Trump's 'Dehumanizing Rhetoric Not Welcome In NY': NYCLU

LONG ISLAND, NY — As Long Island gears up for a visit Wednesday from President Donald Trump, who plans to fire back against the deadly MS-13 street gang he's called "animals" at a roundtable on immigration, the New York Civil Liberties Union has a heated message: Trump's "dehumanizing rhetoric is not welcome" in New York.

“President Trump is shamelessly exploiting legitimate community concern about gang violence in order to sell Americans on his cruel immigration dragnet," said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "New Yorkers aren’t buying it and we reject his racist, fear-mongering, and dehumanizing rhetoric."

Trump is slated to head to Long Island Wednesday to once again address the deadly MS-13 gang and its trail of death, brutality and destruction across the nation.

Trump is expected to speak at the Morrelly Homeland Security Center in Bethpage, according to Rep. Peter King.

Trump blasted the violent street gang, promising to rid gang-ravaged communities of Long Island of the "animals" on their streets during a visit to the island last year — and again, used the controversial term "animals" during a recent meeting with California officials on immigration, according to the New York Post.

But Lieberman spoke out against Trump's visit: "On Long Island we have seen the administration leverage fear, overzealous policing and flimsy evidence to indefinitely detain teenagers for supposed gang involvement," she said. "This dragnet has ripped children away from their families, and forced many in the community to fear school officials and local police. Across New York we have seen the administration choke off institutions that serve the public like courthouses and commercial bus lines by making them into deportation hotspots."

She said it's well past time that elected officials and law enforcement reject Trump's "anti-immigrant agenda and stand up for all residents in their communities. Hate is not welcome in New York.”

Rep. Lee Zeldin, who, along with Reps. King and Dan Donovan, will travel with President Trump on Air Force One from Washington, D.C. to Bethpage for the roundtable, said the community has been rocked by the "indiscriminate brutality of gang violence."

Every level of government, he said, has a role to play in battling the rise of MS-13 and other gangs. "We must crack down on the aspects of our nation’s broken immigration system and other policies that have allowed MS-13 and other gangs to take hold in our communities and stay there," he said, adding that law enforcement officials must have the tools they need to do their jobs safely.

"Securing our neighborhoods shouldn’t be a partisan issue, and I applaud President Trump for traveling back to Long Island, an area that has been hit hard by gang violence, to hear directly from those most impacted," Zeldin said.

Zeldin also met with Trump to discuss MS-13 at the White House in 2017, and accompanied him on his last visit to Long Island.

Trump has maintained that there are many people coming into the country, or trying to come in. "And we're stopping a lot of them — but we're taking people out of the country. You wouldn't believe how bad these people are. These aren't people. These are animals," Trump said, when MS-13 was mentioned, according to the Post.

Sen. Chuck Schumer fired back on Twitter, saying, "When all of our great-great-grandparents came to America they weren't 'animals,' and these people aren't either."

The White House came out in defense of the comments: "I think that 'animal' doesn't go far enough and I think the president should continue using his platform and everything he can do under the law to stop these types of horrible, horrible, disgusting people," spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, according to the Post.

King, a Republican from Seaford, said he's been working on Trump's visit to Long Island for about two weeks, adding that the President is expected to speak for about 90 minutes. "It's going to be an MS-13 focused panel discussion with people from local and federal law enforcement."

Since Trump first came to Long Island to address escalating MS-13 concerns in July, King said "there's been some real progress," including more arrests, the addition of two federal prosecutors, a $500 million grant for Suffolk County Police, and enhanced ICE and Homeland Security efforts.

"The president has made it a top priority," King said, also lauding the efforts of Suffolk and Nassau county police.

But, King said, the war rages on: "It's a long haul. As you lock up 10 of them, another eight show up. As large numbers are arrested or indicted, unfortunately, they're being replaced. But they'e not being replaced one for one, and that's the progress."

The gruesome discovery in a Central Islip park in April 2017 of four young men murdered by MS-13 members brought an international spotlight to Suffolk County, with elected officials and law enforcement vowing to fight back.

Last July, the president spoke in Brentwood, where two teen girls were brutally murdered by MS-13 members in 2016.

"They butchered those little girls," Trump said. "They kidnap. They extort. They rape and they rob. They prey on children. They shouldn't be here."

The president also said the gang had transformed Long Island's "peaceful parks and beautiful, quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields."

Related MS-13 coverage on Patch

• MS-13: An Inside Look At The Brutal Gang And Its Insidious Spread On Long Island
• Efforts To Eradicate MS-13 Amp Up, Gang Member Convicted: DA
• AG Jeff Sessions Warns Deadly MS-13: 'We Are Targeting You'
• 'We Are At War:' Dozens Of MS-13 Gang Members Arrested, Indicted

Patch file photo.