The Trump administration’s campaign against immigration conflates the flow of undocumented immigrants from Central America with the growth of MS-13 – the brutal transnational street gang. The president and the attorney general frequently say that stopping the former means stopping the latter. Information about the four-decade-old gang, formally named Mara Salvatrucha, is scarce, but we know enough to dispel some of the misconceptions that have grown up around it.
Myth No. 1
MS-13 was created by Salvadoran ex-guerrillas.
The gang originated in Los Angeles, mostly in the areas of Korea Town, Pico Union and Westlake, in the early 1980s. It was formed by children of refugees
