President Trump visits Long Island for event on defeating MS-13 gang
BETHPAGE, Long Island (WABC) -- Sitting between Congressman Peter King and Evelyn Rodriquez, whose daughter was killed by MS-13, President Trump renewed his pledged to take out the violent street gang Wednesday afternoon on Long Island.
"I called them animals the other day," Trump said. "I was met with rebuke ... We have to be very very tough."
Trump held a roundtable at the Morrelli Center in Bethpage. meeting with federal law enforcement, local elected officials and police commissioners to find out what the government can do to combat the violent MS-13 gang.
The gang is responsible for 27 murders nationwide, including those of Brentwood teens Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, whose bodies were found brutally mutaliated in a wooded area in 2016.
Trump slammed what he calls catch and release loopholes, which he said allows MS-13 gang members to infiltrate local communities.
"You catch them ...wria te up piece of paper and you release them," Trump said. "And they're supposed to come back for trials ... Very rarely."
Commissioner Patrick Ryder, of Nassau County Police Department, added that local officals also need better intellgience from the border.
"Not sure what the out is. You can stop it before he starts talking about the relationships they've built in the communities," he said.
Outside the Morelly Center, immigrants rights activists staged a small protest. They said the MS-13 problem can't be solved by simply arresting people
The groups argue that President Trump is using the issue of gang violence on Long Island to paint all immigrants with a broad brush.
"We know that it is not just law enforcement, not deportation and not profiling the way we see here on Long Island," a protester said.
President Trump also attended an event at a Midtown hotel later in the day. The event at the New York Palace Hotel was expected to rake in millions for his re-election fund.
The president was met with about 100 protesters outside the hotel, along with a Mariachi band.
It was the band that played last week outside the West Side apartment of Aaron Schlossberg, the attorney whose racist rant in a restaurant went viral.
Some of the protesters blamed Trump for an increase in overt racism in America.
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