A leader of the violent Latin American gang known as MS-13 who faced murder charges in his home country of El Salvador was arrested in Maryland after entering the country illegally.
According to a press release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Jose Mojica Aldana was captured on June 15 near Annapolis, where he had been living.
Per authorities, Mojica Aldana is in ICE custody while his deportation proceedings are in process. The FBI was also involved in apprehending the gang leader.
“This is a significant arrest and a substantial hit to MS-13 in the Annapolis area,” said Lyle Boelens, field office director of the ERO Baltimore office. “Not only is Mojica Aldana a high-ranking member of the gang, but he is also accused of numerous murders in El Salvador. ICE ERO Baltimore will continue to work tirelessly with our partner law enforcement agencies to keep the law-abiding citizens of Maryland safe from predators like Mojica Aldana.”
The press release noted that on March 6, 2017, El Salvador’s National Civil Police issued an arrest warrant for Mojica Aldana for the crime of homicide. Investigation by ICE ERO Baltimore revealed that the detainee is a high-ranking member of MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, and a leader in their Fulton Locos Salvatrucha clique.
The release states:
On May 18, ERO Baltimore received information that Mojica Aldana was living in the greater Annapolis area and had ties to the criminal gang MS-13. Mojica Aldana had been charged with homicide in El Salvador in 2017. Further investigation revealed that Mojica Aldana is a validated MS-13 gang member and is part of the MS Fulton Locos Salvatruchos clique, a subset of the MS-13 street gang, that operates in the Annapolis area.
Back in June, Mojica Aldana was given a notice to appear with immigration authorities over inadmissibility under Section 212(a)(6)(A)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
Mojica Aldana’s case highlights the danger illegal migration poses to American citizens. He was initially sought for mere immigration crimes for having entered the country without permission. Eventually, authorities realized they were dealing with something much bigger — with a leader within one of the world’s most violent gangs, an organization whose motto is “Kill, Rape, Control.”
How many other situations are there like Mojica Aldana’s? Of illegal aliens with dangerous criminal pasts who fly under the radar and walk freely among law-abiding Americans? Because they are entering the country illegally, there is no control and thus no definitive way to quantify the number of dangerous individuals who are virtually being granted free entry with the current lax immigration policy.
Sadly, the MS-13 plague has spread to all corners of America. In a recent case in federal court trying an MS-13 member accused of brutally killing a 15-year-old boy, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York called MS-13 “the most violent criminal organization on Long Island.”
“A majority of those MS-13 members have been convicted on federal racketeering charges for participating in murders, attempted murders, and assaults,” the Justice Department’s press release for the case reads.
The Trump administration directly sought to curtail MS-13’s influence domestically and abroad, with Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, vowing to “devastate” the gang and even traveling to El Salvador — the original home of MS-13 — to participate in several meetings with the government there to foment cooperation in taking down the criminal group.
But the Biden White House has taken a 180-degree turn on the migration issue, allowing an explosion of unchecked migration that has led to even the United Nations calling America’s southern border “the deadliest land crossing in the world.”
And it isn’t just MS-13 that’s essentially getting a pass from the current administration. Biden last year took flak from his own party when he removed the Colombian Marxist terror group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) from a list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Of course, Democrats claim their immigration policies are born out of benevolence and altruism, the desire to be kind to foreigners (and to fight back against Republicans’ alleged “racism”). But whatever the intention, the reality is that open borders hurt both migrants and, most importantly, the American citizens politicians are supposed to be trying to protect.
