Curtis Sliwa Speaks On End Of Protection For Salvadorans: Opinion

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, is speaking out on President Donald Trump's administration announcement that it is planning to revoke temporary protective status for about 200,000 Salvadorans who came to the United States after earthquakes devastated their country in 2001. The decision will end temporary protected status for individuals from El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua.

The Trump administration announced in January it was ending TPS recognition for Salvadorans living in the U.S., effective September 9, 2019, leading to an outcry from immigrant advocacy groups.

Of the decision to terminate the program, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen said that, following the 2001 earthquake, El Salvador received a significant amount of international aid to assist in its recovery efforts, including millions of dollars dedicated to emergency and long-term assistance. "The substantial disruption of living conditions caused by the earthquake no longer exist," a release from DHS said.

Putting the brakes on the program is perceived as one of Trump's efforts to tighten up on illegal immigration and border control and fight back against horrific acts of gang violence perpetuated by MS-13, which, he said, have "transformed transformed peaceful parks and beautiful, quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields. They're animals."

Speaking about efforts to crack down on border control last year at an event in Brentwood, border stats, Trump said numbers are down 78 percent. "We've nipped it in the bud. Ms-13 has shed gruesome bloodshed throughout the United States. We've gotten some out of here and there rest will be out of here quickly."

But some believe that ending the program may, in fact, backfire, and lead to a strengthening of MS-13 ranks.

Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels, a non-profit volunteer safety patrol organization whose members are known for their trademark red berets, outlined MS-13's migration to Long Island in a previous Patch article.

And he is speaking out about the plan to end the TPS program and said it won't stem the tide of MS-13 gang crime.

Here, in his own words, is Sliwa's opinion piece on the issue:

"This will, in no way shape or form, mitigate the escalating concerns about MS-13 and its establishment and expansion throughout the United States. MS-13 operates in the shadows and continues to shake down and oppress their own people," Sliwa said.

Prior to the Trump administration's, and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' crackdown on MS-13, Sliwa said former Presidents Bush and Clinton and former administrations did not prioritize cracking down on the growth and expansion of MS-13 in the United States.

"In fact, just as Obama referred to ISIS as the junior varsity of terrorist organizations and discounted and underplayed their strength; likewise, he did the same thing towards MS-13. MS-13 has taken advantage of every crack in our foreign policy toward illegals. They avoid whenever possible having to deal with ICE and immigration and naturalization. Sure, some have taken advantage of TPS to come here and stay here but it is a very small percentage of El Salvadorians who came after the earthquake in their country," Sliwa said.

Sliwa said while there "were some MS-13 members who recruited those who came in as young ones because of Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. . . again, a very small percentage of the DACA arrivals from Central America were recruited by MS-13, either in El Salvador as they were heading north to cross our border or once they arrived and were placed with family or friends who were already here."

Instead, Sliwa said, as the Trump administration "tries to make up for lost time in cracking down on MS-13, it will mean more MS-13 members flooding into the federal, state, and county correctional facilities. They must be isolated from the prison general population or it will serve as a further recruitment base for them. And when they are sent back to El Salvador they will strengthen their ranks. They will strengthen their pipeline into the United States — wall or no wall. It does not affect their movements back and forth as it does their other fellow El Salvadorians. MS-13 is a highly disciplined para-military organization that adapts quickly to our country's ever changing immigration policy."

Tracing MS-13-s deadly roots

Explaining the growth of MS-13 in the United States, Sliwa said: "From 1980 to 1992 there was a bloody Civil War in El Salvador. . . Many El Salvadorians fled to Los Angeles. They moved into Mexican neighborhoods. They worked for less pay than the Mexicans and they were victimized by 18th Street gang, which was the largest Mexican gang in Southern California. To defend themselves they formed MS-13. Once they secured their El Salvadorian neighborhoods from 18th Street they then did what all gangs do . . . prey on their own people through shakedowns and extortion."

Next, Sliwa said, in the 1990s many El Salvadorians populated Fairfax County, VA, right outside of Washington DC.

"To enforce loyalty to MS-13 and spread fear in their community they began to chop off the fingers and limbs of their adversaries or perceived traitors with machetes. This became their calling card," he said.

They then spread throughout the beltway in VA and MD, he said. "By 2000 MS-13 migrated to Nassau and Suffolk Counties where they established a reign of terror in their own neighborhoods through murder and dismemberment of their victims. In Iowa they got jobs in the meat packing industry. In New Jersey and Massachusetts, they integrated themselves amongst the day laborers and would shape up each early morning to get work. They would get money for their labors but also shake down their fellow members and kick it up to their local MS-13 leadership. In all these places till this day they remain strong. If law enforcement turned up the heat on them, they would ship their members south of the border to El Salvador until it cooled off and then they would bring them back.

"But the vast majority of El Salvadorans are not criminals or gang members," Sliwa said. "For the most part they do the jobs that nobody else wanted. They are hard workers. They have mortgages, their kids go to our public schools and are now beginning to assimilate. And many pay taxes. With fake Social Security numbers they get to work. They end up contributing to the Social Security system. They fill the pews of Roman Catholic churches that might have closed if they didn't use their Roman Catholic faith as a place to go and show solidarity with their own.

"But still, for the most part, they operate in the shadows, fearful that the next knock on the door will be ICE ready to deport them. President Trump said he wanted to go after the 'bad hombres,' and yet the Department of Justice does not yet use the tactics that broke the back of Italian organized crime," Sliwa said.

That, Sliwa said, would include using The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act, or simply RICO, statute when going after MS-13, or setting up a witness protection program for co-operators — and a path to citizenship for those who provide intel to law enforcement about MS-13 activities, he said.

"In many ways the El Salvadorians are treated the way Southern Italians were treated when they came to America," Sliwa said. "Most were uneducated, couldn't speak English, were not assimilating and were mostly performing blue collar work that few others would do. And the Southern Italians had the Mafia preying on their communities," Sliwa said. "The Salvadorans are now experiencing history repeating itself because of our fears, fright and hysteria about them."

MS-13 expanding globally

Despite recent MS-13 busts on Long Island and MS-13 arrests taking place throughout the country and simultaneously in El Salvador, Sliwa believes a new truth has become evident: "MS-13 has begun to expand globally. To Cuba, South Korea, France and Egypt. It should not have shocked anyone."

Salvadorans, he said, have been hired to do contract work in groups around the world.

"They work hard and they will work for low wages in often times unsafe and unhealthy conditions. In those countries where they do contract work they rarely fall through the cracks. They stand out in South Korea, Egypt and France because their culture and language is so different. In Cuba, because it is an oppressive regime, they can easily be tracked during their work stay. Many MS-13 members in El Salvador are encouraged to join these work crews. Unlike other gangs where their members won't work, MS-13 members work hard, proudly show their tattoos, recruit from within those work crews and shake down their fellow workers for money when they all get paid. While on work assignment in foreign countries MS-13 members are encouraged by their leaders to forge links with other criminal groups and to figure out new ways through these links and new found contacts to generate new sources of income. Through the use of satellite cell phones they stay linked up," Sliwa said.

He added: "Trump, of late, has targeted Salvadorans and Haitians in particular. Both in the way he has described their countries of origin, and how he wants to send those in both groups who were allowed to come here after earthquakes devastated their countries through TPS back to El Salvador and Haiti. Also, in how he wants to eliminate any work visas to residents of either country because the are for the most part uneducated, don't speak English and are not skilled workers. This directly impacts Brentwood and Central Islip where many Haitians and Salvadorans live."

In America today, a significant portion of the economy is related to health care, Sliwa maintained.

"Many of those jobs are as home health care aides. Coming into our parents' homes to care for them, change their bed pans and deal with the growing levels of dementia and Alzheimer's that is growing as our United States' population ages," he said.

He added that there will be an astronomic growth in the need for additional health care aides in the next decade alone.

"Who amongst other Americans are going to do this work? The hours are long, the pay is meager and oftentimes their clients are losing their mental and physical faculties. Our American-born children and grand children are not going to fill the void. As a community, we trust Salvadorans to come into our homes and properties to do day laborer work. We trust them so much we will pick them up in our own cars and vans to bring them to our homes and businesses and trust them on our premises."

Across the state, Sliwa said as many as two thirds of those employed as home health care aides were born outside the United States; many are in the country illegally and many are Haitian or from El Salvador, he added.

"So we trust Salvadorans and Haitians to work on our properties and in our homes and many times they are unsupervised. But our President doesn't trust them to stay in our country any longer. This makes no sense. Instead if they work hard, take care of their families and don't break our laws we should issue them work visas and if they want, offer them a pathway to U.S. citizenship. We shouldn't be demeaning them or vilifying them and making fun of their countries of origin as our president has done — and most recently Islip Town Councilwoman Trish Bergin Weichbrodt," whose comments on Facebook caused an outcry.

"And most importantly, unless they are 'bad hombres,' they shouldn't live in fear that ICE is coming to get them and deport them," Sliwa said.

Patch photo courtesy of Curtis Sliwa.