Welcome to the nightmare of open borders...

Houston has been shaken by the murder of an 18-month-old toddler at the hands of an alleged illegal alien MS-13 member:

Miguel Angel Castro, a 19-year-old El Salvador native, is charged with capital murder in the April 12 death of Aiden Naquin, who would have been 2 in August.

Castro is accused of firing on a car driven by the boy's father as it pulled into the Huffman trailer park in the 2700 block of Third where the family lives. One of the bullets struck the toddler in the head.

Castro indelibly marked his body with tattoos indicating he is a member of the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang, said detectives with the Harris County Sheriff's Department. Mara Salvatrucha, which was started by Salvadoran refugees in the Los Angeles area in the early 1980s and now reaches into 31 other states, has been the target of a federal crackdown that last month swept six U.S. cities, netting the arrests of 103 gang members.

"The biggest groupings have been in L.A., New York and northern Virginia, but the cliques seem to be growing quickly now in Providence, Rhode Island; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Houston," said Bob Clifford, who heads the MS-13 National Task Force that formed in January.

He said the task force is keenly aware of the latest killing in Houston. Houston police want to question other suspects, who they say were with Castro during a recent standoff, about possible connections to nine other homicides.

More details on other alleged MS-13 members charged with murders in the Houston area here. Houston is a sanctuary city for illegal aliens; Houston police officer John Nickell testified about the danger the policy poses to residents two years ago. Heather Mac Donald testified on the same subject last week.

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The D.C. Examiner editorializes about the horrific murder of a pregnant 17-year-old girl who had been scheduled to testify against MS-13 gang members--but was slain while living under the federal witness protection program. The accused murderers face the death penalty. More trial news here.

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Boston is not breathing any easier even though an MS-13 member who assaulted a cop is being deported. More MS-13 busts in the Boston area here.

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The MS-13 presence in Maryland is growing...even in rural Frederick.

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Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana) held a hearing yesterday on Gangs and Crime in Latin America.

All well and good, but the fact that this Congress and the Bush administration have done nothing--nothing--to rectify the sanctuary policies that provide safe harbors for violent illegal alien gangs is a bloody travesty.

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Previous:

The head-choppers meet the hand-choppers
Homeland insecurity: The year in review
A New Year's prediction comes true
Boston vs. MS-13
MS-13 Watch
MS-13: Bus massacre suspect nabbed
Anarchy in Boston
Gang land
MS-13 Watch: Nationwide crackdown
Another courtroom security lapse