REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
A ProPublica investigation revealed that an MS-13 member who cooperated with police and got his fellow gang members arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also now been arrested by the federal agency. Henry, originally from El Salvador, was a member of MS-13 and had the gang life follow him into Brentwood High School in Long Island. He wanted out and was desperate to escape after being forcibly involved in murders both in El Salvador and Long Island. He wrote up his life story, including the names of MS-13 members at his school, and gave it to his teacher. The police he worked with assured him that he would be protected, and Henry thought that he would be taken to California to enter witness protection. Instead, he was taken by ICE due to the specificities of what he told police in cooperating with him—which correlates with Suffolk County Police stepping up “its cooperation with ICE” and working to deport MS-13 members. Henry is still in jail, with some of the MS-13 members that he put behind bars and while some members were released due to lack of credible charges against them. This comes as President Trump and other top Republicans use MS-13 violence as a reason to step up immigration enforcement.