A tattooed member of the notorious MS-13 street gang. (Photo: FBI/Public Domain)

(CNSNews.com) – An Obama-appointed federal judge in Virginia early this month released a Honduran teen who sold drugs, illegally crossed the U.S. border, and was a member of the violent street gang MS-13.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon ordered the 17-year-old to be released because his “rights had been violated” after he crossed the Rio Grande and turned himself in to U.S. Border Patrol, the Washington Post reported.

“The judge ruled that, by holding the illegal alien gangbanger without a hearing, the government violated his rights to due process and family unity,” according to Judicial Watch.

The former gang-member’s identity has not been revealed due to his status as a minor.

The teen claimed to have sold drugs and witnessed several murders during his time with Mara Salvatrucha, the gang better known as MS-13, but that he had never participated in a killing. He will be living with his mother and half-siblings in their home in Kentucky.

During the Obama administration, more than 150,000 minor aliens entered the country illegally by way of the southern border.

The Department of Homeland Security has said that unaccompanied alien children (UACs) pose several threats to the United States, and that violent street gangs like MS-13 actively recruit new members in units where UACs are held.

“Both the MS-13 and the 18th Street gangs embarked on a recruiting frenzy at the various facilities housing the newly arrived illegal aliens,” said Judicial Watch, citing law enforcement sources.

“The UACs also brought in dangerous diseases – including swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis – and occupied the nation’s military bases as shelters.”

Gang members were also reportedly using phones provided by the Red Cross to communicate.

The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) has said that MS-13 and other violent street games are responsible for “the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.”

“A year after the Obama administration began allowing droves of UACs to remain in the U.S., the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that the MS-13 emerged as a top tier gang in the Lone Star State thanks to the influx of illegal alien gang members that crossed into the state the previous year,” Judicial Watch reported.

“Last month, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) sent a letter to the ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement], demanding to know if it had released any unaccompanied minors with admitted gang ties,” according to the Washington Post.



“This teen may be the first known case, but he is not the only one. In a statement to The Washington Post, the agency said it had released ‘a small number’ of children with ‘minimal’ gang affiliation to live with relatives.”

In April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions voiced concern about UACs and gang members crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

“If they come as undocumented minors, the federal government transports them wherever in the interior they say they’d like to go,” he said. “The bad guys know how this system works, and they have exploited it.”