A new $20 million initiative will target MS-13 in Brentwood, Long Island, with a plan to deter at-risk youth from joining the gang in the first place.
Part of the initiative is to help build a new community center in Brentwood, and provide new lights and cameras for public parks. Another part helps pay for surveillance upgrades for local police.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says it will help prevent the MS-13 gang from preying on vulnerable children who immigrated without their parents.
“You have a lot of unaccompanied minors, you have a lot of lost youth who get sucked into the gang, there is a void that the gang fills.”
Cuomo says disrupting the pipeline for MS-13 recruitment will mean helping children first.
The initiative will also provide funding for job training and placement for a hundred at-risk youth for two years.
