Public Middle School Terrorized by MS-13 is a “Ticking Time Bomb”

A violent street gang energized by the steady flow of illegal immigrant minors is terrorizing a public middle school less than 10 miles from the nation’s capital while administrators cover up the problem and the feds ignore the crisis. Teachers are afraid, drugs are sold, gang graffiti litters the area surrounding the campus and gang-related fights are a daily occurrence, according to a lengthy mainstream newspaper report published this week. Most of the dozens of teachers, parents and students interviewed for the story refused to be identified for fear of losing their jobs or being targeted by the gangbangers that have taken over at William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale, Maryland. Wirt is part of the Prince George’s County Public School system, which has more than 130,000 students. “The school is a ticking time bomb,” according to one educator quoted in the article.

The culprits belong to the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that has spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs. Judicial Watch has reported extensively on how Barack Obama’s open border policies helped criminal enterprises like the MS-13. When the barrage of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) began four years ago, Homeland Security sources told Judicial Watch that the nation’s most violent street gangs—including MS-13 and the 18^th Street gang—were actively recruiting new members at U.S. shelters housing the minors.

A year later the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that the MS-13 is a top tier gang thanks to the influx of illegal alien gang members that crossed into the state under Obama’s disastrous program, which saw over 60,000 illegal immigrants—many with criminal histories—storm into the U.S. in a matter of months. At last count, more than 200,000 UACs have entered the U.S. through Mexico. The Texas Department of Public Safety disclosed in a report that the number of MS-13 members encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley sector increased each year, accelerating in 2014 and coinciding with increased illegal immigration from Central America during the same period. When dozens of MS-13 members were indicted in Boston a few years ago for murder, conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking, firearm violations, federal racketeering and immigration offenses, federal prosecutors revealed that the gang actively recruited prospective members in high schools situated in communities with “significant immigrant populations from Central America.” The recruits are known as “paros” and they are typically 14 or 15 years old, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). During a tryout period, they must engage in violent criminal activity before becoming a full-fledged MS-13 member.

At the Maryland school a short drive from the White House MS-13 aggressively recruits students recently arrived from Central America, sources say in the news story. One eighth-grader said the gang “dominates the school.” Teachers are so scared they refuse to be alone with students and many said they repeatedly reported gang activity to administrators who simply ignored them. “Teachers feel threatened but aren’t backed up,” an educator says in the news article. “Students feel threatened but aren’t protected.” Wirt’s principal declined reporters’ repeated requests for an interview, which is very revealing. The school’s resource officer, from the Prince George’s Police Department, declined to comment about gang activity on the campus. Records obtained by the newspaper reveal that as of May 1, police were called to the school 74 times. One parent predicts that “there’s going to be a tragedy at that school.” A teacher said the administration’s attitude about gangs is “don’t ask, don’t talk about it.”

It’s important to note that Prince George’s County, where the Riverdale middle school is located, provides sanctuary for illegal immigrants and defies federal requests to hold illegal aliens arrested for state crimes until immigration agents pick them up. Besides Prince George’s County, three other large Maryland jurisdictions shields illegal aliens from the feds and deportation—Montgomery and Baltimore counties as well as the city of Baltimore. Maryland’s Attorney General, the state’s chief law enforcement official, issued a legal memo last year defending the practice. Complying with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers for criminal illegal aliens is voluntary, the Attorney General writes in the document, and state and local law enforcement officials are potentially exposed to liability if they hold someone beyond the release date determined by state law.