U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) recently applauded Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ICE) announcement that “Operation Raging Bull” recently resulted in the arrest of 214 MS-13 gang members in the United States and 53 in El Salvador.
Of the 214 gang members arrested in the United States, 198 were foreign nationals, five were in the United States legally, and 65 entered the country as unaccompanied alien children (UAC).
Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, previously voiced concerns with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement about reports that UACs who self-identified as MS-13 gang members were placed in communities across the country.
“My committee received information indicating that in 2014, over a dozen unaccompanied alien children self-admitted that they were MS-13 gang members when they were apprehended at the border and yet the Obama administration still placed them in communities throughout the United States,” Johnson said.
ICE’s announcement demonstrates that MS-13 and other criminal organizations have exploited “America’s broken immigration system” to expand their reach, Johnson added.
“We must work together to apprehend these gang members and I applaud the Trump Administration for bringing these gang members to justice,” Johnson said.