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In June of 2015, during the announcement for his presidential bid, Donald Trump shared an observation that instantly reverberated throughout the political media.

Commenting on illegal immigration, Trump said: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

While some complained that these remarks were racist - twisting his words to make it seem as though he had called all illegals from Mexico (or all immigrants in general) “rapists” and “criminals” - to the many for whom illegal immigrant crime has become part of their daily existence, Trump’s words were celebrated.

Now those who cheered Trump will have additional reason to celebrate.

According to Reuters: U.S. immigration agents are planning nationwide raids next week to arrest, among others, teenagers who entered the country without guardians and are suspected gang members, in a widening of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Reuters adds: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that a person can be identified as a gang member if they meet two or more criteria, including having gang tattoos, frequenting an area notorious for gangs and wearing gang apparel.

The agency said it does not comment on plans for future law enforcement operations, but that it focuses on individuals who pose a threat to national security and public safety.

The primary target of these raids will be the notorious MS-13, which is comprised primarily of illegals from El Salvador and is considered to be “one of the world’s most brutal street gangs.”

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a speech to members of law enforcement in Philadelphia Friday, remarked: This Department is especially focused on eradicating the threat posed by MS-13.

Their motto is “kill, rape, control.” And that is what they do every day.

They recruit new members in our schools—our high schools, our middle schools, and even our elementary schools.

As a result of these recruitment efforts, it is estimated that MS-13 now has 10,000 members across 40 U.S. states. And the more they recruit, the more damage they do.

The move, of course, will not be without controversy.

Advocates for illegals are already voicing concern that the raids will capture innocents within its net.

As the Reuters report adds: Immigration lawyer David Leopold of Ulmer & Berne said innocent children could be swept up in the raids.

“In many cases, children don’t freely decide to join a gang. They are threatened by older gang members and forced to get a gang tattoo if they live in a certain neighborhood,” he said.

Although such criticism, as well as criticism that the raids are racist, may be inevitable; one should not overlook the fact that if the raids are successful they will be protecting the very same Hispanic community they would be accused of targeting.

The New York Times, in a feature focusing on four young Latinos in butchered with machetes titled “The Gang Murders in the Suburbs,” observed that “[t]he presence of MS-13 is a frightful reality for immigrant families who escaped the same violence in their home countries, even as the recent deaths have turned into a flash point on illegal immigration.”

To the families of these four men, and the many other families left devastated by MS-13’s rampage, sympathy for the gang members facing the ICE raids will be hard to come by.

[Note: This article was written by dk]