TFMS book trailer no. 2

Moving over to my book blog...

I'm moving posts over to my book blog, focused on the MS-13, immigration, deportation, with additional information on radio interviews, book tour dates and locations, and news of reviews, coverage, etc.

Starting tomorrow, July 7, the blog will be accessible via the official website of This is for the Mara Salvatrucha.

Relevant posts will be cross-posted here, but I don't expect to be back to regular posting for a few weeks, at the least.

Thanks!
Sam

PS - I wanted to thank John Robb at Global Guerrillas for mentioning my book on his GG news blog post on the 2nd of July. Cheers, John!

This is for the Mara Salvatrucha - book trailer no. 1

A little coverage: This is for the Mara Salvatrucha

I've been on the road for work this week, so before the weekend I wanted to share here a few spots on the Internet where there has been a little early coverage of my book on the MS-13.

One of the few bloggers I read regularly, Zen Pundit, received an early copy of my book from my publisher. He was kind enough to devote some time for a post. Thanks!

Over at the Dallas Morning News' bookblog, reporter Diane Solis put up a brief review on my book and a related book by Tom Diaz. I've not read Tom's book, but I'll be sure to buy it. He operates a blog called Fairly Civil.

Our friends at Mexidata.info also posted a note on the book release.

And investigative reporter Jonathan Franklin, who recently published a piece - The Real Con Air - on deportation, interviewed me for this piece, and was nice enough to get the book's title in there. Thanks Jonathan!

Finally, my book is available for Kindle readers, and will be on stands July 7th.

This is for the Mara Salvatrucha, the blog

We've finally finished tweaking the blog for my book's website, focused on the MS-13.

The blog will serve as extra space for media items, announcements, speaking engagements, and a catch all for thoughts, observations, etc, on the Mara Salvatrucha, immigration, deportation, street gangs and organized crime.

Focused on Book Promotion, for now...

My book on the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) will be on shelves by the 7th of July. So as we get closer to that date, I expect I'll be blogging a lot less on issues pertaining to Security in Latin America, and working more on the book's blog (under construction), as well as Southern Pulse | Networked Intelligence.

Once my book promotion activity simmers down to a more manageable level. I'll return to regular, and hopefully, daily posts here.

Thanks for your patience!

The fallacy of 287(g)

I wanted to share here a post from a blog I frequent, Standing FIRM.

This post is about the 287(g) statute that allows ICE to essentially deputize local authorities so illegal immigrants may be arrested by local cops simply for being illegal.

Below is the first two paragraphs of the post, with a link for the rest:

I have been posting for at least a year about the negative impacts of the so-called 287(g) program that allows local police agencies to enforce federal immigration laws. The most notable case of 287(g)’s negative impact on communities is that of Maricopa County and our food friend Joe Arpaio. 287(g) is the program that gives Arpaio the authority to continue his reign of terror in Arizona.

Recently the Police Foundation, a non-partisan Think Tank whose stated goal is “Supporting innovation and improvements in policing“, released a study on local enforcement of federal immigration laws. The result? To be brief: Federal Immigration laws should not be enforced by local police agencies. Period.

Read the rest here