This resource guide attempts to offer attorneys, immigrant activists, policymakers and human rights workers the facts necessary to understand the complicated and nuanced phenomenon of gangs in Central America and gang-related asylum cases. Growing numbers of people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are seeking asylum in the United States due to gang-related persecution. With this manual, drawing on our expertise on gangs in Central America, we offer the most current information available on gangs to assist advocates who represent people seeking asylum because they were victims of gang violence, were formerly involved with gangs and fear reprisal, or both.
In recent years gang violence in Central America has been of concern to U.S. Congress because of its effects in the United States.
The anti-gang laws enforced by El Salvador or Honduras have not helped to reduce the number of violent crimes in these countries.
Examines legislation introduced to increase cooperation among U.S., Mexican, and Central American officials in the tracking of gang activity and in the handling of deported gang members.
A year-long study of Central American youth gangs provides a concise executive summary as well as country-specific reports.
While the nature of youth gangs varies from country to country, they are a serious threat to public security in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
In El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, government responses have focused heavily on repressive law enforcement strategies. This strategy has been counter-productive. Gangs have grown more organized in response to hard-line police approaches, and public security has not improved.
Whereas gang activity used to be territorially confined to local neighborhoods, globalization, sophisticated communications, technologies, and travel patterns have facilitated the expansion of gang activity across neighborhoods, cities, and countries.
Factors driving gang activity include a lack of educational and economic opportunities, marginalized urban areas, intra-familial violence and family disintegration, easy access to drugs and firearms, overwhelmed and ineffective justices systems, and the "revolving door" along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Background information about the origins of violence in Central America as a means to understand the current dynamics within the region.
The study analyzes the framework of violence in Central America to further develop potential approaches to violence reduction, doing so by designing strategies of co-operation within the countries of the region.
A study of the categorization, origins, costs, consequences and policy approach to violence reduction with focal reviews on Guatemala and Colombia
Moser analyzes the effects of globalization and the spread of neo-liberalism as contributing factors to the increased social polarization which has pushed aside the “disconnected” towards violence and crime.
The author defines violence in multiple contexts, with this facilitating their deconstruction. She understands the underlying factors of violence to differ, and for this reason they must be studied individually.
A world study of the changing livelihoods of those affected by violence fear and insecurity in post conflict regions.
Author analyzes resource inequality, the impact of migration, rapid urbanization, spatial organization and the transformation of state governance within the context of violence and insecurity.
Youth gangs have grown over last decade from 30,000 to 250,000 members in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala
Pinheiro suggests that the root causes of gang violence have been poverty and lack of education, housing, food, healthcare and broken homes; generally, the gang problem is a direct and indirect result of civil war
WHO report states that violence prevention programs are ineffective and costly; “A number of studies from the United States estimate that providing graduation incentives for high-risk youth and parent training for new parents are, respectively, between seven- and five-times more cost-effective in preventing violence than investing in increased legal enforcement and incarceration.”
Provides a historical overview of Central American gang violence and patterns in gang-based asylum claims, and information about important gang-based asylum cases. Also lists resources for finding country conditions information. Appendices have information about helpful resources, important guerilla cases and popular gang tattoos.
U.S.initiated Operation Community Shield (OCS) in March 2004, as domestic anti-gang program to “deter, disrupt and dismantle gang operations,"since OCS launched its War on Gangs in 2004, 1,415 individuals have been arrested
Gang experts argue that the factors leading youth to join gangs are broken families, poor performance in school, social exclusion, lack of economic opportunities
President Francisco Flores initiated his Plan Mano Dura in June 2003; this law established mandatory minimum sentences for youth convicted of gang membership and made gang membership a crime punishable with 3-6 years of imprisonment; under the law, a gang member was defined as anyone who “uses tattoos, symbols, or colors, to identify themselves, [and] meets habitually”
Youth are hesitant to seek help in organizations that aid disaffected gang youth, fearing the police will target them
“Mano Dura policies were not designed to deter gang violence, improve citizen security, or to strengthen democracy; the policies were designed to win the 2004 presidential elections and to rebuild the states’ previously dismantled repressive apparatus in order to maintain social control and to keep the neo-liberal project afloat amidst growing resistance movements to the CAFTA, Plan Puebla Panama, and projects to privatize water and healthcare.”
Studies show that children who are sentenced as adults are more likely to relapse than youth otherwise tried as juvenile offenders
“Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act of 2005” (S. 155), “Gang Deterrence and Community Protection Act of 2005” (H.R. 1279), and “Alien Gang Removal Act” (H.R. 2933) all acting to increase penalties on gang association, also increase transfer of youths to adult courts
David Cole states that H.R. 2933 “will empower the DHS to deport foreign nationals who have never committed any crimes whatsoever, and who have obeyed all of our laws, simply because DHS has determined that they are members of designated street gangs.”
Robert Shepherd states that S. 155 “flies in the face of what works with young people… the evidence shows that trying young people as adults exacerbates rather than lessons crime
Hispanic gangs prey on vulnerable Hispanic immigrant communities, offering security and camaraderie to those isolated by language and cultural barriers
Estimated 11.7% of prison inmates affiliated with gangs nationwide (13.4% of state prisons, 15.6% of jails); prisons are used to recruit gang members and proliferate gang activity Hispanic/Latino members make up 49% of gangs in U.S. (2001 report), which had increased 2% since 1999
Deported gang members only extend the criminal network internationally, since they maintain ties to fellow members in U.S.
Crackdowns on gang activity in Central America might force members to US; “gang members are reportedly using the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Temporary Protective Status (TPS) to remain in the United States and avoid gang persecution in Central America.”
LA gangs now have links to 130,000-300,000 members in Mexico and Central America
“Although no hard evidence links them with terrorist networks, transnational gangs could provide a source of willing young collaborators.”
Disproportionate growth of gangs is a huge concern: in 1970, only 270 cities reported gangs; in 1998, 2,500 cities reported gangs
“Foreigners unprepared to compete in an adopted society find survival and integration especially tough. Children may be scattered. In 2004, U.S. authorities caught some 10,000 unaccompanied juveniles trying to cross the southwest border hoping to join relatives already in the States. Gangs offer stability, identity, status, and protection for youths who have no parents or who must spend most of their time on the streets.”
Salvadoran police send children to jail for 2-5 years simply for having a tattoo, joining a gang, or using gang hand signals July 2003-2004, Salvadoran police registered 19,275 gang-related arrests
El Salvador’s prison population has doubled 12,000 inmates (40% who are gang members)
More than 150 MS-13 gang members have been arrested since for immigration violations, since the beginning of OCS
“Every criminal organization that can exploit the border is viewed as a potential security threat. In recent months, there have been uncorroborated reports in the media an d from foreign governments of possible links between Al-Qaeda and MS-13. Neither ICE nor any other US Government agency has credible evidence to support these reports.”
Comprehensive overview of gang activities across the US, and the various task forces created by the FBI to control spreading gang violence Estimated 30,000 gangs and 800,000 gang members are affecting 2,500 US communities
US deportation of MS-13 and 18th Street gang members back to their countries of origin is partially responsible for the increasing gang activity in those countries
36,000 members (mareros) in 112 gangs across Honduras Alleged 20,000 MS-13 members in USA; totaling 96,000 members in hemisphere
Maras have overwhelmed Honduran government, and now act as a government agency themselves, demanding taxes from population in certain areas
Former Honduran President Maduro instituted Mano Dura (Iron Fist) Policy in 2001 to annihilate mara activity: made gang membership illegal in 2003 (punishable with 6-12 years in prison), and increased police/army department to 8,000 officers
This extreme response by the Honduran government is against the interests of US National Security; “The concern is, that once the troops are back on the streets, and their presence is enthusiastically welcomed by the population, they may never leave again.”
Of maras deported from the USA back to Central America, estimated 65% return illegally
Congressional Sign-On Letter to Honduras, Paper by Caroline Moser and Bernice Van Bronkhorst, "Youth Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: Costs, Causes and Interventions", Informe Anual Sobre Justicia Penal Juvenil El Salvador 2004
In post-conflict countries, the rural-urban disparity in violence is either less extreme or reversed
Severe violence concentrated in poor areas, while less violent, often property-related, crime is prevalent in the wealthier areas
Youth gangs are an example of what links violence to construction of social identity
Both poverty and inequality lead to crime and violence, but national level murder rates have suggested that inequality plays a larger role in crime escalation
“Politicization of crime” is new causal factor for urban violence, where private non-state groups challenge the role of state institutions in state governance, and thus perpetuate violent behavior in social and political systems
Calls on DHS, ORR, and EOIR to take all steps necessary to ensure the well-being of vulnerable immigrant children
Refers to Edgar Chocoy's case, a child who was released to his home country after being denied his application for asylum and was then killed by a street gang in Guatemala
