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Alex Sanchez's Interview With Steven Osun They Are Not Solving The Problem

742 Words3 Pages

Alex Sanchez’s interview with Steven Osuna entitled They’re Not Solving the Problem, They’re Displacing It, expresses the struggles, misconceptions, and everyday life of a Latino immigrant in the United States’ transition to a MS13 gang members in El Salvador. Alex Sanchez, former MS13 member, is a peacemakers and co-founder/ executive director of Homies Unidos in Los Angelos. This organization’s mission is to bring peace to the youth of Central America who are immigrants, involved in gangs, and criminalized. Sanchez reveals how his personal experiences as an immigrant and MS13 gang member has contributed to his present line of work. Further, Sanchez discusses issues such as being targeted by the INS and LAPD, death squads, and anti-gang initiatives …show more content…

After being called to come to the United States by his parents, he discusses his interactions with Border Patrol and beginning life in the United States. Some of the he fears he discussed, such as hiding his El Salvadorian nationality to avoid getting picked on, are the same fears my family members have had as being immigrants from Nigeria. However, just as my immigrant family members soon figured out, you cannot hide who you are, so the bullying continued. The feeling of loneliness and alienation that most young immigrants feel when coming to the United States may have been a key factor that encouraged Sanchez to join the MSS13 gang. However, Sanchez did not join MSS13 with the intentions of being a criminal, but with the hopes of feeling accepted and protected. Consequently, an individual who just wanted a sense of belonging became a target for the INS and LAPD. When deeply examining the life of a poor El Salvadorian immigrant struggling for survival, it should be expected that they would be more inclined to stealing food because they have no other choice. Nevertheless, the United States government, law enforcement, and criminal justice system has a bad habit of harshly punishing the person who committed the crime, without implementing the proper procedures to prevent the crime from happening in the first …show more content…

He expresses how upon his arrival in El Salvador, he had no one waiting for him but there were other individuals who had just been deported. During this time, the United States was attempting to destabilize the country. Furthermore, there was no plan put in place for where these masses of people from detention, immigrations, and prisons were to go. Instead of the El Salvadorian government finding opportunities and implementing initiatives to help develop these deported immigrants, they used death squads to kill them off. This is similar to the method of jungle justice used in Nigeria. Jungle justice is a form of public extrajudicial killings, while completing disregarding the rule of law. Many who fall victim to jungle justice have stories like Alex Sanchez’s. For example, a poor teenage who cannot find work because of Nigeria’s poor and corrupt economy may be left no choice but to steal from a local market. This individual may be publically set on fire and burnt alive for his actions. However, the blame cannot all be placed on the poor teenager because he was given no other option. Jungle justice is very common in Warri,

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