Conceptual and empirical obstacles in defining MS‐13

• Author: Kenneth Sebastian León,Maya P. Barak,Edward R. Maguire
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12493
• Date: 01 May 2020
• Published date: 01 May 2020

DOI: 10.1111/1745-9133.12493

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT AND CRIME

Conceptual and empirical obstacles in defining

MS-13

Law-enforcement perspectives

Maya P. Barak1Kenneth Sebastian León2Edward R. Maguire3

1University of Michigan—Dearborn

2Rutgers University

3Arizona State University

Correspondence

MayaP. Barak, Department of Criminology

andCr iminal Justice Studies,University of

Michigan—Dearborn.

Email:mbarak@umich.edu

Research Summary: Past and present gang scholarship is

marked by debate as to the appropriate criteria for defin-

ing gangs and gang membership. Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-

13, highlights some obstacles in conceptualizing gangs and

operationalizing gang membership. Although MS-13 has

generated attention in recent years, little systematic crimi-

nological research exists on the gang. Drawing on in-depth

interviews and surveys of law-enforcement gang experts,

we link long-standing issues of gang definition and mea-

surement to MS-13 in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan

area.

Policy Implications: Gang and immigration enforcement

are inextricably linked in the case of MS-13. The ambigu-

ous, contested, and varied means by which gangs are

defined and labeled may result in the overpolicing and over-

criminalization of young immigrants of color and youth

of color in general. Beyond unsubstantiated police stops,

arrests, convictions, and gang enhancements, such labeling

practices may lead to collateral immigration consequences

including deportation and permanent bars to reentry into

the United States.

KEYWORDS

gangs, Mara Salvatrucha, MS-13, policing

La Mara Salvatrucha, commonly referred to as “las Maras” or MS-13, is a gang composed primarily

of Salvadorans and their U.S.-born descendants. The gang emerged in 1970s Los Angeles as a “stoner

gang,” eventually evolving into a traditional street gang (Martinez D’Aubuisson, 2015; Ward, 2013).

Although membership figures vary in their accuracy and reliability, the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s

Criminology & Public Policy. 2020;19:563–589. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/capp © 2020 American Society of Criminology 563

564 BARAK ET AL.

National Gang Intelligence Center estimates that MS-13 currently has more than 30,000 members

worldwide, of which around 10,000 reside in the United States (Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI],

2017).

MS-13 has been framed as the “most dangerous” and “most violent” gang in the United States

(Campo-Flores & Romano, 2005; Logan, 2009; McGuire, 2007; Ward, 2013; Wolf, 2012, 2014), and

the “most notorious” street gang in the Western Hemisphere (Velásquez, 2011). Discourse on MS-

13 can, increasingly, be found in a variety of outlets, including electoral politics (Davis & Chokshi,

2018; Dreier, 2018; Robbins & Shear, 2018), federal, state, and local policy (see Arana, 2005; Blitzer,

2017; Mather, Chang, & Parsons, 2018; Ryan, 2018; whitehouse.gov, 2018), and journalistic inquiry

(Chakraborty, 2018; Velásquez, 2011).

The gang is typically presented as an organization that both transcends and is external to the United

States—as evidenced by MS-13’s formal designation as a Transnational Criminal Organization (U.S.

Treasury, 2012) and public discourse on the “threat” of MS-13 sending members to the United States

from El Salvador. Yet, even though MS-13 cliques can be found around the world, with the largest

concentrations in El Salvador and the United States, the extent to which these cliques operate under a

unified organizational structure is unclear. Put another way, it remains to be seen whether MS-13 is a

“chain,” a “franchise,” or neither.

Some might argue that the political rhetoric surrounding MS-13 is arguably indicative of a moral

panic (see Paarlberg, 2017), or when a generalized feeling of fear—paired with a disproportionate

allocation of resources—is attributed to a perceived but overstated threat (see Cohen, 1972; Eitle &

Taylor,2008; Jones, 1997; McCorkle & Miethe, 1998; Skogan, 1995; Zatz, 1987). Although MS-13 is

a source of interpersonal violence and victimization among Latino communities in the United States,

it also serves as a pretext for policies to restrict migration and criminalize migrants (Beckett & Evans

2015; Zilberg, 2007, 2011).

Indeed, many conversations about MS-13 have little to do with actual crime. General references

to MS-13 have been interpreted, by some, as part of an instrumental partisan strategy for associating

Democratic migration policies with perceived Latino dangerousness (Davis & Chokshi, 2018; Díez,

2018; Valverde, 2018; Vozella & Nirappil, 2017; Zilberg, 2011). Renewed debate over immigration,

combined with high-profile cases of MS-13 violence in the past 5 years, has led to several policies and

programs intended to address the crimes of immigrants.

The recently launched Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office, or VOICE, for exam-

ple, “support[s] victims of crimes committed by criminal aliens through access to information and

resources” (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2019). Similarly, in 2017, the House of Rep-

resentatives passed H.R. 3687, The Criminal Alien Gang Member Removal Act, to facilitate deporta-

tions of individuals whom law enforcement “has reason to believe” are associated with gang activity

(H.R.3697, 2017). A year late, exceptionally violent homicides in Long Island, NY, prompted New

York Governor Cuomo to announce an $18.5 million-dollar initiative that emphasizes youth programs

and intervention services intended to disrupt gang recruitment efforts (Cuomo, 2018). Disentangling

anti-immigration sentiment from ostensibly race- and ethnicity-neutral justice interventions is beyond

the scope of this article, but such policies and programs underscore how real and perceived activities

of MS-13 can have profound effects on human lives and the allocation of millions of dollars.

At a minimum, public discourse and recent policy seem to be heavily influenced by outliers—

sensationalized but unusual cases of immigrant violence. In general, foreign-born populations in

the United States exhibit lower crime rates compared with native-born populations—a fact that has

remained unchanged for more than a century (Ousey & Kubrin, 2018; Sydes, 2017; Vaughn, Salas-

Wright, DeLisi, & Maynard, 2014; Wickersham Commission, 1931). Nevertheless, MS-13 does raise

substantive concerns for criminology and criminal-justice stakeholders.