Despite widespread issues with a growing MS-13 gang population, the federal government is continuing to mass migrate unaccompanied refugee children to vulnerable regions in the U.S.
The first quarter report for Fiscal Year 2017 from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) indicates no effort by the federal government to slow the mass relocation of typically Central American unaccompanied refugee children in areas like Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New York, which have become breading grounds for the violent MS-13 gang.
Since the beginning of the Fiscal Year, October 1, 2016, 651 unaccompanied minors were placed in Nassau County, which is home to Westbury, New York, an area that has experienced increasing MS-13 gang activity within the last year.
In neighboring Suffolk County, which has a widespread MS-13 gang problem in Brentwood and Central Islip, approximately 915 have been resettled in the region.
Queens County, which is home to trendy New York neighborhoods like Ridgewood, Queens, and right outside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is experiencing an increasing number of refugee children being relocated to the area.
In Fiscal Year 2017 so far, Queens County has accepted more than 560 unaccompanied children, despite an already densely populated New York City public school system.
The first quarter figures indicate the fourth consecutive year in which the federal government has regularly relocated unaccompanied minors to these regions, despite criticism from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) which argues the ongoing project has allowed gangs like MS-13 to flourish, as Central American minors are more susceptible to joining MS-13.
In Fiscal Year 2016, nearly 3,500 unaccompanied children were placed in Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens Counties.
In Fiscal Year 2015, the relocation efforts to the three counties dipped to more than 1,600, but the year prior saw one of the largest immigration increases to the counties, with almost 4,000 arriving in the region.
In the final months of the Obama Administration, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson promoted an “expansion” to the Central American Minors program, which “currently provides children in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras with a safe and orderly alternative to the dangerous, irregular journey that some children are currently undertaking to reach the United States.” The July 2016 announcement touted the fact that more than 9,500 applications had been received at the time.
The MS-13 gang is a violent crime syndicate that has thrived in areas where unaccompanied children have been relocated. The gang is responsible for a number of murders within the last year and has most recently been singled out by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“Because of an open border and years of lax immigration enforcement, MS-13 has been sending both recruiters and members to regenerate gangs that previously had been decimated, and smuggling members across the border as unaccompanied minors,” Sessions said last month.
Already, there are more than 200 members of the MS-13 gang in the Long Island, New York area, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as Breitbart Texas reported.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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