MS‑13 and Transnational Gangs

ICE apprehended Danny Antonio Granados‑Garcia, an alleged MS‑13 member wanted in El Salvador on an active aggravated homicide warrant for the killing of a pastor, during a March 10 targeted enforcement operation in Waterbury, Connecticut; FBI Director Kash Patel publicly confirmed the warrant and Granados‑Garcia is now in ICE custody facing imminent deportation. DHS officials say he originally entered the U.S. near the Rio Grande in 2016 after falsely claiming to be an unaccompanied minor and was released, and Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis criticized “non‑criminal” alien classifications while insisting enforcement continues amid a partial shutdown and leadership changes.

The Department of Homeland Security says it has begun deportation proceedings against Danny Antonio Granados‑Garcia, an alleged MS‑13 member from El Salvador who was arrested last month in Waterbury, Connecticut and is wanted in his home country for the aggravated‑homicide killing of a pastor. According to DHS and the FBI, Granados‑Garcia was initially released into the United States by the Obama administration in 2016 near the Rio Grande Valley after he falsely claimed to be an unaccompanied minor, and has been categorized in U.S. data as a "non‑criminal" alien because he had no domestic convictions despite the foreign warrant. ICE took him into custody on March 10 in a multi‑agency operation, and DHS officials now say he will remain detained until he is deported to El Salvador. Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis is using the case to argue that the "non‑criminal" label obscures serious public‑safety risks and to defend ICE’s focus on such arrests even as a record‑long partial DHS shutdown has starved the department of funding. The story fits a broader administration push—echoed in partisan online debate—to link foreign gang violence and long‑standing border processing failures to arguments for tougher immigration enforcement and against Democratic calls to curb ICE.