Gangs and illegal immigration

It seems that the feds have decided the problem of gang activity, specifically that centered around illegal aliens, is getting worse:

The international street gang MS-13 is unifying its violent members across the U.S., including the D.C. area, attempting to strengthen its criminal operation by creating a single organization.

"Traditionally, the gang consisted of loosely affiliated groups known as cliques; however, law enforcement officials have reported increased coordination of criminal activity among Mara Salvatrucha cliques in the Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York metropolitan areas," states a confidential letter sent out earlier this month from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Illinois.

"MS-13 is attempting to become a unified criminal enterprise operating under one leadership."...

Federal law-enforcement agents say the gang is adopting tactics used by major Mexican and Colombian drug-trafficking groups and has become a gun-for-hire for many major Central and South American drug-trafficking cartels.

"Indications that previously independent cliques are forming alliances with other MS-13 cliques, as well as with other gangs to facilitate criminal activity, further heighten the threat," the letter continued. "It would be dangerous to look at MS-13 as just another street gang."

Yeah. It's probably the most violent and dangerous and, here's the great part - it's made up mostly of ILLEGAL ALIENS. But yet we still get this type of stuff from places like New Haven, Connecticutt:

This city is becoming the first in the nation to offer identification cards to illegal immigrants, trying to bring them out of the shadows even as many municipalities crack down on them.

Beginning Tuesday, New Haven will offer the ID cards to all of its 125,000 residents, including some 10,000 to 12,000 illegal immigrants.

@#%$!! Read that last sentence again. Dare I ask how they will be distributing these cards to illegals without KNOWING they're illegal?? So here we have a government that, not only would know where the illegals are, and then do nothing...but a government which makes it easier for the illegals to break the law!. Incredible.

Meanwhile, we've got gangs of illegals roaming America's streets. It seems that at least one Republican in Virginia gets the connection:

MS-13 is also the largest gang in Northern Virginia and groups associated with the gang are growing in Montgomery County, Md., as well, said Virginia state Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Fairfax County Republican.

"At my level of government, what frustrates me the most is that so many people stand in the way of tough policies against illegal immigration," Mr. Cuccinelli said. "They either ignore it or don't understand the connection to public safety, security and the community's well-being."

The question is why does it always seem to be that more locally elected officials, (city/count/state elected officials) are the ones who best grasp what's going on here...contrasting starkly with a federal government who's supposed to be defending the border having a much more casual attitude.