-Source-Richmond-Times Dispatch-
“Is MS-13 overtaking a middle school in Md.?”
The question comes not from a Donald Trump tweet or some right-wing blog, but from the front page of a recent Washington Post. The story reports on the situation at William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale, Maryland:
“Gang-related fights are now a near-daily occurrence at Wirt, where a small group of suspected MS-13 members ... throw gang signs, sell drugs, draw gang graffiti, and aggressively recruit students recently arrived from Central America.... The situation inside the aging, over-crowded building has left some teachers so afraid that they refuse to be alone with their students.”
Nor is Wirt unique: “Dozens of schools from Northern Virginia to Long Island to Boston are dealing with a resurgence of MS-13, which has been linked to a string of grisly killings throughout the country.”
And yet, Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie provoked howls of protest last year when he ran campaign ads referencing MS-13. Critics scoffed at the idea that the notorious gang represented any kind of threat; George Mason University even cranked out a report to rebut Gillespie’s concerns. More recently, Trump’s references to the gang also have provoked pushback from liberal Democrats — not merely because he seemed to conflate the gang with immigrants generally, but also in some cases because his comments about MS-13 were considered too unkind.
This is ridiculous.
Immigration is not just a net gain for the U.S. but a vital infusion of fresh talent and perspectives. Immigrants — both legal and illegal — consistently commit less crime than native-born Americans. But that does not mean every foreign-born person in the U.S. is a saint, and pretending that MS-13 is a non-problem just because Republicans say otherwise is the epitome of knee-jerk, partisan cheerleading. Read more
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