>>narrator: tonight, i am calling on the congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed ms-13... >>he notorious gang ms-13. >>...break into our country. >> theecruitment starts right out of the school. >> he says "these people are threatening that if you don't come with us, we're going toou hurt yfamily 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 acause them to be detaine their civil rights to be violated, and these are. children >> narrator: tonight on frontline, "the gang

crackdown". >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corration for public broadcasting. major support is provided by th johnd catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at cfound.org. additional support is provided by the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org.io the park found dedicated to heightening public awarenessf ritical issue. the john and helen glessner family trust.ru supportingworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major supportd from jon ann hagler. with additional support from laura debonis and scott nathan, and chris and lisa kaneb.

>> a significant show of force today in nassau county. police converged on a field in roosevelt after they received a tip about a possible gg- related homicide. >> narrator: the bodies keep turning up. >> ...confirms the search stems from a possible homicide committed by ms-13, the violent latin american gang that has been a scourge on long island. >> narrator: teenagers mainly. killed in the woods. 25 corpses since 2016. and others still missing. >> at this time, we have not found or identified any humans. rema >> narrator: gangs have long been a problem on long island. >> i cannot comment on if it'sms 3... >> narrator: but why the sudden spike in gang violence?nk >> okay, tou very much. thank you very much. >> narrator: and how far will law enforcement goo win this war?

>> suffolk county polioday declared war on ms-13. c>> i consider them domes r rrorists. either they win, win. >> narrator: long island stretches eastwardrom new york city for about a hundred mes. the place is known for its beaches and mansions, but en route is a very different world. densely populated mmunities, which have become a magnet for immigrant families from central america. some are here legally. others are undocumented. and their numbers haan doubled in the last two decades.

it's also home to a vicious gang that haslaimed the lives of dozens-- mainly immigrants-- over that me time. (man speaking in spanish) this is the funeral for javier castillo, a 15-year-old from el salvador, believed to be one of the latest victims oms-13. >> ms-13, it's a salan 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. ait's just pure violence,nd that's, that's what they thrive on. >> narrator: law enforcementof cials here believe there are anywhere from 200 to 300 active ms-13 membs 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,u ok for numbers and letters. you can see, it announces their clique. brentwood. is th local salvatrucha clique. so it doesn't necessarily mean that it was in brentwood. it could be in another town, ann they're lethe other town know that, not only are we in brentwood, we're in your town also. you see here, you've got the s.l.s.w., which is the sailor clique, the ms-13 with the anchor. obviously in blue also. ey want to cause fear and panic in an area. >> narrator: to go after the the suffolk county police gang unit has been working overtime. >> ms-13 is the type of gang that likes to hang out in the woods. we go out every day, we hunt these guys.to they ssuspected ms-13

people. they engage themthey'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 al tell by the debris they leave all over the place, they're disgusting. they don't care about anything, they don't care about anybody,ea they l trash all over the place. they think this area is theirs, 's not. nothing is theirs. and over time, they know that they're not going to be here ymore. these guys are doing a terrific job, and they do it every day, relentless. n arrator: for the past few years, a perfect storm has been

brewing on long island. all began in 2014, when influx of nearly 9,000 minors, mostly from central america, started flooding i >> more kids thiyear over last year, they say that 95% of them arildren from the border. >> what happened? >> well, at that time wh we were seeing is a drastic increase in violence in central america. we were seeing that gangs had really taken over entire neighborhoods. children were being threatened and forcefully recruited into gangs under the threat of death to themselves or to their families.he >> narrator: ty came north as unaccompanied minors or u.a.c.s. local officials quickly felt the impact. >> since 2014, we have received approximately 5,000 u.a.c.s, and weave to deal with it on multiple fronts. some of these children need special attention in school.ma of these children need some sort of social services from the

, unty. and, unfortunateme 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 newro arrivals fm central america. 14-year-old junior had enrolled as a freshman starting in the fall of 2016 after flehe gangs of honduras. for his protection, we've concealed his identity. his father, orge, had come to long island a decade ago. he had told his employer, arnold, about his concerns for his son. >> george knew that his son, when he got to a 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 ain 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.ou not being fed . being held in these icy cold jail cells, which are only meant to be very temporary.

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

>> the recruitment srts right out of the 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, ney'd come here with real friends. if they did have a family member or if they didn't have a family member, and they wervery easily absorbed by these guys. it was almost like they were given a feeling that they have family now. >> narrator: another teenager, jesus lopez had enrolled at huntington high in the fall of 2014. he had fled the gangs of ellv or and arrived on long island at the height of the surge. (speaking spanish): ld narrator: at night he w work at a local restaurant. (jesus speaking spanish): o

>> narrator: he to of the chefs at work about the trouble he and his friends were having school. >> they were beingassled at school. you know, if ms wants to come find you and wants to art trouble, it's difficult to avoid. it just terrified them. >> narrator: junior also was terrified. ):(george speaking 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, "if you don't, ow, come with us and do what we want you to do, we're going to-- we're gonna hurt you. we're gonna hurt your family,

you know. we're gonna hurt your fath." >> the search is on this morning for two missing teens from nassau county. e notrrator: these w empty threats. >> the mother says her son left one night and then never returned. >> narrator: on long island, there had been a string of disappearances. >> her missing 19-year-old son. wooscar acosta disappeared weeks ago. >> narrator: teens who never ca home. >> our person of interest has been missing for two years. he's right tre. >> we were, at the tim 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 brentwood. >> a high school student foundad n this neighborhood last night, on the eve... >> i was in my den, i remember exactly where i was tting. 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 or by vehicles. you know, they used machetes, they used baseball bats. iey took it to a level th don't think anybody was ready for. >> their bodies were 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't find that persoand then they encountered these girls. one of them had apparently taunted them on facebook and so they killed her and they killed her friendust 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.an that's when the suffolk county police went into overdrive. >> these two teenage girls, an act of savagery on this community, and they'resking for the public's help.>> immediately after, police officers going door-to-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 indivials. >> narrator: getting the community to helwould be challenging.ee relations betwthe immigrant community and the suffolk county police have long been fraught. >> announcing a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. >> unfornately, when you have

a police department where the majority of law enforcement officers don't reflect the communities they police, when you have a lack of connectionop to the pace that you serve, there's a lack of empathy, if you will. >> the police department in suffolk county had created a climate of fear.e people in unty who were latino felt intimidated inhe going police about mara salvatrucha. people said that 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 rival gang. >> four members ofhe ms-13 gang were charged in connection to the september slayings of nisa mickens and kayla cues. >> narrator: it would take six months for the police to find the suspected killers. in mar 2017, law enforcement officials announced the manhunt was over. yong those arrested that day was jairo saenz,ng salvadoran who had arrived with the surge minors.

s-lice say he became one of the leaders of a local clique, the westside sailors. >> ...a double murder, and according to law enforcement, most of the suspects arrested in these recent cases were in the country illegally. >> narrator: we interviewed jairo's ex-girlfriend, a 16-year-old student at brentwooi . to protect her, we've concealed her identity. >> did you know he was a gang member? >> no. he... when we first startedda ng he was nice to me, and everything. he would treat me good. he was respectful and everything. and then after monthhe 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. >> he told me that i had to be with him. so, i left so he wouldn'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. they would be 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 willf she sa several weeks she was moved between the woods and jairo'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 would look for me. if they would've gone inside his house, they probably would'vefi me. >> narrator: the suffolk county police deptment told us that they actively investigated her disappearance and even went to jairo's house at least twice. >> ...members of the gang ms-13d appen federal court... >> jairo saenz is now awaitingl, trlong with five other members of the sailor clique, for the murder of nisa mickens and kaylcuevas. if convicted, he is eligible for the death penalty. >> law enforcement from multiple suffolk county gang-fighting units pledng to stand behind a suffering community of school children. >> the savages who murdered nisa and kayla are now behind bars. >> narrator: commissioner sini uld seize the moment. >> if you're an ms-13 gang member, take a look behind me.

for every person here, there's ten more. >> narrator: community advocates were skeptical. >> commissioner tim sini, in front of a helicopter, armed police offics, 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. >> this idea that you're going to sort of launch thisac repressive a and you're going to annihilate this gang, violence meeting violence is not going to solve this issue. a we remain fully committed to finishing the job. s, what i say to them am 100% committed, this department is 100% committed to bringing everyone to justice. and we will. i thnot, "oh, i hope we do." we will, there's no question about it. >> ...on friday, four bodies

found long island, they appear to be linked to gang violence. >> narrator: a month after the geess conference, ms-13 would send their own mes the attack came on a tuesday night-- april 11, 2017. >> the phone call came in from the chief of detectives in suffolk county, and when they say four bodies, your thought procesis, well, they came across four bodies. 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... >> narrator: the bodies were of four young men who police lieve had been lured into the woods by two gls. mike lopez, justin llivicura, jefferson villalobos, and jorge tigre were ambushed. ey were hacked to death machete, the preferred weapon of ms-13. >> they were beaten, they were knifed, they had machetes put

upon their bodies savagely. >> narrator: relatives and friends didn't know what haden ha. >> ...a distraught brother desperate for answers... >> narrator: when they received some woring messages, they suspected the worst. they went to the police, but it was not easy. some were undocumented. (speaking spanish): >> narrator: while some familyer mewere asked to fill out a missing persons report, others organized a search party. (speaking spanish): th >> narrator: the b 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. they're dead." >> narrator: jorge tigre was 18 when he was killed. his family says that for months, ms-13 had been harassing him. his mother, an eadorian immigrant who cleans houses for a living, would not talk about ms-13, but she told us about their lives. (speaking spanish): (interviewer speaking spanish): i ling)

>> i'm talking about illegal immigrants that were here that caused tremendous crime. that he murdered people, raped people. they're getting the hell out or they're going to prison, and...> arrator: a week after jorge tigre and the three others were murdered, president trump would ma ms-13 a key exhibit in support of his immigration agenda. >> we're not going to allow them to take over a block, a corner of our communities and >> they are utterly without laws, conscience, 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. >>e've seen the horrible assaults and many killings all over long island. >> i knew that they were going to use this particular case to fuel that narrative. and that's exactly what happened. >> and we're sending thethe hell out of our country. >> narrator: we requested identviews with pr trump, his chief of staff john kelly, and his attorney general jeff sessions. they declined. but sessions number two, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, ocagreed to talk about the on ms-13. >> the reason ms-13 has been our priority this year is because the unprecedented growth of the gang, and the extraordiny depravity we see in some of the

criminal activity it commits. but in terms of the overall objectiv of the administration, our goal is to keep out the criminals in the fit place. in fact, the majority of the ms-13 members that we prosecute are illegal aliens. and a large proportion of them are unaccompanied minors.er and peopleunlawfully and pose a danger to american citizens are removed as quicklyl as pos >> narrator: in late april, two weeks after the quadrupl homicide, rosenstein's boss, attorney general jeff sessions, would accept an invitation to suffolk county.or >> ay general jeff sessions visited long island, new york today. >> i called the attorney general, his office called me back a day or two later and asked me if i could arrange to have him come in and said, "yeah, absolutely." that was sending a signal to alt of federal officials involved that this was now gonna be a top priority within the justice department. >> when the attorney general came, i think that really was a big boost to lal law enforcement.

>> i want to express my sincere appreciati for what you do. >> it just felt like somebody cared and that he 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 from state and local law enforcement who were looking for fedal help in prosecuting the cases and in deporting gang members so they wouldn't be around toit coore crimes. >> narrator: attorney general sessions also focused on theac influx of mpanied minors. >> they recruit unaccompanied minors. and every time they convert a young person to their depraved life of violence and crime, they steal those young people's future and our nation's future. >> all of a sudden, long island is getting attention from washington. so, when jeff sessions came, we were all on edge, because we knew that things were gonna change.wo that wd become fearful of

each other. become suspicious of each others >> ♪ it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here. ♪ >> outside, there is a lot of protesting going on. and i spoke with protesters who san this is just going to o the floodgates for racial profiling, for anti-immigrt sentiment, that's already been brewing in this county. >> they are illegals. any other country, you would be ateast jailed, probably sh on sight, trying to cross that border >> ♪ no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here. ♪ >>e were protesting the premise that these killings were reflective of the entire community. because we said, "you cannot use usthis to promote this us them, immigrants versus citizens, english-sp versus spanish-speaking sense of justice that does not servour community." >> certainly, the cuent administration has done things that have made our job easier

and harder at the same time. the rhetoric that is often used in the immigration context, and the anxiety is not helpful. 'cause we want individuals to feel comfortable coming to police.he >> did this group come from? it appears related to ourat immin policy, is that right? >> they've been growing by leaps and bounds, and a lot of peoplei assoe that with these hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors. >> the rhetoric came from the national level and it just percolated down. >> ...and they're as vicious as can be. and we've gotta stop the political correctnes go after these guys, and get them deported. >> once you begin to connect unaccompanied minors with ms-13, th 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 focusing on unaccompanied minors.

>> schools are ground zero for th gang problem. and if the 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. l scho resource officers, who gie police embedded inside the schools, would be ven criteria to identify potential gang members. >> you really don't see this guy anymor you're going to see these guys. it's going to be the kid in e skinny jeans, and the polo shirt, and maybe the chicago bulls cap. >>arrator: the criteria would be shared with the schools. >> this year, we have received more unaccompanied children. >> they put on a presentation, they show images of bandanas, or bulls horns. and they tell us that those are items that if we see the studentsearing or drawing, that we should be on the alert, because it's related to a gang. >> parents are being very aware

of what colors their teen udents are wearing to school. a >> narratond one by one the .tudents were called in to the principal's offi >> a number of immigra 15- and 16-year-old students were osuspended on allegationsties to the gang ms-13. >> we started to hear from parents who have had theiril chdren suspended from school for allegedly engaging in gang activity-- either making some gesture, hand gesture or wearing a certain t-shirt with a logo on it. >> i really think a number of the schools panicked. you may rationalize with all these reasons as to why you felt you had to label these kids or why you felt tt they were gang members, right? ke i've heard things "oh, well they scribble 503 in their notebooks." duh. that's the area code of where they ce from. as for what got the three suspended, one wore a chicago bulls t-shirt to school. >> narrator: among those ids.tified early on was jesu sp (jesus speakinanish):

vi he was disciplined for written ms-13 on his arm. and he, you know, adam denies the charges. and also hischool records show no signs of that at all. like, there's no paper trail or anythingthere's no documents indicating that this event ever happened. >> narrator: then there was jairo's ex-girlfriend. school resource officers at brentwood high suspected that her new boyfriend was a gang member. >> he got suspended ool for a shirt he was wearing, and we also got stopped by detectives, and they were accusing him of being a gang member. >> is your current boyfriend a gang member?>> o, he's not a gang member. >> how do you know that? tell me.

>> he would never go out with friends or go out, he would go to work, from work to his house. else he would go to the school. he had good grades, he was a good student. >> narrato junior would also be suspected. in mch, huntington high scho summoned his dad to a hearing. (junior speaking spanish): >>arrator: the school accused him of displaying ms-13 gang signs and threatening another student, which junior denies. >> they said, "look, we wanna keep this kind of si he's been accused of making signs of 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 george, he signed the per. and asoon as he signed the paper, it was just a snowball going downhill. >> natrator: school officials huntington and brentwooded declino speak to us on camera, so we asked tim sinio discuss the criteria. >> what is the criteria? >> we don't publicly disclose the criteria, because if we did, when our officers and detectives are attempting to genete intelligence, ms-13 would be one step ahead of us. >> but thas what advocates and lawyers complain about. they say, "what if i suddenly showedp 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 up based on the col shoe they're wearing, and they know that. >> narrator: over the course of a year, information compiled by school resource officers led to the suspension or discipline of up to a zen teens. 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.ur theyd to ice-- immigration and customs enforcement. >> why do you need to even bring in ice? en because the ev isn't strong enough? >> for example, if we have intelligence that they are a gang member, that's not necessarily a crime, right? certainly being gang member is not a crime, and the intel that we may have may not indicate a significant state crime. we may have something small on them, but nothing that's gonna keep them in jail. , if we perceive someone as a public safety thre utilize all of our tools, which include immigration tools. so we'll partner wit department of homeland security to target them for detention and removal. >> a new crackdown on gangs in our area. the department of homelandce security and i say that they have arrested more than... >> narrator: beginning in the summer of 2017, the department of homeland security began an major operatagainst ms-13 on long island.

>> this is 41... >> narrator: it was dubbed operation matador. we spoke to angel melendez, the special agenin charge of 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 bullfit. the matador comes into the first stage to end the bullfht. >> a gang crackdown focused here on the island, we've jus learned that... >> police sa45 gang members, including 39 linked to that notorious gang, have been arrested in long island. >> narrator: in the middle of thcrackdown, president tru himself came to long island to show his support for law enforcement. >> we cannot accept this violence one day more. >> this has been a month-long operation targeting ms-13. >> and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just 'em thrown in, rough. p i saase don't be too nice.

>> depending on status, they can also be subject to immediate .removal from the country >> we will find you, we will arrest you, we will jail you, and we will deport you. >> h.s.i., forhem, this is not the end but the beginning of the crackdown on ms-13. ad narrator: operation mat relied on a series of ice "gang memos." the information in many of them me from school resource officers. we obtained copies of several o. th in one, junior was identified as an active ms-13 gang member. (junior speaking spanish): (woman speaking spanish): >> narrator: four days after junior's gang memo was drafted, several black vehicles followed

him on his way to church. >> i got a phone cal 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 m13 members and being part of the gang himself. >> lopez was observed having ms-13 written on his arm byin huon high school administration, assistant principal, as well as school source officer, suffolk county police officer.n >> narrator:te june, ice came looking for him at the restaurant. >> a truck was waiting for him in the back of the restaurant, and when he walked out of work they picked him up. they took them out so fast. >> nrator: worried he'd be deported, she hired a lawyer. >> these ms accusations didn't make anyense to me. he was not criminally involved in anything. it was perplexing. >> narrator: his lawyer saw problems with jesus' gang memo.

>> "polanco has been identified as an msmber 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 e ocking to me was the fact that there was no evideovided. that was literally the only two pages they provided for me. >> narrator: we then asked ice about mistakes and screpancies 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 that this individual... i (wombackground): >> well, but i have tohis question. it says here that he had "503" written all over his notebook,l but in the schles of this individual, it says that thereon wa one "503" drawn in the

notebook not written all over the notebook. do you understand why there's a discrepancy? >> um... i could see wher.. what you're... what you're seeing and what, you know, i'm seeing it, but li i said, it's, you know, we don't... not all information known to use is provided in documents and i don't go into the detail of the pending litigation matters. >> narrator: oration matador led to the round up of around 60 unaccompanied minors, many from long island.re those who till 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-related allegations would be placed in the most secure facility available for minors. >> they get labeled dangerous people and they get sent across the country to high-security

prisons, simply because of one suspicion. we think that these young people should be treated st the way that any other young person should be treated. which is, they should have due process. >> narrator: some of t minors were sent to yolo county juvenile detention facility in woodland, california. but others, like junior, were ken to shenandoah valley juvenile detention center in virginia. >> they ended up sending him down to virginia. angeorge said, "arnold," h 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.">> arrator: they called junior's immigration lawyer, dawn pipek-guidone. be was the first she'd heard that junior had en 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 virginis

toure facility. >> narrator: junior was held foi monthsout a hearing or being able to post bond. pa (george speakingsh): (phone ringing) >> narrator: with the help of junior's immigraon lawyer, they reached out to the new york civil liberties union, an organization that was already fielding scores of similar calls. >> during the summertime, i remember our office would get calls alst every friday or soou beginning june or july where we'd hear from a family saying, "our kid was jken from us. we don't know where he is." and so then we're calling arou trying to figure out what the immigration attorney knows, and the immigration attorney has no idea as well. annthat seemed to be a patt that happened, you know, weekend after weekend. >> narrator: that summer, the

nyclu took on junior's case. >> in virginia, he was kept in solitary confinement, you know, where all he had in his cell was a bed, a toilet, and no window. so it was really a traumatizing experience for him. this is a kid who has ver been arrested, never been charged with a crime. there's no aegation that he committed a crime. but nonetheless, he's been in detention for four months. (junior speaking spanish): (woman speaking spanis: (junior speaking spanish):

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

cameras are not allowed inside the courtroom. h but ed a sketch artist and obtained a recording of the hearing. (woman speaking spanish) junior. (woman speaking spanish) >> junior actually finally got a court hearing and we were served with the memo, very unsubstantiated information. wearing certain colo school. um... allegations ofhrowing 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 naround, 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 ryond her authority as an immigration judge ease him from detention. >> three long island teenagers detained in california for months... >> narrator: most of the other minors remained in detention too without any scheduled court dates to contest the evidence.

>> is there like a parallel legal system that applies to immigrants that doesn't apply to the rest of the people tt hold u.s. passports? >> the federal government seem to think so. but that's clearly wrong. under the trump administration, the federal government really has been takg the stance that these kids have the burden to show that they're not 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.in that's a our laws. that's against due process. >> ...arrested and accused of being gang memrs. but no evidence was ever presented. >> narrator: that summer, awy laer with the aclu, went to a facility in california to meet one of the unaccompanied minors being held there. ol this teenager who lived with his mother in sucounty, he was arrested. he tried to ask to speak to his attorney and they didn't let him. they put him on a plane and they shipped him to yolo county.ly and i rehought 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 tr administration on behalf of all the unaccompanied minors who had been detained on allegations of gang membership. junior would be one of the 34er class mein the suit. >> the government can't takeaw your liberty. they can't lock you up. they can't take away your u operty unless they give hearing in front of a neutral person like a judge where you can hear the evidence againstan yorespond to it. >> lawyers say that kids have been accused of having gang affiliation withery flimsy evidence, and held in detention for months. is that something that concerns you? s >> i think thaobably a very unfair characterization. the reason i say that is thatin what we see wihe department of justice is an extraordinary level of due process that illegal aliens receiv that's why we have a backlog of

more than 600,000 cases. so based upon what i'v, i think we have pretty substantial due process rights for people who are in the united states unlawfully. much more so than yoin many foreign countries. >> ...arrested on long island... >> narrator: but three months after the class action lawsuit was filed, a federal judge in northern california ruled against the trump administration and sided with the aclu. >> well, the aclu had filed suit on the teens' behalf. now a judge has ruled in favor of the aclu lawsuit. >> narrator: the minors arrested by ice would finally be given ah hearing and ce to contest the gang allegations. >> now, a couple of monthsr, la8 hearings have been completed under this court order, and 26 of tho kids were released. what it says to me is that at viast 26 kids were arrested without sufficientnce, and that's... absolutely goesra

co to, you know, what the constitutionequires, and what i think most americans would believe in. >> narrator: junior was one of the 26 minors eventual released. (engine starting) his father and his father'sit employer were g for him. >> i have junior mints. (laughing)ou >> thank (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 release did not apply to detainees who were 18 years or older, like jesus. we found him at an adultfa detentiolity in new jersey, where he had already been held for five months. (jesus speaking spanish):

>> narrator: in december 2017,wa jesudeported. us (jpeaking spanish): ♪ >> ...38 of the spected gangsters were pulled off our long island streets. but, some of the arrests were in maryland, where authorities say ms-13 is also... >> ...lured the victim to a secluded area, and then stabbed the victim to death.th >> mor 1,200 gang members have been convicted so far y thr according to... >> ...gang members took advantage of glaring loholes in our laws to enter the country as illegal

unaccompanied alieminors. most tragically, they have caused the loss of maninnocent lives. >> narrator: coming to frontline... >> ...tensions between saudi arabia and iran... >> narrator: the epic story of two of countries - saudi arabia >> the saudi's started the sectarian mess, not us. >> narrator: and iran >> the iranians are the ones who are exporting terrorism. >> narrator: and their decades long battle for control of the middle east. >> is the sunni shia divide abouto explode wide open? >> ...the shia feel threatened by the sunni... >> narrator: a twoe art frontlspecial "bitter rivals". >> go to pbs.org/frontline to learn about the history of ms-13's ri in the u.s. >> the rise is linked to a united states picy of deporting ex-convicts in mass. >> and more on how immigration policy is changing under president trump.

>> and we're sending them theut hellf our country... >> our goal is to keep out the criminals in the first place. >> then connect to the frontline community on facebook twitter or pbs.org/frontline. >> frontline is made possible b contributi your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. maher support is provided by john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the front lines of social chan worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical ise. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism nd, with major support

from jon and jo ann hagler. with additional support from ura 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 at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ frontline's "the gang crackdown" is available on dvd. -p order, visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800-pl. "frontline" is also available for download on itunes. ♪

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