>>narrator ctonight, i ling on the congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed ms-13... >> the notorus gang ms-13. >>...break into our country. >> the recruitme starts right out of the school. >> he says "these people are threatening that if you don' 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 significan number of ms-13 gang members who entered the united states asd unaccompannors. >> and the young immigrants who are being swept up. l >> anyone can eled and cause them to be detained, and their civil rights to be violated, and these are children. >> narrator: tonight on frontle, "the gang crackdown".

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>> a scant show of force today in nassau county. police converged on a field in roosevelt after they received tip about a possible gang- related homicide. >> narrator: the bodies keep turning up. >> ...confirms the search stems from a possible homicideco itted 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 not found or identified any human remains. >> narrator: gangs have long been a problem on long island. >> i cannot comment on if it's ms-13. >> narrator: but why the sudden erike in gang violence? >> okay, thank youmuch. thank you very much. >> narrator: and how far will law enforcement go to win is war? >>ayuffolk county police tod

declared war on ms-13. >> i consider them domestic terrorists. either they win, or we win. >> narrator: long island stretches eastward from new rk 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 commities, which have become a magnet for immigrant families from central america. some are here legally. others are undocumented. and their numbers have more than doubled in the last twdecades.

it's also home to a vicious gang that has claimedhe lives of dozens-- mainly immigrants-- over that same tim (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 of ms-13. >>s-13, it's a salvadorian 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. 's just pure violence, a that's, that's what they thrive on >> narrator: law enforcements officire believe there are anywhere from 200 to 300 active ms-13 members and out a dozen subgroups, known as cliques. brentwood, central islip, and huntington-- towns with large

central american presence-- are hotbeds. >> the graffiti marks a terrory. it announces to the community, that there is a gang in their area. when you look for gang graffiti, you look for different colors,or you lookumbers and letters. you can see, it announces theire cl the b.l.s. is the brentwood local salvatrucha clique. so it doesn't necessmean that it was in brentwood. it could be in another town, and they're letting the other town know that, not only are we ind, brentwe're in your town also. you see here, you've got the s.l.s.w., which is t sailor clique, the ms-13 with the anchor. obously in blue also. they want to cause fear and 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 that likes to hang out in the woods. we go out every day, we hunt these guys. te they stop suspms-13

people. they engage them, they're their face, there's no place for em to go. we make it known to them that we do not want them here, and we'rn doeverything 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 the debris they leave all over the place, they're disgusting. they don't care about hing, they don't care about anybody,ra they leave t all over the place. they think this area is theirs, it's not. nothing is theirs. and over time, they know that they're not going to be here anymor these guys are doing a terrific job, and they do it y day, relentlessly. r: >> nar for the past few years, a perfect storm has been

brewing on long island. it all beg in 2014, when an influx of nearly 9,000 minors, mostly from central america, arted flooding in. >> more kids this year over last year, they say that 95% of themn are childrrom the border. >> what happened? >> well, at that time what we were seeing is a drastic incrse in violence in centra america. we were seeing that gangs had really taken over entire neighbhoods. children were being threatened and forcefully recruited into gangs under the threat of death to themselves or to their families. >> narrator: they caorth as unaccompanied minors or u.a.c.s. local officials quickly felt the pact. >> since 2014, we have received approximately 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. viny of these children need some sort of social ss from the

county. fand, unfortunately, some 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. 14-year-old junior had enrolled a freshman starting in the fall of 2016 after fleeing the gangs of honduras. for his protectionwe've concealed his identity. his father, george, had come to long island a decade ago. he had told his employer, arnold, about his concerns for has son. >> george knew this 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 train that has carried hundreds of ousands of migrants to america. (junior speaking spanish): >> narrator: the trip lasted er 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 fed enough. 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 george, a his father's employer arnold, were waiting for him at the airport. >> he came over there with his little thing around his neck saying, "uccompanied minor," and... and george was ecstatic. (george 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 right out of the school. they'll approach you, "hey, 're part of the gang." a lot of these kids, especially the undocumented ones that came into the country, you know, they'dome here with really no friends. 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 i now. >> narrator: another teenager, jesus lopez had enrolled at huntington high in the fall of 2014. he had fled the gangs of el salvador and arrived on longhe island at thht of the surge. (speaking spanish): >> narrator: at night he would rk at a local restaurant. (jesus speaking spanish):

th narrator: he told one o chefs at work about the trouble he and his friends were having at schoo >> they were being hassl at school. you know, ifs wants to come find you and wants to start trouble, it's difficult to avoid. it just terrified them. >> narrator: junior also was terrified. (geoe 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 hous he says, "these people are, you know, are threatening me and telling me that, " you don't, you know, come with us and do what we want youo do, we're going to-- we're gonna hurt you. we're gonna hurt your family,kn

yo. we're gonna hurt your father." >> the search is on this morning for two missing teens from nassau county. >> narrator: these were no 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. oscar acta disappeared two weeks ago. >> narrator: teens who never came home. >> our person of interest hasng been missior 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 16, there was a brutal attack next to an elementary school in brentwood. >> a high school student found dead in this neighborhood last night, on the eve... >> i was in my den, i remember exactly where i was sitting. and we first received a briefing sheet on it, because

the injuries were so horrific, that the first hypothesis was at 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. they tooit to a level that i 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 person and then they encountered these girls. one of them had apparently taunted them on facebook and so thd killed her and they kil 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 murdered. and that's when the suffolk county police went into overdrive. >> these two teenage girls, an act of savagery on this community, and they're asking 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, meey were almost in an obligation to say ing. >> we are going to be enhancing our presence here to target those individuals. >> narrator: getting the community to help would be challenging. relations between the grant community and the suffolk county police have long been fraught. >> announcing a $5,0 reward for information leading to an arrest. when you haveely

a police department where the majority of law enforcement 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 department in suffolk county had created aea climate of people in the county who were e tino felt intimidated in going to the policabout mara salvatrucha. people said that they had beenmi reated 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 of the ms- gang were charged in connection to the september slayings of nisa mickens and kayla cuevas. >> narrator: it would take six months for the police to findll the suspected s. in march 2017, law enforcementci ofs announced the manhunt was over. yong those arrested that was jairo saenz, a young salvadoran who had arrived with the surge of mins.

police say he became one of the lileaders of a local ms-13e, 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 brentwood high. eato protect her, we've cod her identity. >> didou know he was a gang member? >> no. he... when we first started dating he was nice to me, and everhing. he would treat me good. 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. >> 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.ey eared jairo had taken their daughter against her willr she says for s weeks she was moved between the woods and jairo's house. eventually, she managed to escape and would discover thatwa shpregnant. >> 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've find me.>> arrator: the suffolk county police department to us that they actively investigated herra disappe and even went to jairo's house at least twice. >> ...members of the gang ms-13e appeared in l court... >> jairo saenz is now awaiting r ial, along with five other members of the saiique, for the murder of nisa mickens and kayla cuev. if convicted, he is eligible for the death penalty. >> law enforcement from multiple suffolk county gang-fighting units pledging to and behind a suffering community of school children. >> the savages who mdered nisa and kayla are now behind bars. >> narrator: commissioner sini would 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 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. w have promised to eradicate ms-13 from our streets. >> this idea that you're going to sort of launch this repressive attack, and you're going to annihilate this gang, violence meeting violence is noo goinolve this issue. >> and we remain fully committed to finishing the job. m what i say to them is, i0% committed, this department is 100% committed to bringing everyone to justice. and we will.t, this is oh, i hope we do." we will, there's no question about it. >> ...on friday, four bodies

found on long island, they appear to be linked to gang violence. >> narrator: a month after the press conference, ms-13 would se 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 county, and when they say four bodies, your thought process is, well, they came acss four bodies. almost like a killing field. but no, that it was... they were fresbodies was astounding. >> now plunging communities in long island into fear and teor. why aren't police... re narrator: the bodies wef four young men who police believe had been lured into the woods by two girls. mi lopez, justin llivicura jefferson villalobos, and jorge tigre were ambushed. they werhacked to death by 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 had happened. >> ...a distraught brother desperate for answers... >> narrator: when they received some worrying meages, they suspected the worst. they went to the police, but ita not easy. some were undocumented. (speaking spanish): >> narrator: while some family a members weed to fill out a missing persons report, others organized a search party. (sg spish): >> narrator: the brother of one of the victims discovered the

bodies. >> he calls his father, crying, hysterical, and his father isl st 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 ecuadorian immigrant who cleans housesa foving, would not talk about ms-13, but she told us about their lives. peaking spanish): (interviewer speaking spanish): ) (sniffli

>> i'm talking about illegal immigrants that were here that caused tremendous crime. that have murded people, raped people. they're getting the hell out or they're going to prison, and...o >> nar a week after jorge tigre and the three others werer murd, 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 of o communities and... >> they are utterly without laws, conscience, or respect for eaman life.

>> the last very w administration allowed thousand ousands of gang members to cross our borders... >> i knew they were going to capitalize on the narrative they've been promoting the enti election to sow divisio among the people of this untry. >> we've seen the horrible assaults and many killings all over long island. >> i knethat they were going to use this particular case to fuel that narrative. and that's exactly what happened. >> and we're sending them the hell out of our country. >> narrator: we requested interviews with president trump, his chief ofly staff john kand his attorney general jeff sessions. they declined. but sessions number two, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, agreed on ms-13.out the focus >> the reason ms-13 has been our priority this year is because the unprecedented growth of the gang, and the extraordinary depravity we see in some of the

criminal activity it commits. but in terms of the overall objectives of th administration, our goal is to keep out the criminals in the first plac in fact, the majority of the ms-13 members that we prosecute are illegal aliens.an a large proportion of them wfe unaccompanied minors. and people here unly and pose a danger to american citizens are removed as quickly as possible. >> narrator: in late april, two weeks ter the quadruple homicide, rosenstein's boss, attorney general jeff sessions, would accept an invitation to suffolk county.ne >> attorney l 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 i sai "yeah, absolutely." that was sending a signal to all of the federal officials involved that this was now gonna be a top priority within thest ice department. >> when the attorney general came, i think that really was a big boost to local law enforcement.

>> i want to express my sincere appreciation for wt 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 fromn statlocal law enforcement who were looking for federal help in prosecuting the casesep and inting gang members so they wouldn't be around to commit more crimes. ra>> narrator: attorney ge sessions also focused on the influx of unaccompanied minors. >> they recruit unaccompanied minors. and every time they convert a young pers to their depraved life of violence and crime, they steal those youple'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. that we would become fearful of

each other.me beuspicious of each other. >> ♪ say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here.♪ >> outside, there is a lot of protesting going on. and i spoke with protesters who said this is just going to open the floodgatesor racial profiling, for anti-immigrant sentiment, that's already been brewing in this county. >> they are illegals. any other country, you would be at least jailed, probably shot on sighttrying to cross that border. >> ♪ no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here. ♪ >> we wererotesting the premise that these killings were reflective of the entire mmunity. because we said, "you cannot use this to omote this us versusem immigrants versus citizens, english-speaking versus spanish-speaking nse of justice that does not serve ouro unity." >> 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 in the immigration context, and the anxiety is not helpful. 'cause we want individuals to feel comfortable coming to police. >> where did this group come from? it appears related to our immigration policy, is that right?gr >> they've beeing by leaps and bounds, and a lot of people associate 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 correctness, go afr these guys, and get them deported. >> once you begin to connect unaccoanied minors with ms-13, that conneion is what then creates that frenzy, right, of now, we need to do something about these unaccompanied minors. n >>arrator: in suffolk county they had already been focusing on unaccompanied minors.

>> schools are ground zero for this gang oblem. 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. u school re officers, who are police embedded inside the schools, would be given criteria to identify potential gang members. >> you really don't see this guy anymore. you're going to see these guys. it's going to be the kid in the skinny jeans, and the polo shirt, and maybe the chicago bulls cap. >> narrator:he 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 arei items thwe see the students wearing 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

students are wearing to school.b >> narrator: ay one the students were called in to the incipal's office. >> a number of immigrant 15- a 16-year-old students were suspend on allegations of ties to the gang ms-13. >> we started to hear from parents who have had theirus childrenpended from school r allegedly engaging in gang activi-- either making some gesture, hand gesture or wearing a certain t-shirt with a logo on it. >> i really think a number of these schools panicked. you may rationalize with all ese reasons as to why you felt you had to label these kids or why you felt that theyere gang members, right? ve heard things like, "o well they scribble 503 in their notebooks." duh. that's the area code of where they come fromfo >> awhat got the three suspended, one wore a chicago bulls t-shirt to school. >> narrator: among those identifi early on was jesus. (jesus speaking spanis

>> he wadisciplined for having written ms-13 on his arm. and , you know, adamantly denies the charges. and also his school cords show no signs of that at all. like, there's no paper trail or anything, there'no documents indicating that this event ever happened. >> narrator: then there was jao's ex-girlfriend. school resource officers at brentwood high suspected that her new boyfriend was a gang member. >> he got suspended in school for a shirt he was weang, and we also got stopped by detectives, and they were accusi him of being a gang member. >> is your current boyfriend a gang member? h >> ns not a gang member. >> how do you know that? tell me.

>> he would never go out with friends or go out, he would gowo to work, fro to his house. or else he would go to the school. he had good grades, he was a go student. >> narrator: junior would also be suspected. in march, ntington high school summoned his dad to a hearing. (j ior speaking spanish): >> narrato the school accused him of displaying ms-13 gang signs and threateninghe anstudent, which junior denies. >> they said, "look, we wanna ke this kind of simple. 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, can come back to school next year, 2018."

and george, he signed the paper. and as soon he signed the paper, it was just a snowball ing downhill. >> narrator: school officials at huntington and brentwood declined to speak to us on camera, so we asked tim sini to discuss the criteria.>> hat is the criteria? >> we don't publicly disclose the criteria, because if we did, when our officers and detectives are attempting to generate intelligence, ms-13 would be one step ahead of us. >> but that's whatdvocates and lawyers complain about. they say, "what if i suddenly showed up at sool 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 color ofe hey're wearing, and they know that. >> narrator: over the course of a year, formation compiled by school resoue officers led to the suspension or discipline of up to a dozen tes. but the police knew thatro

ng gang signs or drawing ms-13 graffiti in a notebook was not a crime. so they looked for other ways to tackle the issue. i they turned -- immigration and customs enforcement. >> why do you need to even bring in ice? because the evidence i strong enough? >> for example, if we have intelligence that they are a m gaber, that's not necessarily a crime, right? certainly being a gang mber 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. so if we perceive someone as a liblic safety threat, we u all of our tools, which include immigration tools. soe'll partner with the department of homeland security to target them for detention and removal. >> a new crackdown on gangs in our area. the department of homeland security and ice sayt they have arrested more than... n >>rator: beginning in the summer of 2017, the department of homeland security began a major operation agaims-13 on long island.

>> ts is 41... >> narrator: it was dubbed operation matador.l we spoke to anlendez, the special agent in charge of ice homeland securityin stigations. >> matador. the symbol of the ms-13 that they utilize ia bull or the horns. but there's three stages to a bullfight. the matador comes into t first stage to end the bullfight. an >>g crackdown focused here on the island, we've just learned that... >> police say 45 ganmembers, including 39 linked to that notorious ganghave been arrested in long island. >> narrator: in the middle of the crackdow president trump mself came to long island to show his support for law enforcement. >> we cannot accept this violence one day mor >> this has been a month-long operation targeting ms-13. >> and when you see these ugs being thrown into the back of a paddy gon, you just see 'em thrown in, rough. i said please don't be too nice.

>> depending on status, they cal 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., for them, this is not the end but the beginning of the crackdown on ms-13. >> narrator: operation matador relied on a series of ice "gange s." the information in many of them came froschool resource officers. we obtained copies of several of them. 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 me was drafted, several black vehies followed

him on his way to church. >> i got a phone call fromge gend he said that they took junior. they said, "we're taking the boy. we're government." >> narrator: in another memo,se jesus was accud of associating with ms-13 members and being part of the gang himself. >> lopez was observed having ms-13 written on his arm byig huntingtonschool administration, assistant principal, as well as schoolce resofficer, suffolk county police officer. >> narrator: in late ice came looking for him at the restaurant. >> a truckas 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. >> narrator:orried he'd be deported, she hired a lawyer. >> these maccusations didn't make any sense to me. he was not criminally involved in anything. it was perplexing. >> narrator: h lawyer saw problems with jesus' gang memo.

>> "polanco has been identifiedr as an ms-13 mey 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 shocking to me was the ft that there was no evidence provided. that was literally thenly two pages they provided for me. >> narrator: we then asked ice about mistakes andre dincies 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... (woman in background): >> well, but i have to ask this question. it says here that he had "503" written all over his notebook, but in the school fi this individual, it says that therene was only503" drawn in the

notebook not written all over the notebook. do you understand why there's a discrepancy? >> um... i could see where... what you're... what you're seeing and at, you know, i'm seeing it, but like i said, it's, you know, we don't... not all information known to us is provided in theseents and i don't go into the detail of these penng litigation matters. >> narrator: operation matador led to the round up of around 60 unaccompanied minors, many llom long island. those who were snder 18se were then nt to high-security detention centers arou the country. it was part of a new directivemp by the tdministration. 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 just the way that any other young person should be tread. 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 dettion center in virginia. >> they ended up sending him down to virgin. and george said, "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."r: >> narrahey called junior's immigration lawyer, dawn pipek-guidone. it was the first she'd heard that junior had been pd 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 ab to post bond. (george speaking spanish): (phone ringing) >> narrator: with the help of junior's immigration lawyer, they reached out to the new yore civil liies union, an organization that was already fielding scores of similar calls. g >> durine summertime, i remember our office would get e lls almost eve friday or so beginning around j july where we'd hear from a family sayi, "our kid was just take from us. we don't know where he is." and so then we're calling around trying to figure out what the immigration torney knows, and the immigration attorney has no idea as well. and that smed to be a pattern that happened, you know, weekend after weekend. >> narrator: that summer, the

nyclu took on junior's case. >> in virginia, he was kept inta so 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 never been arrested, never been charged with a crime. there's no allegatn that he committed a crime. but nonetheless, he's been in detention for four months. (junior speaking spanish): (woman speaking spanish): (junior speaking spanish):

(woman speaking spanish): (junior speaking spanish): >> narrator: junior wafinally 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 t first time since his arrest.

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

it was an unsigned memo.di and the duals that had prepared the memo were not available. it is a big runarod, 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 an seimmigration judge to relim from detention. >> three long island teenagers detained in california for months... >> narrator: most of the other mino remained in detention t 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 that ho u.s. passports? >> the federal government seems to think so. but that's clearly wrong. under the trump administration, the federal government really has been taking the stance that these kids have the burden to show that th're not a danger, where in every other setting involving, you know, vulnerablei rs, the burden would be flipped. it would be the government that would have to justify 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, aer lawyith the aclu, went to a mecility in california to one of the unaccompanied minors being held there. >> this teenager who lived with his mother in suffolk county, he was arrested. he tried to ask to speak to his attorney and they didn't let him. they put him on a plane d they ipped him to yolo county. ht and i really thoughis was a shocking and outrageous conduct

and i wanted to get involved. >> narrator: in august, shed wole a class action lawsuit against the trump administration on behalf of all the unaccompanied minors who had been detained on allegations of gang membership. junior would be one of the 34 class members in theuit. >> the government can't takeou awayliberty. they can't lock you up. they can't take away your proper unless 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 haveha been accused ong gang affiliation with very flimsy evidence, and held in detentio for months. is that something that concerns you? >> i think that's pr a very unfair characterization. the reason i say that is that what we see within t department of justice is an extraordinary level of due process that illegal aliens receive. that's why we have a backlog ofo

than 600,000 cases. so based upon what i've seen, i think we have pretty substantial due process rights for people who are in the united states unlawfully. ch more so than you see 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 agait the trump administrati and sided with the aclu. w l, the aclu had filed suit on the teens' behalf. now a judge has ruled in favor of the aclu lawsuit. >> narrator: the minors arrestee byould finally be given a hearing and a chance to contest the gang allations. >> now, a couple of monthsin later, 28 he 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 arrested athout sufficient evidenc that's... absolutely goes y

contrary t know, what the constitution require and what i think most americans would believe in. >>arrator: junior was one the 26 minors eventually released. (engine starting) his father and his father's employer were waiting for him. >> i have junior mints. (laughing) >> thank you. (junior speaking spash): >> 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. i found him at an adult detention facilinew jersey, where he had already been held for five months. (jesus speaking spanish):

>> narrator: in december 2017,rt jesus was de. (jesus speaking spanish): ♪ >> ...38 of the suspected 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.00 >> more than 1ang members have been convicted so farco this year ing to... >> ...gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes our laws to enter the country as illegal

unaccompanied alien minors most tragically, they have caused the loss of many innoce lives. >> narrator: allegations swirled around this reservation doctor for years. >> when i went downstairs was when i was floored because of what i saw there a lot of items that boys would play with.ro >> narrator: fline and the wall street journal investigate the gotornment's failure to decades of abuse. >> why protect a pedophile?kn if they about it why did they protect him? >> narrator: despite the warnings... >> what kind of cover up is this? this involves a lot ofe in a lot of high places. >> go to pbs.org/frontline for the latest on the fight against ms-13. >> we e making tremendous strides. this problem will be eradicated. >> ...and learn about the history of the gang's rise in in the u.s. >> the risis linked to a united states policy of

deporting ex-convicts in mass. >> ...more on how immigration policy is changing under president trump. then connect to the "frontline" mmunity on facebook twitter or pbs.org/frontline. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewe like you. thank you. and by the corporation for roblic broadcasting. major support isded by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more jt, verdant and peaceful world. the ford foundation: n working with visionariese frontlines of social change worldwide. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awaren critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy jourlism that informs and inspires. the heising-simons foundation: locking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities.t and frontline journalism fund,

with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other "frontne" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ to order "frontline's" "the gang crackdown" on dvd visit shop pbs or call 1-800-play-pbs. this program is also available on amazon prime video. ♪

♪ ♪ -you've said you'd favor middle-class tax cuts. -the front line is just up he. that's where the river... t -she took me those wetlands. -i think we're off to a great start. ♪ you're watching

narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," two cies-- freetown, sierra leone, and san francislifornia-- continents apart, vastly different turally and economically, yet facing the same struggle to adapt to rap urbanization, all set against the backdp of a dramatically changing climate. [film advance clicking]