The U.S. will step up its enforcement of illegal gangs like MS-13, as President Trump vowed Friday to ramp up mass arrests and deportations.
"I have a simple message today for every gang member and criminal alien that are threatening so violently our people: We will find you, we will arrest you, we will jail you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in front of a crowd of law enforcement officers in Brentwood, N.Y.
Trump spoke in Long Island as it's recently become a hotbed of MS-13 criminality.
"Since January 16th, think of this, MS-13 gang members have brutally murdered 17 beautiful young lives in this area on Long Island alone, think of it," Trump said. "They butchered those little girls, they kidnap, they extort, they rape and they rob, they prey on children, they shouldn’t be here, they stomp on their victims, they beat them with clubs, they slash them with machete, and they stab them with knives. They have transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields."
"They’re animals," he emphasized. "We cannot tolerate as a society the spilling of innocent, young, wonderful, vibrant people, sons and daughters. Even husband’s and wives. We cannot accept this violence one day more."
Trump also told police they "don't need be so nice" when throwing gang members into a paddy wagon.
"I said please. don’t be too nice; like when you guys put somebody in the car and protecting their head, you know? The way you put your hand?" Trump said to laughter. "Like don’t hit their head, and they’ve killed somebody, don’t hit their head. I say you can take the hand away, okay?"
Trump said the laws governing police/gang interactions are "made to protect the criinals -- not the officers."
"The laws are so horrendously stacked against us because for years and years we’ve been made to protect the criminal," he said. "Totally made to protect the criminal. Not the officers. You do something wrong, you’re in more jeopardy than they are. These laws are stacked against you, we’re changing those laws, but in the meantime, we need judges for the simplest thing."
The Long Island Republican congressman, Rep. Peter King, echoed Trump's sentiments.
"MS-13 is going to be destroyed," he vowed, "And were not going to worry about political correctness. "