[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 123 (Monday, July 30, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H8823]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SANCTUARY CITIES FOR MS-13?

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, the violent El Salvadorian gang, MS-13, 
continues to spread violence in American cities. These thugs started in 
the eighties and have caused murder and mayhem in Central America. The 
son of a Honduran president was kidnapped and murdered in 1997. In 
2002, gang members gunned down 28 people, including seven kids, on a 
school bus in Tegucigalpa.
  Experts now say these gangsters are the number one problem in Central 
American countries. Recently, even Mexico stepped up campaigns to 
arrest these criminals, claiming them to be a threat to national 
security.
  The brutal MS-13 gang has acted in major cities in the United States 
and are involved in everything from drug and human smuggling to murder. 
Many of these gangsters are illegally in the United States. Ironically, 
many major cities that are sanctuary cities for illegals, all in the 
name of compassion, are hotbeds for MS-13. These cities make law 
enforcement and deportation hard for the Feds.
  Mr. Speaker, cities that give aid and comfort to illegals should be 
more concerned about protecting the safety of citizens than harboring 
and hiding out criminal illegals.
  And that's just the way it is.

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