A Troubled Corner: the ruined and rebuilt environment of a Central American barrio In post‐Rodney‐King‐riot Los Angeles

Conceptual and empirical obstacles in defining MS‐13

“…Deportation of alleged (and convicted) MS‐13 members throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, such as that described by some of the gang experts surveyed and interviewed for this study, has been well documented (Diaz, 2009; Funes, 2008; Hagan, Eschbach, & Rodriguez, 2008; Immigrant Legal Resource Center, 2017, 2018; Martinez D'Aubuisson, 2015; McGuire, 2007; Ward, 2013; Wolf, 2014; Zilberg, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2011). Although gang experts with whom we spoke stated that enforcement through deportation in the D.C. metropolitan area is less common than it once was, local news coverage has documented increasing arrests of alleged MS‐13 members “only for immigration violations” as opposed to substantive gang‐related charges (Miller, 2017; see also Blitzer, 2017; Miroff, 2017).…”

Survive but not thrive? Geographical strategies for avoiding absolute homelessness among immigrant communities

“…Since the 1980s, the community continues to struggle with issues of citizenship, housing and formal employment, relying more heavily on informal and casual labour (Zilberg 2002). As Figure 1 shows, they remain segregated to their original point of entry just to the west of Downtown Los Angeles, despite some dispersion to suburban areas like the San Fernando Valley.…”

“…' Despite the fact that both groups were highly segregated in urban space, the degree to which non-profit organizations and community spaces overlapped differed. All Central-American service providers have resolutely remained in the original point of entry, and all within walking distance of each other, which is rather astonishing given the widely dispersed nature of Los Angeles (Landolt 2008;Zilberg 2002) (Figure 3). …”

Gangster in guerilla face

“…El Plan Mano Dura draws heavily upon California's Street Terrorism Enforcement Prevention Act (STEP) 23 and anti-loitering laws, which were designed to retake command over the politically marked space of the street and to prohibit all forms of association and communication between two or more so called 'gang members' (Zilberg, 2002). The legislation attached to Mano Dura makes gang membership illegal, and it has a very liberal interpretation of what constitutes probable cause for detaining alleged gang members.…”

“…US zero-tolerance gang abatement strategies have a dubious record, particularly in Los Angeles among immigrant communities. My previous research documented how the notorious elite gang abatement unit, Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) in the Rampart Division, worked actively to criminalize everyday life practices of immigrants (Zilberg, 2002), and to police the boundaries of the nation-state on the streets of the urban barrio (Zilberg, 2004). The Rampart division covers the territories of both Viejo Lin's and Pajaro's gangs.…”