美国国家公共电台 NPR Undocumented Teens Say They're Falsely Accused Of Being In A Gang

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The MS-13 gang is getting blamed for a spike¹ in deadly violence on Long Island, N.Y. La Mara Salvatrucha, as it's also known, actively² recruits kids. So schools are becoming a key battlefield in the fight against the gang. But WNYC's Sarah Gonzalez reports that as police ramp³ up surveillance, teenagers who are undocumented say they're being falsely accused of gang membership.

SARAH GONZALEZ, BYLINE⁴: When immigration agents picked up an 18-year-old girl at her home in Brentwood, Long Island this summer, they didn't immediately put handcuffs on her. They waited until after she got in the car. So the teen's mom wouldn't have to see it.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: No la pude abrazar ni tocarla.

GONZALEZ: The mom couldn't hug her daughter or touch her. She says it was heartbreaking.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Para mi una tristeza ver a mi hija ahi que por gusto se la han llevado.

GONZALEZ: Her daughter, a junior in high school, is accused of being a member of the violent MS-13 gang. The evidence - school officials found marijuana in her locker⁵. And she was, quote, "observed at Brentwood High School with other confirmed MS-13 members."

BRYAN JOHNSON: The classification that she's an MS-13 member is meaningless.

GONZALEZ: This is her lawyer, Bryan Johnson.

JOHNSON: What's the evidence to support that classification?

GONZALEZ: There wasn't enough for the judge. She let the teen go. According to documents in a number of cases reviewed by WNYC and NPR, information about public school students on Long Island - the clothes and colors they wear to class, what they write on a hat, who they talk to in a hallway - all of this is being used as evidence in immigration court that students are affiliated⁶ with MS-13 and that they should be detained and deported⁷. NPR agreed not to name the students because they worry that speaking out could hurt their cases. The teen from Brentwood is home now after spending a month in the immigration wing of a county jail in New Jersey⁹.

Hi. Nice - mucho gusto. Hablas un poco de Ingles?

She speaks really softly and knows very little English.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: I go to the bathroom, please? I go to the drink water?

GONZALEZ: The school that taught her those phrases - she doesn't want to go back there for her senior year.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: Tengo miedo a regresar a esa escuela.

GONZALEZ: You're scared to go back to that school?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: No se por todo lo que me paso solo por ir a esa escuela.

GONZALEZ: She's worried someone will accuse her of something else and that could jeopardize¹⁰ her petition for legal status in the U.S. She left El Salvador to get away from MS-13 when she was 16. She walked for a month and a half to get to the U.S. alone. Thousands of so-called unaccompanied minors¹¹ have fled violence in Central America in recent years and that classification means the government cannot turn them away. They must resettle them somewhere in the country. But if immigration authorities believe they're a threat or a danger, they can seek to deport⁸ them.

Johnson, her lawyer, has dozens of clients all unaccompanied minors who have been picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and accused of gang membership.

JOHNSON: None of them have been convicted of crimes. Keep that in mind. They have no criminal history. They never hurt anyone. They are from Central America. And this administration is hunting them in the false name of public safety.

GONZALEZ: Hunting them?

JOHNSON: Yes. They're going after these kids. Every week, it's like another child has been arrested by ICE.

GONZALEZ: Here's the thing - being in a gang isn't a crime. Police cannot arrest people for being in a MS-13. So officers on Long Island are assigned to follow 400 people they believe are gang members, and they wait for them to commit any offense¹². Police say the goal is to put MS-13 members in jail. But if they can't, officers call immigration agents who can detain undocumented immigrants even if they haven't been charged with a crime. One 16-year-old boy was sent to an immigration detention¹³ center in San Francisco. We talked on the phone. He says police followed him for months watching him.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: Si, muchas veces tambien.

GONZALEZ: They asked where he lived, where he went to school. They took his picture, fingerprinted¹⁴ him. And police were notified when he was suspended from school for doodling the numbers 503 in his notebook. It's the international calling code for El Salvador where he's from and where the gang, which started in Los Angeles, has ties. The boy asked to meet with the police officer at his school.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: Les dije que yo no era parte de ninguna ganga.

GONZALEZ: He told the officer he wasn't a part of any gang.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: No paso nada.

GONZALEZ: But nothing changed, he said. Then he was arrested. Police saw him on a soccer field fighting with a suspected MS-13 member. Now the American Civil Liberties Union has taken up his case and filed a class action lawsuit¹⁵ against the Trump¹⁶ administration. The civil rights group says immigrant teens are being illegally detained based on unsubstantiated evidence that they're gang members. And the New York chapter of the ACLU is investigating whether schools are sharing confidential¹⁷ information. School discipline records are protected by federal privacy laws, says Felix Adeyeye. He's with Brentwood schools where the two teens we just heard from are students.

FELIX ADEYEYE: We do not share our student records with law enforcement. And we're not in the business of immigration services.

GONZALEZ: But Adeyeye says police known as school resource officers are inside schools. And the district doesn't have a say in what they do. So WNYC and NPR asked Timothy Sini, the police commissioner¹⁸ in Suffolk County, which includes Brentwood, about student information ending up in immigration documents.

So this is it. The first page is just the ICE memo¹⁹. And this is the evidence that they list. So school resource officers mentioned here.

Sini says the information sharing is appropriate. He says the gang recruits in schools.

TIMOTHY SINI: Seems like there's a lot of evidence here that this person is an MS-13 gang member, and he shouldn't be in our schools.

GONZALEZ: Federal authorities say they're confident in their intelligence, too.

ANGEL MELENDEZ: There's just so much that we know.

GONZALEZ: Angel Melendez is the special agent in charge of ICE's Homeland Security investigations²⁰ in New York. He says the gang needs to be stopped.

MELENDEZ: After carrying out unthinkable violence, they can just go back home and play on the PlayStation or go to sleep? This is something that - it's hard to really wrap your head around until you actually see it and are really involved in it.

GONZALEZ: Homeland Security launched Operation Matador²¹ earlier this year to eradicate²² MS-13 in New York. Melendez says it's a reference to the final stage of a bull fight when el matador finishes off the bull. Bullhorns are the symbol for MS-13. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Gonzalez in New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHINESE MAN'S "ONCE UPON A TIME")

1 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

2 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

3 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 locker   

n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人

参考例句：

• At the swimming pool I put my clothes in a locker.在游泳池我把衣服锁在小柜里。
• He moved into the locker room and began to slip out of his scrub suit.他走进更衣室把手术服脱下来。

6 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

7 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

9 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

10 jeopardize   

vt.危及，损害

参考例句：

• Overworking can jeopardize your health.工作过量可能会危及你的健康。
• If you are rude to the boss it may jeopardize your chances of success.如果你对上司无礼，那就可能断送你成功的机会。

11 minors   

n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

13 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

14 fingerprinted   

v.指纹( fingerprint的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The criminal was fingerprinted in the sheriff's office. 罪犯在警长办公室里被取下指纹。 来自辞典例句
• They were then taken to be photographed and fingerprinted. 然后，他们被带去照相、留指纹。 来自互联网

15 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

16 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

17 confidential   

adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的

参考例句：

• He refused to allow his secretary to handle confidential letters.他不让秘书处理机密文件。
• We have a confidential exchange of views.我们推心置腹地交换意见。

18 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

19 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

20 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

21 matador   

n.斗牛士

参考例句：

• The matador and bull performed wonderfully in the ring.斗牛士和公牛在斗牛场中进行阗精彩的表演。
• The matador had a narrow escape.这个斗牛士真是死里逃生。

22 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。