 and 17, they've already been gang members for years.
DONALD TRUMP: We are getting them out.
They're going fast.
We're actually liberating towns, like on Long Island,
where I grew up.
- For some people, Long Island means summer in the Hamptons.
But not far away from the mansions on the beach,
MS-13 has been on a killing spree.
- Oh, my god.
No.
Don't-- [inaudible] didn't do that.
- In the last two years, the FBI says they've committed more
than 20 murders on Long Island.
What are these here?
- These are some of the subjects related to these cases.
- Since June, dozens of alleged MS-13 gang members have
been arrested on Long Island.
Law enforcement estimates their membership
here to be in the hundreds.
Central American immigrants are the gang's primary target.
- What we're seeing is that they're targeting some
of the most recently arrived youth who are coming
into families who also are in transition
with their immigration status, and young people who don't know
a lot of people in the community, who
are easily targeted and scared.
- Margarita, as she asked us to call her, is from El Salvador.
- Her teenage son is hiding in a safe house.
She says MS-13 is trying to kill him because he
refused to join them.
She's a witness, but like many others,
won't go to the police for fear she'll get deported.
- We spoke with one mother who is
afraid to go to the police because of her legal status
here.
She thinks there'll be consequences.
MICHAEL MORINO: That may be her perception,
but I would assure her and I think this is probably
true for most police departments in the country,
but I can say without any doubt, in Nassau County,
we would make sure that we never, never ask any status
and we don't care on victims and witnesses.
- But immigrants aren't calling the tips
hotline like they used to.
MADELINE SINGAS: Last year, we had over 50 calls.
This year, we've had two.
- Between February and May of this year,
ICE arrested on average 108 undocumented immigrants a day
with no criminal record, an increase of about 150%
from the same period a year ago.
THOMAS HOMAN: I've said it 100 times-- that is a crime
to enter this country legally.
We're going to target the most violent criminals--
not the witness, not the victims--
to remove them.
- The president has said that deporting gang members,
getting rid of MS-13 in the US is a priority
for his administration.
What do you make of that?
WALTER BARRIENTOS: What I think about every time,
he says that is the way that this administration is using
this as an excuse to advance their agenda of deporting
and criminalizing immigrants.
- The MS-13 gang members I spoke with have
a message for other young people who are thinking of joining up.