William Umberto Martinez Chavez pictured with MS-13 gang tattoos which he says he got in prison for protection

A MS-13 gang member who was kicked out of the US for stabbing a man outside a bodega was arrested yesterday after re-entering the US.

William Umberto Martinez Chavez became the second member of the notorious street gang to be arrested coming back into the country in less than a week.

Salvadoran Chavez was deported in 2017 after serving 15 years in jail for the manslaughter of a man in Huntington, Long Island, in May 2000.

The 40-year-old was apprehended back in the same town by ICE agents on Tuesday.

Chavez was released from prison and deported to his native El Salvador, Eastern District U.S. Attorney records said.

But shortly after he was deported, Martinez re-entered the United States, according to sources reported by News Day.

Images taken at his arrest show Chavez's chest and abdomen covered with MS-13 tattoos.

Chavez claims at the time of the stabbing he was not a member of the 18th Street gang but joined the gang in prison for protection, according to court documents.

Richard Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in court documents: 'As alleged, Martinez Chavez illegally returned to the United States after he served a lengthy New York State prison sentence for a homicide he committed on Long Island, and was deported to El Salvador.

'This office is firmly committed to prosecuting criminals who illegally re-enter the United States, especially MS-13 gang members who break into the country after deportations resulting from violent crime convictions.'

Chavez pleaded his innocence after his conviction, stating he did not know what he was signing when he confessed to the manslaughter of Jose Armando Garcia.

After his recent arrest he has been charged with ­illegal reentry into the US, which could see him jailed for up to 20 years if convicted.

He also goes by the aliases 'William Martinez', 'William Martines', 'Wiliam Martinez Chavez' and 'Julio Cordero', court documents state.

Last week another MS-13 member, Gerson Eli Turcios Maradiaga, was also arrested for illegal re-entry into the US, officials said.

The Honduran national was deported to his home country in 2012, according to reports.

Turcios had served around five years in prison in connection with a shooting on four people they mistook to be MS-13 members in 2008, leaving one victim dead and three others were wounded.

President Trump faced a barrage of criticism for insisting that the brutal Central American street gang's operatives were embedded in the sprawling migrant caravan last October.

He claimed gang members and ISIS terrorists were hiding in the human convoy making its way towards the US border.

The president threatened to shut the border due to immigration numbers and warned he would close crossings if Congress doesn't change America's immigration laws.