Mark Kirk: “I'm worried, too. The gentleman can talk about Atlanta. In Chicago, in the Chicagoland area, we are now seeing a great…”

“I'm worried, too. The gentleman can talk about Atlanta. In Chicago, in the Chicagoland area, we are now seeing a great expansion of large national gang franchises like the Latin Kings, like the Gangster Disciples, et cetera, moving into the suburbs. A suburban police department has far fewer resources than a big city like Chicago and Atlanta to fight these, and so that's where the Federal Government can come in. We're particularly concerned about a gang that some Americans have heard about called Mara Salvatrucha, MS-13, which seems to be particularly violent and one in which there are tantalizing clues that there may have been discussions with terrorist organizations with links overseas because the leaders of MS-13 don't have obviously any patriotic feeling toward the United States, and if they could link up to a terrorist organization for money, they would. In the city of Chicago, we have now seen these gangs moving into places like Waukegan or Aurora or Joliet. I don't know about Atlanta, but it seems like particularly appropriate when you see that the average gang shooter for these international drug gangs is in the 7th grade.”