>>narrator: tonight, i am calling on the congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed ms-13... >> the notorious gang ms-1 >>...break into our country. >> the recruitment starts righ out of the school. th >> he says "ese people are threatening that if you don't come with us, we're going to hurt your family you know we're going to hurt your father. >> narrator: tonight, the story of a crackdown. >> we have seen a significant number of ms-13 gang members who entered the united states as unaccompanied minors. >> and the young immigrants who are being swept up. >> anyone can be labeled and cause them to be detaid, and their civil rights to be violated, and these are childr. >> narrator: tonight on frontline, "the gang crackdown".

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>> a significant show of force today in nassau county.n police convea field in roosevelt after they received a tip about a possible gang- related homicide. >> narrator: the bodies keep turning up. >> ...confirms the search stems from a possible homicide committed by ms-13, the violentn n tin americ gang that has been a scourge ong island. >> narrator: teenagers mainly. killed in the woods. 25 corpses since 2016.he and otrs still missing. d at this time, we have not found or identifiey human reins. >> narrator: gangs have long been a problem on long island. >> i cannot comment on if it's ms-13... >> narrator: but why the sudden spike in gang violence? >> okay,hank you very much. thank you very much. >> narrator: and how far will law enforcement go to win this >> suffolk county poce today

declared war on ms-13. >> i consider them domtic terrorists. either they wi or we win. >> narrator: long island stretches eastward from new york city for about a hundred miles. the place is known for its beaches and mansions, but en route is a very different world. densely populated communities, which have become a magnet for immigrant families from central america. some are here legally. others are undocumented. and their numbers haveore than doubled in the last two decades.

it's also home to a vicious gang that has claimed the lives of dozens-- mainly immigrants-- over that same time. (man speaking in spanish)th is the funeral for javier, castillo15-year-old from el salvador, believed to be one of the latest victims of ms-13. >> ms-13, it's a svadorian gang. it's predominantly out of the central american countries. i'm gonna describe them as the most violent gang that we have out here on long island. they're killing teenagers, they're killing children. it's just pure violence, and that's, that's what they thrive on. >> narrator: law enforcement officials here believe are anywhere from 200 to 300 active ms-13 members and about a dozen subgroups, known as cliques. brentwood, central islip, and huntington-- towns with large central american presence-- are

hotbeds. >> the graffiti marks a territory. it announces to the community, that there is a gang in their area. when you look for gang graffiti, you look for different colors, you look for numbers and letters. you can see, it announces their clique. the b.l.s. is the brentwoodru local salva clique. so it doesn't necessarily mean that it was in brentwood. it could be in another town, and they're tting the other town know that, not only are we in brentwood, we're in your town also.re you see you've got the s.l.s.w., which is the sailor clique, the ms-13 with theor an obviously in blue also. they want to cause feaand panic in an area. >> narrator: to go after them, the suffolk county police gang unit has been working overtime. >> ms-13 is the type of gang l thes to hang out in the woods. we go out every day, we hunt these guys. theytop suspected ms-13 people.

they engage them, they're in their face, there's no place for them to go. we make it known to them that we do not want them here, and we're doing everything we can to get them out. these woods are in the heart of brentwood that's become a hangout for ms-13. right over here is all 503 graffiti, 503 being the area code for el salvador. you can also tell by the debris they leave all over the place,sg they're diting. they don't care about anything, they don't care about anybody, theyeave trash all over the place. they think this area is theirs, it's not. nothing is theirs. and over time, they know thatno they'rgoing to be here anymore. these guys are doing a terrific job, and ty do it every day, relentlessly. >> narrator: for the pw years, a perfect storm has been brewon long island.

it all began in 2014, when an influx of nearly 9,000 minors, mostly from central america, started floodingn. >> more kids this year over last year, they say that 95% of them ere children from the bord >> what happened? >> well, at that time what we re seeing is a drastic increase in violence in central america. ei we were that gangs had really taken over entire neighborhoods. children were being threatened and forcefully recruited intor gangs une threat of death to themselves or to their families. >> narrator:hey came north as unaccompanied minors or u.a.c. local officials quickly felt the impact. >> since 2014, we have receivedp oximately 5,000 u.a.c.s, and we have to deal with it on multiple fronts. some of these children need special attention in school. many of these childrensome sort of social services from the

county. and, unfortunately, some of these children become victims of crimes or become offenders. >> narrator: huntington high is one of the many schools here that took in some of the new arrivals from central america. -y r-old junior had enrolled as a freshman starting in the fall of 2016 after feing the gangs of honduras. for his protection, we've concealed his identity. his father, george, had come to ng island a decade ago.he had told his employer, arorld, about his concerns f his son. >> george knew that his son,to when he go certain age, that gangs down in honduras were looking to pick you up and make you a gang member. and george was very, very worried about that.

>> narrator: after turning 13, junior took a freight train that has carried hundreds of thousands of migrants to america. (junior speaking spanish): >> narrator: the trip lasted over a month. junior made it to the rio grande in october and crossed the border. after being apprehended by customs and border protection, junior was taken to a holding cell. >> children and migrants call them "hieleras," ice boxes, and typically children describe sleeping on a concrete floor. there's no bed. not being feenough. being held in these icy cold jail cells, which are only meant to be very temporary. he

>> narrator:he arrived in new york unaccompanied, his father george, and his father's employer arnold, were waiting for him at the airport. >> he came over there with his little thing around his neck saying, "unaccompanied minan," .. and george was ecstatic. eorge speaking spanish): >> narrator: but junior had trouble adjusting. and he would soon find out that the very gangs he had fled in honduras were also in his school. (junior speaking spanish):

>> the recruitment starts rightt out school. they'll approach you, "hey, we're part of the gang." a lot of these kids, especially the undocumented ones that came into the country, you know, they'd come here with refrly no nds. if they did have a family member or if they didn't have a family member, and they were very easily absorbed by these guys. it was almost like they were given a feeling that they have a family now. >> narrator: another teenager, jesus lopez had enrolled at huntington high in the fall of 2014. he had fled the gangs of el ngsalvador and arrived on island at the height of the surge. (speaking spanish): >> narrator: at night he would work at a local restaurant. (jesus speaking spanish):

>> narrator: he told one of the chefs at work about e trouble he and his friends were having at school. t they were being hassled school. you know, if ms wants to come find you and wants to start trouble, it's difficult to avoid. it just terrified them. >> narrator: junior also was terrified. sp (george king spanish): >> right down the street from where he lives, there's a laundromat and these... these gang members were hanging out so that his son didn't even wanna go out of the house. he says, "these people are, you know, are threatening me and telling me that, "ifon't, dou know, come with us and do what we want you twe're going to-- we're gonna hurt you. we're gonna hurt your family, you know.

we're goa hurt your father." >> the search is on this morning for two missing teens from nassau county. >>arrator: these were not empty threats. >> the mother says her son left one night and then never turned. >> narrator: on long island, there had been a string of disappearances. >> her missing 19-year-old son. oscar acosta disappeared two wes ago. >> narrator: teens who never came home. >> our person of interest has been missing for two years. he's right there. >> we were, at the time, investigating several missing persons, and we believe that those missing persons were not missing persons, but homicides by ms-13. >> narrator: then one night, a tuesday, september 13, 2016, there was a brutal attack next to an elementary school in entwood. >> a high school student found dead in this neighborhood last night, on the eve... >> i was in my den, i remember extly where i was sitting. and we first received a briefing sheet on it, because

the injuries were so horrific, that the first hypothesis was that it's a motor vehicle crash, a hit and run. >> narrator: the victims were two teenage girls: kayla cuevas and nisa mickens. they were run over by vehicles. you know, they used machetes, they used baseball bats.it they tooo a level that i don't think anybody was ready for. >> their bodies re disfigured. one of them was found in the street, the other behind some homes. and there was no apparent motive other than they might belong or be friends with members of some other gang. >> they were looking to settle the score with somebody, they didn find that person and th they encountered these girls. one of them had apparently taunted them on facebook and sol theyd her and they killed her friend just because she was there with her. >> this set off a chain reaction, because for the very first time, you're not seeing

rival gang members being murdered, and that usually was what was happening. now you have two girls, just viciously and senselessly beaten and murdered. and that's when the suffolk county police went into overdrive. teenage girls, an act of savagery on this community, and they're asking for the public's help. >> immediately after, police officers going dooto-door to try to get more information and the police commissioner himself going out at one point and asking the community directly that if someone knew something, they were almost in an obligation to say something. >> we are going to be enhancing our presence here to target those individuals. >> narrator: getting the mmunity to help would be challenging. lations between the immigrant community and the suffolk county police have long been fraught. >> announcing a $5,000ard for information leading to an arrest. wh >> unfortunately, you have

a police department where the majority of law enforcent officers don't reflect the communities they police, when you have a lack of connection to the populace that you serve, there's a lack of empathy, if you will. >> the police dertment in suffolk county had created a climate of fear. people in the county who were latino felt intimidated in going to the police about mara salvatrucha. people said th they had been mistreated by the police and they were very frightened that rather than take their claim seriously, they'd simply be dismissed or maybe suspected of being in a ral gang. >> four members of the ms-13 gang were charged in connectionb to the sep slayings of nisa mickens and kayla cuevas. >> narrator: it would take six months for the police to find the suspected killers. in march 2017, law enforcement officials announced the manhunt was over.g amose arrested that day was jairo saenz, a young salvadoran who had arrived with the surge of minor

police say he became one of thed s of a local ms-13 clique, the westside sailors. >> ...a double murder, and according to law enforcement, most of the suspects arrested ie these nt cases were in the country illegally. >> narrator: we interviewedir jairo's exriend, a 16-year-old student at brentwood high. to protect her, we've concealede r identity. >> did you know he was a gang member? >> no. he... when we first stard dating he was nice to me, and everything. he would treat me go. he was respectful and everything and then after months he started changing. he was threatening my family, we went to the police. made a report. and then i got an order of protection so he couldn't get close to me or my family. >> narrator: despite the restraining order against him,

she says jairo threatened to kill her if she didn't go with him.ld >> he e that i had to be with him. so, i left so he wldn't... he wouldn't kill my family. >> where did he take you? >> at first he took me to a wooded area around here. 'cause no one was gonna find me there. no one would go in there. >> was he with other kids? >> yeah, he was with his friends.ld they we there, making sure i wouldn't leave. i was really scared. i thought i was gonna die. >> narrator: her parents filed a missing persons report. they feared jairo had taken their daughter against her will. she says for several weeks she was moved between the woods anda iro's house. eventually, she managed to escape and would discover that she was pregnant. >> how do you think the police handled your case?

>> they basically didn't do anything. my mom called the police officer, they told me they woulo for me. if they would've gone inside his house, they probably would've find me. >> narrator: the suffolk county police department told us that they actively investigated her disappearance and even went to jairo's house at least twice. >> ...members of the gang ms-13 appeared in federal court... >> jairo saenz is now awaiting trial, along with five other members of the sailor clique, for the murder of nisa mickens and kayla cuevas if convicted, he is eligible for thdeath penalty. >> law enforcement from multiple suffolk county gang-fighting units pledging to std behind a suffering community of school children. >> the savages who murnisa and kayla are now behind bars. >> narrator: commissioner sinie would see moment. >> if you're an ms-13 gang member, take a look behind me.

for every person her there's ten more. >> narrator: community advocates were skeptical. >> commissioner tim sini, in front of a helicopter, armed police officers, he makes this grandiose announcement that for every officer that stands in front of those cameras, there are dozens and hundreds that are going to make the annihilation of ms-13 their number one priority. >> we have promised to eradicate ms-13 from our streets. >> thiidea that you're going to sort of launch this repressive attack, and you're going to annihilate this gang, violence meeting violence is not going to solve this issue. >> and we remain fully committed to finishing the job. at say to them is, i am 100% committed, this department is 100% committ to bringing everyone to justice. and we will. this is not, "oh, i hope we do." we will, there's no question about it. >> ...on friday, four bodiesla

found on long , they appear to be linked to gang violence. >> narrator: a mon after the press conference, ms-13 would send their own message. the attack came on a tuesday night-- april 11, 2017. >> the phone call came in from the chief of detectives in suffolk unty, and when they say four bodies, your thought process is, well, they cameou acrossbodies. almost like a killing field. but no, that it was... they were fresh bodies was astounding. >> now plunging communities in long island into fear and terror. why aren't police...>> arrator: the bodies were of four young men who police believe had been lured into the woods by two girls. mike lopez, justin llivicura, jefferson villalobos, and jorg tigre were ambushed.ha they wered to death by machete, the preferred weapon of ms-13. >> they were beaten, they were knifed, they had machetes putup

their bodies savagely. >> narrator: relatives and friends didn't know at had happened. >> ...a distraught brother desperate for answers... ag narrator: when they received some worrying me, they suspected the worst. they went to the pice, but it was not easy. some were undocumented. is (speaking sp: >> narrator: while some family members were asked to fill out a missing persons report, others organizea search party. (speaking spanish): >> narrator: the brother of one of the victims discovered the

bodies. >> he calls his father, crying, hysterical, and his father is still in the police precinct, and says, "dad, i found them. he's dead.e theydead." >> narrator: jorge tigre was 18 when he was killed. his family says that for months, ms-13 had been harassing him. his mother, an ecuadoria immigrant who cleans houses for a living, would not a taut ms-13, but she told us about their lives. (speaking spanish): (interviewer speaking spanh): (sniffling)

>> i talking about illegal immigrants that were here that caused tremendous crime. that have murdered people, raped people.th 're getting the hell out or they're going to prison, and... >> narrator: a week after jorge tigre and the the others were murdered, president trump would make ms-13 a key exhibit in support of his immigration. agen >> we're not going to allow them to take over a block, a corner c of omunities and... >> they are utterly without laws, conscien, or respect for human life.

>> the last very weak administration allowed thousands and thousands of gang members to cross our borders... >> i knew they were going to capitalize on the narrative they've been promoting the entire election to sow division among the people of this country.n >> we've se horrible assaults and many killings all er long island.at >> i knew th they were going to use this particular cas fuel that narrative. and that's exactly what happened. >> and we're sending them the hell out of our country. >> narrator: we requested inrviews with president trump, his chief of staff john kelly, and his attorney general jf sessions. they declined. but sessions number two, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein agreedlk about the focus on ms-13. >> the reason ms-13 has been o priority this year is because the unprecedented growth of the gang, d the extraordinary depravity we see in some of the

criminal activity it cmits. but in terms of the overall objectives of the administration, our goal is to keep out the criminals in the first place. in fact, the majority of thems 3 members that we prosecute are illegal aliens. and a large proportion of them are unaccompanied minors. and people here unlawfully and pose a danger to american citizens are removed as quickly as possible. >> narrator: in late april, two weeks after the quadruple homicide, rosenstein's boss, attorney general jeff sessions, would accept an invitation to suffolk county. >> attorney general jeff sessions visited long island, new york today. >> i cled the attorney general, his office called me back a day or two later and asked me if i could arrange to ha him come in and i said, "yeah, absolutely." that was sending a signal to all of the federal officials involved that thisas now gonna be a top priority within the justice department. >> when the attorney generali cameink that really was a big boost to local law enforcement. >> i want to express my sincere

appreciation for what you do. >> it just felt like somebody cared and thate realizes that we are part of the solution and we're not part of the problem. >> and the president did make a promise to make america safe again. >> what attorney general sessions learned on that trip, about the need for support fro state and local law enforcement who were looking for federal help in prosecuting the cases and in deporting gang members so they wouldn't be around to commit more crimes.ar >>tor: attorney general sessions also focused on the influx of unaccompanied minors. >> they recruit unaccompanied minors. and every time they convert a young person to their depraved life of violence andrime, they steal those young people's future and our nation's future. >> all of a sudden, lo island is getting attention from washington. so, when jeff sessions came, we were all on edge, because we knew that things were gonna change. that we would become fearful of each other.

become suspicious of each other. >> ♪ say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here. ♪ >> outsidethere is a lot of protesting going on. and i spoke with pros who acid this is just going to open the floodgates forl profiling, for anti-immigrant sentiment, that's already been brewinin this county. >> they are illegals. any other country, you would bee at least j probably shot on sight, trying to cross that border. >> ♪ no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here. ♪ro >> we were psting the premise that these killings were reflective of the entire community. because we said, "you cannot usr this to ote this us versus them, immigrants versus citizens, english-speaking e rsus spanish-speaking se justice that does not serve our community." >> certainly, the current administration has done things that have made our job easier

and harder at the same time. the rhetoric that is often used h the immigration context, and the anxiety is npful. 'cause we want individuals t feel comfortable coming to police. >> where did this group come from? it appears related to our immigration policy, is that right? >> they've been growing by leaps end bounds, and a lot of peo associate that with these hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors. >> the rhetoric came from the nationalevel and it just percolated down. >> ...and they're as vicious as can be. and we've gotta stop the polircal correctness, go afte these guys, and get them deported. >> once you begin to connectan unaccompd minors with ms-13, that connection is what then creates that frenzy, right, of now, we need to do something about these unaccompanied minors. >> narrator: in suffolk county they had already been cusing on unaccompanied minors. >> schools are ground zero for

this gang problem. t and state doesn't step in to do something... >> narrator: by late 2016, local law enforcement began to look more closely at the new arrivals in the schools. school resource officers, who are police embedded inside thesc hools, would be given criteria to identify potential gang members. e this guylly don't anymore. you're going to see these guys. it's goingo be the kid in the skinny jeans, and the polo shirt, and maybe the chicago bulls cap. >> narrator: the criteria would be shared with the schools. >> this year, we have receivedpa more unacced children. >> they put on a presentation, they sw images of bandanas, or bulls horns. and they tell us that those are r ems that if we see the students wearingawing, that we should be on the alert, because it's related to a gang. >> parents are bei very aware of what colors their teen

students are wearing to school. >> narrator: and one by one the students were called in to thein prcipal's office. >> a nber of immigrant 15- and 16-year-old students wered suspende allegations of ties to the gang ms-13. w started to hear from parents who have had their children suspended from school for allegedly engaging in gang-- sttivity either making some gesture, hand gee or wearing a certain t-shirt with a go on it. >> i really think a number ofs these schopanicked. you may rationalize with all seese reasons as to why you felt you had to label tids or why you felt that they were gang members, right? ve eard things like, "oh, well they scribble 503 in their notebooks." duh. that's the area code of where they come from >> as for what got the three suspended, one wore a chicago bulls t-shirt to school. >> narrator: among thosear identified ely on was jesus. (j esus speaking spanish):

>> he was disciplined for having written ms-13 onis arm. .nd he, you know, adamantly denies the charg and also his school records show no signs of that at all. noke, there's no paper trail or anything, there'ocuments indicating that this event ever happened. >> narrator: then there waso' jairex-girlfriend. school resource officers at brentwood high suspected that her new boyfriend was a gang member. >> he got suspended in school , r a shirt he was wearingand we also got stopped by detectives, and they were accusing him of being a gang member. >> is your current boyfriend a gang member? >> no, he's not a gang member. >> how do you know that? tell m

>> he would never go out with friends or go out, he would go to work, from work to his house. or else he would go to the school. he had good grades, he was atu goodnt. >> narrator: junior would also be suspected.in in march, huon high school summoned his dad to a hearing. (junior speaking spanish): >> narrator: the school accused him of displaying -13 gang signs and threatening another student, which junior denies. >> they said, "look, we wanna t kes kind of simple. he's been accused of making signof ms-13. just sign the paper and we're going to suspend junior, and if he wants to come back to school, he can come back to school next year, 2018."

and geor, he signed the paper.e and as soon asgned the paper, it was just a snowball going downhill.ch >> narraool officials at huntington and brentwood declined to speak to us on camera, so we ked tim sini to discuss the criteria. >> what is the criteria? >> we don't publicly disclose the criteria, because if we dido wh officers and detectives are attempting to generate intelligence, ms-13 would be one step ahead of us. >> but that's what advocates and lawyers complain about. they say, "what if i suddenly showed up at school with a certain color shoe, and didn't know that that was the criteria, and then my son..." >> yeah, we're not rounding people ubased on the color of shoe they're wearing, and they know that. >> narrator: over the course oft a year, infoion compiled by school resource officers led to s.e suspension or discipline of up to a dozen te but the police knew that

throwing gang signs or drawing ms-13 graffiti in a notebook was not a crime. so they looked for other ways to tackle the issue. they turned to ice-- immigratio stoms enforcement. >> why do you need to even bring in ice? because the evidence isn't strong enough? >> for example, if we have intelligence tt they are a gang member, that's not necessarily a crime, right? becertainly being a gang mis not a crime, and the intel that we may have may not indicate a significant state cre. we may have something small on them, but nothing that's gonnal. keep them in j so if we perceive someone as a public safety threat, we utilize all of o tools, which include immigration tools. so we'll partner with the department of homeland secury to target them for detention and removal. >> a new crackdown on gangs in our area. the department of homeland security and ice say that they have arrested morehan... >> narrator: beginning in the summer of 2017, the partment of homeland security began a major operation against ms-13 on long island.1. >> this is 4..

>> narrator: it was dubbed operation matador. we spoke to angel melendez, the special agent in cha ice homeland security investigations. >> matador. the symbol of the ms-13 that they utilize is a bull or the horns. but there's three stages to a bullfight. thstmatador comes into the f stage to end the bullfight. >> a gang crackdown focused here on the iand, we've just learned that... >> police say 45 gang members, hacluding 39 linked to that notorious gang, been arrested in long island. >> narrator: in the middle of the crackdown, president trump himself came to long island to show his support for law enforcement. >> we cannot accept thisol vience one day more. >> this has been a mon-long operation targeting ms-13. >> and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of aa paddy n, you just see 'em thrown in, rough. i said please don't be too nice.

>> depending on status, they can also be subject to immediate removal from the country.e >> wll find you, we will arrest you, we will jail you, and we will deport you. >> h.s.i., for them, t not the end but the beginning of the crackdown on ms-13. >> narrator: operation matador relied on a series of ice "gang memos." the information in many of them came from school resource officers. we obtained copies of several of them. inasne, junior was identifie an active ms-13 gang member. (junior speaking spanish): (woman speaking spanish): >> narrator: four days after junior's gang memo was drafted, several black vehicl followed him on his way to church.

>> i got a phone call from george and he said that they took junior. they said, "we're taking the boy. we're government." >> narrator: in another memo, jesus was accused of associating with ms-13 members and beingf parte gang himself. >> lopez was observed having ms-13 written on his arm by huntington high school administration, assistant principal, as well as school resource officer, suffolk county police officer. >> narrator: in late june, ice came looking for him at the restaurant.as >> a truck waiting for him in the back of the restauran and when he walked out of work they picked him up. they took them out so fast.or >> narrator: wried he'd be deported, she hired a lawyer. cu >> these ms tions didn't make any sense to me. he was notriminally involved in anything. aw was perplexing. >> narrator: hisr saw problems with jesus' gang memo.

>> "polanco has been identified as an ms-13 member by the suffolk county police department gang unit." >> what do you think of this memo? >> i... number one, there's various mistakes on it. his name is not polanco. the other thing that was thocking to me was the fac there was no evidence provided. that was literally the only two pages they provided for me. >> narrator: we then asked ice about mistakes and discrepancies in another gang memo. >> that's an ice memo though, right? that's what it looks like? >> yeah, that's a memo. >> so, on this one it says tt this individual... (woman in background): >> well, but i have to ask this question. it says here that he had "503" written all over his notebook, t in the school files of this individual, it says that there was only one "503" drawn in the

notebook notritten all over the notebook. do you understand why there's a discrepancy? >> um... i could see where... what you're... what y're seeing and what, you know, i'm seeing it, but like i said, it's, you know, we don't... not all information known to us provided in these documents and i don't go into the detail l of these pendiigation matters. >> narrator: operation matador led to the round up of around 60 unaompanied minors, many from long island. those who were still under 18 were then sent to high-security detention centers around the country. it was part of a new directive by the trump administration. all unaccompanied minors arrested on gang-relatedti alles would be placed in the most secure facility available for minors. >> they get labeled dangerous people and they get sent across the country high-security

prisons, simply because of one suspicion. we think that these young people ayould be treated just the that any other young person should be treated. which is, they should have due process. >> narrator: some of the minors were sent to yolo county juvenile detention facility in woodland, california. but others, like junior, were taken to shenandoah valley juvenile detention center in virginia. >> they ended up sending him down to virginia.ai and george "arnold," he says, "they-they have my son." and i said, "well, give me the number. let me call and find out what's going on here." >> narrator: they called juni's immigration lawyer, dawn pipek-guidone. it was the first she'd heard at junior had been picked up. >> despite the fact that i was attorney of record on all immigration documents. before i was even notified, he was transferred down to virginia

to a secure facility. >> narrator: junior was held for months, without a hearing or being able to post bond. (g rge speaking spanish): (phone ringing) narrator: with the help of junior's immigration lawyer, they reached out to the new yo civil liberties union, anza organition that was already fielding scores of similar calls. >> during the summertime, i fmember our office would get calls almost everyday or so beginning around june or july where we'd hear from a family, sayiur kid was just taken from us. we don't know where he is." and so then 're calling around trying to figure out what the immigration attorney knows, and ne immigration attorney h idea as well. and that seemed to be a pattern that happened, you know, weeken. after week >> narrator: that summer, the

nyclu took on junior's case. >> in virginia, he was kept in solitary confinement, you know, where l he had in his cell was a bed, a toilet, and no window. so it was really a traumatizing experience for him. thiss a kid who has never be arrested, never been charged with a crime. there's no allegatio he committed a crime. but nonetheless, he's been in detention for fo months. (junior speaking spanish): (wom speaking spanish): (junior speaking spanish):

(woman speaking spanish): (junior speaking spanish): na narrator: junior was filly stepped down from shenandoah to a less restrictive facility in new york: the children's village. junior's lawyers asked for a hearing.ou and ld see a judge for the first time since his arrest.

cameras are not allowed inside the courtroom. but we hired a sketch artist and obtained a recording of the hearing. (woman speaking spanis >> junior. (woman speaking spanish) >> junior actually finally got a court hearing and we were served with the memo, very unsubstantiated information.in wecertain colors to school. ... allegations of throwing gang signs. i objected to it being entered into the record, because

it was an unsigned memo. and the individuals that had prepared the memo were not available. it is a big runaroun ironically, that hearing still doesn't allow the judge to release them. it's just a recommendation from the judge, or a finding that they're not a danger to the community, essentially. >> narrator: although the judge concluded junior was not a danger to the community, it was beyond her authority as anmi ation judge to release him from detention. >> three lonisland teenagers detained in california for months... >> narrator: most of the otherem minorsned in detention too without any scheduled court dates to contest the evidence.

>> is therlike a parallel legal system that applies to immigrants that doesn't apply to the re of the people that hold u.s. passports? >> the feder government seems to think so. but that's clearly wrong. under the trumadministration, the federal government really has been taking the stance that these kids have the burden toe show that theyt a danger, where in every other setting involving, you know, vulnerable minors, the burden would be flipped. it would be the government that would have to justify its actions. that's against our laws. that's against due process. >> ...arrested and accused of being gang members. but no evidence was ever presented. >> narrator: that summer, a lawyer with the aclu, went to a facility in california to meet one of the unaccompani minors being held there. >> this teenager who lived with his mother in suffolk county, he was arsted. he tried to ask to speak to his attorney and they didn't let him. they put him on a plane and shipped him to yolo county. and i really thought this was a shocking and outrageous conduct

and i wanted to get involved. >> narrator: in august, she would file a class action lawsuit against the trump administration on behalf of all the unaccompanied minorsho had been detained on allegations of gang membership. junior would be one of the 34 class members in the suit. >> the government can't take away your liberty. they can't lock you up. they can't take away yournl propertys they give you a hearing in front of a neutral person like a judge where you can hear the evidence against you and respond to it. >> lawyers say that kids have been accused of having gang affiliation with very flimsy evidence, and held in detention for months. is that something that concerns i think that's probably a very unfair characterization. the reason i say that is that at we see within the department of justice is an extraordinary level of due process that illegal aliens receive. that's why we ve a backlog of

more than 600,000 cases. so based upon what i've seen, i think we have pretty substtial due process rights for people who are in the united states unlawfully. m mue so than you see in many foreign countries. >> ...arrested on long island... >> narrator:ut three months after the class action lawsuit was filed, a federal judge in northern california ruled against the trump administration and sidewith the aclu. >> well, the aclu had filed suit on the ens' behalf. now a judge has ruled in favor of the aclu lawsuit. >> narrator: the minors arrested by ice would finally be given a hearing and a chance to contest the gang allegations.le >> now, a cof months later, 28 hearings have been completed under this court order, and 26 of those kids were released. what it says to me is that at least 26 kids were arrestedth t sufficient evidence, and that's... absolutely goes

contrary to, you know, what the nsnstitution requires, and what i think most ameriould believe in. ra >> nr: junior was one of the 26 minors eventually released. (engine arting) his father and his father's employer were waiting for him. >> i have junior mints. (laughing) >> thank you. (junior speaking spanish): >> oh boy. i tell you, it's a good day today. (junior speaking spanish):

>> narrator: but the class action ruling that led to junior's rease did not apply to detaineesho were 18 years or older, like jesus. we found him at an adult detention facility in new jersey, where he had already been held for five months. (jesus speaking spanish):

>> narrator: in december 2017, jesus was deported. (jesus speaking spanish): ♪ >> ...38 of the suspecte gangsters were pulled off our long island streets. but, some of the arrests were in maryland, where authorities say ms-1is also... >> ...lured the victim to a secluded area, and then stabbed the victim to death. >> more than 1,200 gang members have been convicted so far this year according to... >> ...gang members took advantage of glaring o loopholes laws to enter the country as illegal

unaccompanied alien minors.ca most tray, they have caused the loss of many innocent lives. >> narronor: coming to tline... >> ...tensions between saudi arabia and iran... >> narrator: the epic story of two of countries - saudi arabia >> the saudi's started the sectarian messnot us. >> narrator: and iran >> the iranians are the ones whx arrting terrorism. >> narrator: and their decades long battle for control of the middle east. >> is the sunni shia divide about to explode wide open? >> ...the shia feel reatened by the sunni... arrator: a two part frontline special "bitter rivals". >> go to pbs.org/frontline to learn about the history ms-13's rise in the u.s. >> the rise is linked to united states policy of deporting ex-convicts in mass. >> and more on how immigration policy is changing underes ent trump. >> and we're sending them the

kell out of our country... >> our goal is t out the criminals in the first place. >> then connect to the frontline communy on facebook twitter or pbs.org/frontline. >> frontline is made possible by lntributions to your pbs station from viewee you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting.t major supp provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. i more informatiavailable at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the fronts li social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. the park fouation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issue. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporti trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. d by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler.

with additional support from laura debonis and scott nathan, and chris and lisa kaneb. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other programs, visit our website p .org/frontline. ♪ frontline's "the gang crackdown" is available on dvd. to order, visit shoppbs.orgor avl 1-800-play-pbs. "frontline" is alslable for download on itunes. ♪

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