Donald Trump has put MS-13, one of the world's deadliest gangs, at the heart of his immigration reform.

The US President vowed to destroy the group and send members back to El Salvador.

Sky News has followed the journey of some of those deported from America in recent months to see how El Salvador is coping.

MS-13 was in fact formed on the street corners of Los Angeles and only spread when members were deported back to Central America.

The new wave of deportees from America are returning to a country many haven't seen in decades and one where the gangs dominate neighbourhoods with the threat of extortion, rape and murder.


But it's not just criminals being sent back.

Image: President Trump has vowed to defeat MS-13

The Trump administration is also ending permits for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans to live and work in the US.

They were granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) after earthquakes rocked the Central American country in 2001.

Salvadorans have until 9 September to leave or face deportation, unless they find a legal way to stay.

There are up to eight deportation flights arriving each week, with no more than 135 people on each flight.

The United States is part of an agreement that states that it cannot send home more than 56,000 Salvadorans a year.

But the recent flow of people has already tested the system. In the past two years, America has sent back 39,000.

At La Chacra, the country's main repatriation centre, nervous deportees arrive with their few belongings bundled into bags.

Shoelaces that have been confiscated by the immigration authorities are returned and the anxious men and women inside receive a briefing.

Some openly acknowledge they have committed crimes.

I ask one young man what he thinks when Donald Trump talks about sending back "the bad hombres".

He smirks and replies: "What can I say? He's right. We're not coming back for no reason."

Image: Jefferson Alvarado fears he will be targeted by the gangs

Jefferson Alvarado has a very different take.

He's been living in Iowa for 13 years and says he was sent back by Immigration and Customs Enforcement because his mother forgot to turn up to an immigration hearing.

"A lot of people are here for minor issues like driving without a licence... a lot of us here are actually hard workers," he says. When we meet him days later, he's in hiding, scared of gangs targeting him and unable to go out for work.

Everyone faces a rapid and extreme adjustment.

The centre itself is in an area dominated by gangs who see them as easy prey.

Very few of the deportees we speak to know where they will go next.

Some will try to scratch a living in the markets, earning perhaps five dollars a day.

But there aren't enough jobs in the market to absorb them - the best job opportunities are ironically working in call centres for US companies.

And El Salvador's economy depends on money sent back from America. Remittances from Salvadorans living in the United States account for a 17% of GDP.

MS-13 and Barrio 18 still have a heavy presence in the country.

On the first day we arrive, 23 people are killed in gang related violence.

In just the first 50 days of 2018, there were 494 murders.

Image: The police have been accused of extra-judicial killings

The National Civil Police patrol the streets with balaclavas and assault rifles.

A young officer tells us he's worried for his family and colleagues: "I have lost four friends," he says. But police and soldiers have also been accused of extra judicial killings.

Locking people up in the country's overcrowded jails hasn't solved the gang crisis.

In the 1990s, those sent back just regrouped and recruited on the inside.

We gain rare access to Apanteos, a model prison, where inmates can learn religion and languages.

But leaving the gang can be extremely difficult.

Inmates, covered in easily identifiable MS-13 tattoos, tell us: "Once you leave, they'll get you."

Image: Even in prison it is impossible to escape the grip of the gangs

The next day, we face a stark reminder of the constant threat.

We see the body of an 18-year-old man in an arid field in an area where MS-13 operates. He's been shot in the head and chest and his weeping mother says he's been targeted.

Image: This moter has just discovered her son has been murdered

Back in America, poverty and intimidation is driving young people to join MS-13.

The gang has been linked to a spate of gruesome killings.

The murder of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, two teenage girls from Long Island who were killed with a machete and baseball bats, caught the President's attention.

He invited their parents to the State of the Union address and called for immigration loopholes to be closed.

Ten of those charged were citizens of El Salvador or Honduras who were in the US illegally.

But some of those living alongside the threat in immigrant communities fear Donald Trump's focus will only embolden the gang and further silence witnesses.

The MS-13 threat isn't new and there are no easy solutions to target a complex, clandestine and fractured organisation.

America's hospitality and patience is running out though.

Aquiles Magana from the National Council for the Protection and Development of Migrants accepts it is El Salvador's responsibility to provide for it's people.

But he adds: "I don't think Trump understands the nature of the problem. And he's not interested in understanding it."