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ByClaudiaTorrens, Frank Eltman and Colleen Long The Associated Press BRENTWOOD, N.Y. Late at night, when helicopters thrum overhead and spot- lights beam down onto lawns, many people here know exactly what's going on. "You just think, 'Oh, God, whose child is it now?'" said StephanieSpezia,alongtime resident of this suburb in the heart of Long Island that's caught in the grip of a vio- lent street gang withCentral American ties, MS-13. MS-13 has been blamed for a trail of 11 corpses of mostly young people discov- ered in woods and vacant lotsinBrentwoodandneigh- boringCentralIslipsincethe start of the school year. The bloodshed in the blue-collar towns has got- ten the attention of Presi- dent Donald Trump, who says it's the result of lax im- migration policies that let too many criminal "scum" slip through. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday gave a speech about the violence to law enforcement officials near a park where the bod- ies of four young men were found this month bearing MS-13's hallmarks: repeated slashes from a blade that left them nearly unrecognizable. Some parents say they're afraid to let their children go to school. Teens say any perceived slight to a gang member, especially a refusal to join, can mean death. After one high school warned parents not to let their kids wear anything gang-affiliated, gang mem- bers started deciding on a daily basis what colors were off-limits, leaving students to guess what not to wear. "Kids are losing their childhoods," said Jenni- fer Suarez, whose 15-year- old niece was beaten and hacked to death last year. "You can see the stress on their faces as they get ready. It's like, you know, they're suiting up for battle." So how does a street gang with ties to Central Amer- ica gain such an aggressive foothold in the suburbs of Long Island? MS-13, or the Mara Sal- vatrucha, is believed by federal prosecutors to have thousands of members across the U.S., primarily immigrants from Central America. It has a strong- hold in Los Angeles, where it emerged in the 1980s as a neighborhood street gang. But its true rise began after members were de- ported back to El Salva- dor in the 1990s. There, the gang thrived and spread to Honduras. MS-13 and ri- val groups there now con- trol entire towns, rape girls and young women, massa- cre students, bus drivers and merchants who refuse to pay extortion and kill competitors. That violence has prompted a migration of people trying to escape, es- pecially children, who have streamed north because of a U.S. policy allowing peo- ple under 18 who arrive without parents to stay in the country temporarily with relatives or friends. Since the fall of 2013, the U.S. has placed 165,000 unaccompanied minors. Long Island has been a fre- quent landing spot. Suffolk County, which includes Brentwood and Central Is- lip, has gotten 4,500. Neigh- boring Nassau County has received 3,800. Sessions, speaking at a courthouse in Central Is- lip, said he believes gang members used this system to come north, too. "Bad guys know how the system works, and they have exploited it," he said. He later met with par- ents of some of the teenag- ers killed. In a recent roundup of 13 MS-13 gang suspects ac- cused of murder and other crimes, seven had entered as unaccompanied minors. MS-13 is recruiting the unaccompanied children, Suffolk County police Com- missioner Timothy Sini said. The youngsters, he said, "don't have an estab- lished social network, at least many of them don't, and MS-13 is providing that network." All told, nearly 200 MS- 13 gang suspects have been rounded up since Septem- ber. Among the tactics Sini has employed have been stepped-up patrols, renewed cooperationwithanFBItask force and helicopter sweeps of wooded areas where gang members gather. Trump, a Republican, has promised to eradicate the gang in the U.S. through strict enforcement of immi- gration law. "We are putting MS-13 in jail and getting them the hell out of our country," he told The Associated Press. "They are a bad group, and somebody said they are as bad as al-Qaida, which is a hell of a reference. ... We are out in Long Island cleaning out the MS-13 scum." He spoke again about the gang on Friday in an ad- dress to the National Rifle Association. The tough talk has made some residents fear- ful of law enforcement and the gang. They say it's not about immigration politics but about making a com- munity safer. Residents of Brentwood and Central Islip, with a combined population of about 100,000, say the area of modest ranch homes, warehouses and strip malls has always been a diverse, welcoming place for immi- grants trying to make bet- ter lives for their children. Some longtime residents say law enforcement bears some of the responsibility for the gang's rise because it ignored the burgeoning problem for years. Parents say 4,200-stu- dent Brentwood High School lacks the means to help children who are of- ten left alone after school because their parents work long hours. There are few social workers and guid- ance counselors, they say, and not enough security guards or cameras. "They can't walk the halls without fear," said Ev- elyn Rodriguez, the mother of 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas, who was found beaten to death last fall. In the months leading up to Kayla's death, she was involved in disputes with members and associates of MS-13, prosecutors said. Rodriguez said her daugh- ter stood her ground and ended up dead. Kayla and her 15-year-old friend Nisa Mickens were walking on a street near their homes when men with baseball bats and a machete attacked them. Nisa was found dead on a residential tree-lined street a day before her 16th birthday. Kayla, who lived a block away, was discov- ered in a wooded backyard nearby. "People, they missed the opportunity to know a re- ally great person," said Ni- sa's father, Rob Mick- ens, who's running for the school board to help push for change. "They would have loved to know her." Bertha Ullaguari said she noticed her 18-year- old son, Jorge Tigre, go- ing from a good student on track to graduate from Bell- port High to someone too afraid to go to school. Then she got two truancy letters. When she pressed her son, he refused to tell her what was going on. "Some bad things hap- pened there," Ullaguari said, her voice trembling. She had heard he had his tires slashed. There were rumors of gangs. And then, about two weeks ago while she was driving with her daughter, they got a mysterious call. A girl on the line said Jorge was dead along with three others in a park. "We nearly killed our- selves from the shock," said Ullaguari, an Ecuadorean immigrant. The bodies of Jorge and the three others were found cut, their torsos exposed and hands bound, steps from a playground. CRIME MS-13 street gang grips Long Island suburbs in violence CLAUDIATORRENS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE A memorial to best friends Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas is seen near the spot where their bodies were found in Brentwood, N.Y. Two suburbs on New York's Long Island are in the grip of fear from a violent street gang with Central American ties, MS-13. FRANK ELTMAN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone speaks at a press conference in Hauppauge, N.Y., where he vowed to take action against the MS-13street gang. 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