'MS-13 clique': ABC News blasted for downplaying violent gang

A mainstream media outlet is once again blasted with online outrage after reducing a vicious transnational gang to a mere "clique," perhaps to distance itself from the tough rhetoric from President Donald Trump regarding illegal immigration.

On Tuesday, ABC News published a report about the upcoming sentencing hearing for Alexi Saenz, the 30-year-old leader of Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside, a Long Island offshoot of the notorious transnational criminal organization Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13.

'In my high school, we had the jocks, the nerds, the MS-13ers.'

The story prompted a barrage of outrage for repeatedly referring to Sailors Locos as a "clique."

"The leader of an MS-13 clique in the suburbs of New York City faces sentencing Wednesday in a federal racketeering case involving eight murders, including the 2016 killings of two high school girls that focused the nation’s attention on the violent gang," read a social media post from ABC News.

The response was swift and fierce:

• "Of all the propaganda you’ve pushed over the years, describing a gang that murders children as a fun 'clique' is a new low," commented Mollie Hemingway, editor in chief of the Federalist.
• "In my high school, we had the jocks, the nerds, the MS-13ers …," joked Blaze Media contributor Carol Roth.
• "'Clique.' MS-13 is nothing more than a mean girls club now?" added another commenter.

Only Regina George and the other Plastics in the iconic 2004 Lindsay Lohan film "Mean Girls" have nothing on Alexi Saenz.

RELATED: Lawmaker who visited El Salvador to spring MS-13 gang member attacks Ashli Babbitt as a ‘domestic terrorist’

Last year, as part of a guilty plea to federal racketeering charges, Saenz admitted to ordering hits on rivals and others he believed were disrespectful, the AP reported at the time, likewise referring to Saenz's gang division as a "clique." His orders resulted in eight murders and three attempted murders.

Among those killed were Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, high school friends who were stalked and then beaten and slashed to death with a baseball bat and a machete in 2016. The girls' parents attended Trump's 2018 State of the Union address.

"These two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown," Trump said at the time. "Six members of the savage gang MS-13 have been charged with Kayla and Nisa's murders. Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors and wound up in Kayla and Nisa's high school."

Trump also called for the death penalty for those responsible.

RELATED: VIDEO: Democrat melts down during hearing over evidence that Kilmar Garcia is an MS-13 gang member

Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

Saenz did not end up facing the death penalty, but he is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars. He was sentenced to 68 years in prison, a decision that likely pleased prosecutors, who pushed for 70.

His attorneys pushed for a sentence of 45 years, claiming he is "profoundly sorry" and "on a journey of redemption." They also insisted he is intellectually disabled and had a difficult childhood in El Salvador. Whether Saenz immigrated to the U.S. legally is unclear.

Prosecutors dismissed those arguments, claiming that Saenz — aka Blasty, aka Big Homie — has continued to affiliate with the Sailors Locos and commit violence while incarcerated.

"Indeed, the same pattern of violence and mayhem that has marked his life on the street has not waned with the passage of time," they wrote.

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