i don’t say enough how incredibly happy i am that the harry potter fan community has created not just a welcoming space to participate in and contribute to, but established and accepted fanon that holds far more diversity and depth than its source material. i can still call myself an avid fan, and that’s in large part due to the writers and artists within the fandom.

thank you. i appreciate you.

leaving on a jet plane | alex brightman x fem!reader

prompt: ❝ i think i’m in love with you....and i don’t know what to do. ❞

summary: when you get the amazing opportunity to appear on a television series in the uk, leaving your life in new york becomes a massive challenge. but the encouragement of your best friend helps the change. what happens when he suddenly confesses feelings for you at the airport?

warning(s): fluff, angst, cursing

gif credit: @broadwayfaceshq

author’s note: first off, thank you to the amazing human who had requested. it means a lot that you want to see more writing from me. i took a lot of inspiration from the infamous ‘running through the airport to say goodbye/i love you’ trope. cliche i know but it’s cute dammit. basically look at that scene in love actually and pam’s goodbye to michael in the office. also, i’m so sorry it’s so long. i’m gonna get murked by how long this is so haha woopsies. ( i also wrote this before robb mclure left. rip my angel you were an amazing adam )

     alex brightman had been your sort of guiding light for the past decade. the two of you had met at a 54 below show you were doing alongside drew gaspirini. the two of you had done a song called ❛ overboard ❜ that drew had written. and you seemed to click immediately. alex was supportive of every role you had landed and vice versa. you were inseparable. alex made sure that the two of you were sitting next to each other at every tony’s that you had attended. over the years, feelings had arisen on both of your behalfs, but nothing was ever done about it. maybe you were too scared to say anything. no, not maybe...you were definitely too scared to say anything. 

     in the present-day, both of your careers had taken a turn for the better. alex had been nominated for his second tony award for ❛ beetlejuice ❜. he did end up losing which you believed was totally rigged but both of you had brushed it off. you had just been cast as the newest jenna in waitress before it’s untimely closing. life couldn't be any better. or so you had thought. the opportunity to appear on an upcoming television series based in london had been given to you. it was a step for sure, a massive one at that. but it was your dream. and the fact that it was in one of your favorite cities in the world; nothing could be better than that. so you said yes.

     to alex, the news hit hard. harder than he thought it would hit him. the fact of the matter was, he would be losing his best friend for a full year. and he didn’t want that. alex didn't want to show his negative emotions towards you. all he could do was put on a brave face and say that he was proud of you; say that he was always going to be there for you; say that he loved-

     ❝ alex? ❞ a knock came from the outside of alex’s dressing room. ❝ we’re calling places now. ❞ the voice of the production stage manager called to him in a softer voice. everyone in the production understood how hurt their lead actor felt. but being gentle around him wasn’t helping, in a sense it made him feel worse. they all knew that deep down, alex loved you with his whole heart. but he was still so blind to it. or so everyone thought. he took one last look at himself in the vanity mirror. his complexion white and green due to the makeup. ❛ come on man. ❜ he turns off the lights and starts walking towards the stage for the show. 

     upon arrival to the wings, the sound of the audience chattering away immediately captures alex’s ears. people running around backstage to find certain cast members and props that weren’t set beforehand. the noise and the commotion is clouding alex’s mind so much, that he doesn’t notice a familiar site walking towards him. but the sudden grip on his arm stops his thoughts and brings him out of it. 

     the exact second his eyes meet yours is like something out of a woody allen rom-com. ❝ hey, what are you doing here? ❞ he pulls you in for an immediate hug. your face shows excitement to see him, but there’s a shadow of sorrow and worry. ❝ i came to see you before i left... ❞ your words choke near the end. his hands rest on the sides of your arms and the smile that once plastered his face is slowly starting to fade away into confusion. ❝ but, i thought you weren't leaving for another month. ❞ the lights flicker in the audience. ❝ i know, i know... the studio called and they needed me sooner. i leave for london in three hours. ❞ alex lets go of your arms and his expression slightly changes from confusion to grief. the stage managers take their place behind the podiums. your hand grips alex’s as it gently slips from your arm. ❝ alex listen to me. please don’t let this cloud your mind. you have to promise me that you’re gonna go out there and make this your best performance yet. don’t let me ruin any of this for you. okay? ❞ you were on the verge of tears at this point. he lost eye contact with you at some point during this speech. he could feel tears start to fill his eyes. the first booming notes of the show roll through the theater. he looks up at you again, a single tear slipping down his cheek. you smile through the heart-wrenching pain and dab the liquid away. ❝ you’ll ruin your makeup if you keep this up. ❞ alex laughs at the comment and sniffles. you immediately wrap your arms around him and hug him tightly. alex’s head gets nuzzled into your neck as he closes his eyes and continues the gesture.

     the stage manager calls for alex to take his position. it’s so fast and so sudden that you can’t think of what you’re doing. as he pulls away from you, you plant a kiss on the corner of his lips. it’s gentle and soft just like you. and underneath the heavy makeup, you see him blush slightly. alex locks eyes with you for one more second before turning towards his place for ❛ the whole being dead thing ❜. you cross your arms against your chest and turn to head towards the door. you can feel alex’s eyes on you one last time before you walk out into the cold night.

     laguardia airport was the busiest you had ever seen it. it wasn’t a holiday or anything special. but it was just busy. as you sat at the gate, gazing out the window on to the runways of the airport, alex brightman clouded your mind. your mind was racing over the thought of that kiss. if it even counted as one. rain had started to fall down on the tri-state area the minute you had walked out of the stage door. perfectly fitting the situation you had just found yourself in with alex. from this moment on, everything seemed to go into slow motion.

      alex brightman had just given his best performance yet as the infamous ghost with the most. but it came with a cost. his mind wasn’t in the right mindset the entire night. sure, he still could act and sing and dance and kiss robb mclure twice; but his mind was fogged over with the thought of you. so much so that he had finally realized something. something that he’s known for so long. the minute he’s in his dressing room, alex grabs his phone. 

     a notification from your phone interrupts the sound of george salazar in your ear. a tweet from alex brightman. ❝ not stage dooring tonight. personal emergency. apologies ❞ 

     alex did his best to leave the theater before anyone could notice he left. leaving the majority of the makeup on his face and hands. on the street, he yelled for a taxi but found no luck getting one in all of the rain and the chaos. he yelled and yelled and yelled before the loud sound of a whistle came from beside him. a taxi immediately pulled to the side. a girl wearing a black and white striped dress and a raincoat stood next to him. her hair was black and as short as lydia’s. she smiles; looking up at the man who she had seen as an idol for so long. he smiles back at her and hops in the yellow cab before yelling at her over the rain. ❝ come back tomorrow and i’ll sign that playbill. ❞

     ❝ attention passengers. flight 238 to heathrow airport has been delayed for another forty-five minutes. we apologize for the inconvenience.❞

     ❝ hi, i need a ticket please. ❞ ❝ and where will you be flying today sir? ❞ ❝ london. cheapest flight possible. ❞ ❝ i’m sorry sir, all london flights have been booked, and the last flight leaves in twenty minutes. ❞ alex sighs. ❝ listen, there’s a girl somewhere in this airport that could quite possibly be the person i wanna spend the rest of my life with. and she’s about to leave me for a whole year. i can’t have that happen without telling her how i really feel. i just need something- anything to get to the gate in time before she leaves. please. ❞

     ❝ flight 238 to heathrow airport is now boarding. repeat, flight 238 to heathrow is now boarding. ❞ you stood from your spot and adjusted the green romper and large overcoat that covered your body. before you could even move towards the gate, the buzzing of your phone startled you in your pocket. ❝ alex? ❞ ❝ don’t say anything. it’s taking me longer than i thought, so i gotta do this now. ❞ you looked around the area confused. ❝ i think i’m in love with you.... and i don’t know what to do. ❞  you freeze in your tracks. ❝ alex... i- ❞ ❝ no-no, i just need you to listen to me. when you came to the theater tonight and told me you were leaving, it sounds weird but everything; at that moment; had started to make sense. for the past decade, i have lied to myself over and over about how i truly feel about you. saying that you and i were just friends. and now that i’m looking back at it all, i am kicking myself for not realizing all of this sooner. you have been the reason why i do what i do. i go out onto that stage every matinee and every night thinking about you. and it’s all because i love the shit out of you. ❞ you could hear the cracking in his voice over the phone. alongside the shortness of breath.

     ❝ where are you right now? ❞ you let out the smallest laugh that’s only filled with joy and shock. and before you could say anything else, someone taps on your shoulder. you turn around to greet a drippy hair, beetlejuice face, alex brightman. his phone still pressed to his ear. ❝ i’m right here. ❞ 

     alex brings one arm around your waist and brings you towards him, his lips instantley locking with yours. it’s a moment in which your mind is reeling with different emotions. first off, his lips are incredibly soft. and it’s something you’ve always imagined. you pull away from him for a slight second to examine his face. his makeup is smudging around his mouth which makes you laugh. ❝ you’ll ruin your makeup if you keep this up. ❞ alex smiles at you. ❝ fuck the makeup ❞

Caught Out!! Townsville Enterprise Doctors Political Survey Results

With three quarters of a million dollars of ratepayers money each year, this should be the trigger for a complete overhaul of this secretive, biased organisation run with staggering on-going incompetence. Theyre certainly nowhere near clever enough to successfully lie. This is a clearly partisan and lets face it, totally dumb attempt to manipulate voter intention with outright lies, and cannot be ignored even in the highly unlikely case it was a mistake. Also, Labor lass Jenny Hill believes big private business should get all the government assistance and public money they can, and although she unsuccessfully championed this for Adani, our mayor now has her public begging bowl out in Canberra for another set of n billionaires. Why The Magpie supports Israel Filou in his row with those pompous, over-stepping rugger buggers. And the legal loophole that means you can drive on illegal drugs and not be fined or detected But First Bentley will be back next week, having, as old Sir Wally Scott would put it, home(ward) his footsteps he hath turnd, from wandering on some a foreign strand. (Dear Mystified of Mysterton, it means hes back from travelling overseas sigh). So until then, for those who like a little visual titillation, heres a small selection of the state of play on the enormously enjoyable Brexit contortions.

There is a certain schadenfreude is all this fall from arrogance that prompted that famous Times headline Heavy Fog In Channel. Continent Cut Off. The Times, October 22, 1957 but this is regarded as a bit of triumphal chortle by the Times at pre-war Nazi propaganda which first invented the headline to criticise Britain in the 1930s. While Were Overseas, Lets Duck Across That Channel

It affects us all, atheists like The Pie included. But, unusually, The Pie upset a few folks in comment during the week when he posted this comment:

OK let The Magpie be the first to call it and condemn him as a negative conspiracy theorist if you will you wont be the first. But the first sign is there. The Parisian authorities have been very quick one would say with indecent and panicked haste ,. to declare that the Notre Dame fire was definitely accidental BUT THEY SAY THEY DONT KNOW WHAT CAUSED IT!!! An oddity to say the least, we know the Frogs are a rum lot, but that conclusion is mysterious. Heres a conspiracy theory for you authorities DO KNOW what caused it arson of one sort of another, and the roster of restoration workers in the building prior to the blaze will be looked at in detail. The authorities fear which some justification that if they announced it was arson immediately, with public grief, anger and dismay running so dangerously high in a population renowned for its volatility, there would be bloody chaos, especially by right wing groups who would automatically blame the countrys somewhat militant Muslim minority. And such almost certain mayhem could not be contained within the borders of France so perhaps when the cause is made public, it will either be a Watergate-style exercise, or authorities will hope if they have to announce it was in fact arson, some of the heat will have been dialled down, unlikely as that may be. Good luck, world. The Pie maintains this is a reasonable theory, reinforced subsequently by the vague official statement in the past 36 hours that the heart-breaking blaze was probably started by an electrical short circuit which may be correct, but such short circuits can be arranged (known in certain circles as a Jewish stocktake.) But humour inevitably found more than one joker making light of the tragedy we do that from a distance dont we? when a commenter posted : No one knows who started the fire, but Quasimodo has a hunch Boom-tish. Back To The Home Front, And The Dudley Do Nothings Finally Have Done Something but not only is it the wrong thing, but could be actionable . TEL ran this full page ad in the Bulletin today (Saturday), an ad which was paid for by ratepayers who involuntarily give this pointless outfit $750,000 and subsidised rent every year.

The odour of rodent was instantly overwhelming.

KAP Candidate for Herbert Nanette Radeck Particularly to the Katter Party and its candidate for Herbert, school teacher Nanette Radeck. She was quick out of the blocks soon after the paper hit the streets, to call out TEL for rigging the graph. Ms Radeck posted this immediate response on Facebook (the Paul Bunyan she mentions is the KAP candidate for Dawson.).

The most telling question posed there by Ms Radeck is motive. What on earth is a crowd like TEL doing underhand stuff like this, or will they have to admit to incompetence, which will surprise no one. Another question raised is can we actually trust the other Partys replies as posted in this ad, or have they been fluffed up to suit whatever secret agenda the TEL board, CEO Patty OCallaghan and Mayor Mullet have cooked up. TEL using ratepayers money to influence those same ratepayers how to vote while at the same time enriching the Bulletin is a closed circuit power loop at least thats what they think. What neither TEL or the Bulletin seem to realize is that no matter what the readers politics, this inept, stumblebum attempt at playing political grown-ups has further shattered credibility and support within the community for both TEL and the Bulletin. But hey, but dont worry, now that Ms Radeck has outed TEL for either their sloppy and/or deceitful actions, you may rest assured Our Jenna is on the job she has guaranteed that during this election campaign, nothing will get by her or her tough-questioning investigative journalists she said so in the paper, remember?

Or is this pic sent in by an amused Magpie reader the literal truth? Fit only for the bottom of cockies cages?

Jenny Hills Business Brainwave

No doubt inspired by the successful hordes of beggars she encountered while in India visiting her pal Gotem Adani, our Mayor Mullet has had yet another light bulb moment or should that be begging bowl moment. While in on the sub-continent, Mayor Mullet had the opportunity to take a stroll through the surrounding city streets. And it proved to be an inspirational moment. Desperate for people to believe that the unicorn battery factory will become a reality, the mayor regularly farts a rainbow update of twaddle spouted by a the Magnis company desperate to keep its wobbly share price up. Magnis and its consortium partners are considering eight yes, EIGHT Australian sites for a battery manufacturing operation. Geez, hope they dont try to play one city off against another, a sort of bidding war. Cripes! awww, no, they wouldnt dare. Desperate to breathe new life into this severely ailing unicorn, Mayor Mullet has resorted to a favourite Labor tactic; in the belief that she can scare up even more concessions of public money during an election campaign, she has dusted off the Townsville begging bowl, and is seeking commitments of $50million from both major parties for unspecified infrastructure to benefit the councils billionaire private sector partners. It was best spelt out by old blog chum Memory Man during the week in comments.

So, the cats out of the bag. The Townsville battery factory needs more taxpayer funding to work. It got $3.5m to do a feasibility study from the State; it got some form of land gift from the Council; and now, the Mayor wants the federal government to chip in tens of millions for infrastructure. What this tells us is that the business case is looking pretty shaky, because if it wasnt why would the mayor be calling for a taxpayer handout?Sure, its her general style take public money and give it to a handful or private investors or billionaires but surely she cant be that gullible. Or is it just desperation? The Pies guess desperately gullible or gullibly desperate Speaking Of Dopey Matters, Heres An Interesting Snippet From Sophisticates Corner in the Astonisher

Well, thats nothing next to our southern neighbours in NSW. Presumably this applies to Queensland too. If Thats Given You The Munchies, This Will Be Of Interest Youll know who to curse when you pay for booze and tucker at the new stadium.

The Folau Flapdoodle Dizzy Izzy is just that, an intellectually childish twit BUT a twit with rights. And Australian Rugby has clearly over-stepped the mark with their plan to sack Folau over ONE SINGLE WORD he used in a tweet professing his religious beliefs which he has a right under Religious Freedom laws to do. This is what he tweeted.

So he certainly wasnt singling out gays and in fact, The Pie felt a little put-upon himself, as he, over 70 years, fitted seven of the criteria, if you include shoplifting Freddo Frogs from J.C.Pennys in Tamworth when aged 8 got caught never again and idolised Debby Reynolds in Tammy when aged 11. But the PC drunks and fornicators at Rugby Australia decided to do some very selective virtue signalling, and have now given a eminently ignorable tweet a thousand times the exposure it wouldve otherwise attracted. The New Zealand female Goth who is somehow Aussie Rugbys boss insists it was against Folaus contract to make any anti-gay statement publicly. Well, just for starters, whether RA has the legal power to impose such a rule in a contract is challengeable when it clashes with a right to religious freedom. Lawyers are already packing hampers for another legal picnic. And if the only way to maintain team morale is to gag players and staff from expressing privately held views in privately operated public forums, then the games morally rooted off the field, matching their on-field chaos. And in all the huffing and puffing, there havent been too many, if any, voices in the gay community with anything much to say frankly, they couldnt care less, this sort of bible bashing is no doubt well beneath them. Columnist Miranda Devine is not someone with whom the Pie usually agrees, but she was eloquent in expressing her and The Pies take on this stupidity on the Today Show. Israel Folau is a sad throwback to the missionary-inspired simplistic superstitious barbarism peddled to the less aware in the basic Pacific cultures, and he is your everyday bible bashing parrot with a fairytale-fried brain whose opinion should be discounted if ever encountered. But nevertheless, The Magpie fully supports him in this matter, rather than support some self-righteous Colonel Blimps who would not allow The Magpie to express that aforesaid opinion if they had their way. And a final note to the developmentally delayed who are back there still pondering Izzys naughty list: no, my dears, idolator is not someone on the dole. Health Check-Up

Indeed, something gotta give with Queensland Health soon. And Townsville Hospital wont be exempt. Last weeks correspondent, patient Richard Bingley is out of hospital but the battle with some health services goes on. This is his update of a couple of days ago. Hi. Ive been discharged on Wednesday. The system failures continued. On discharge I was advised I was having 8 heart related medications added to what I was already on. Very important you dont miss the top two as they support the stents put in your heart and stop them from clotting and failing. The medical team advised the hospitals pharmacy spoke to my current pharmacist and provided new prescriptions and they would be ready Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday afternoon my chemist had still heard nothing. I attended dialysis Thursday then the TTH pharmacy to be informed sorry Richard we werent told you had been discharged so we havent contacted your pharmacy yet. It was sorted by 4 pm and I had to do a double up on the dosage because I missed one. Another thing identified is appointments. There are office staff tripping over each other with bugger all to do up there. I have permanent appointments Tuesday Thursday and Saturday 06.45 am to 11.15 am at the dialysis clinic. Yet when the office staff schedule an appointment with another specialist they make that appointment during dialysis time. The you beaut computer booking system cant tell the staff I am already booked in for an appointment therefore doubling up. Specialist clinics dont have computer access to recent tests. Apparently they take up to 30 days to be uploaded onto the system. In my case that lead to three ECG heart scans over a 10 day period all showed irregularities in my heart that required immediate action, none were acted on or uploaded into the system for two specialist appointments I attended in that time. The question of why the test was given three times and someone else being delayed while tests are repeated. How many emergencies could have been prevented if the checks and balances were in place. My mother is drafting a full detailed letter of the shortcomings of the system up until my heart attack. She will send it on to Ross Bates and Deb Freckleton. Along with the Member of Mundingburra (again) and to the health minister (again) and complaints system at the hospital (again) Hopefully something may get accomplished this time. Im supposed to be starting some form of cardiac rehabilitation treatments as soon as possible. In Qld health that must means 10 years at this stage. Just wont hold my breath. Pedants Corner From comments during the week. The Magpie Good news for finger weary word pedants, fed up with going back through text to change ize to ise, all the while muttering through gritted teeth something about bloody American cultural imperialism. It turns out that ise is the newcomer, for reasons not totally clear, and no less than Prince Charles uses ize because it is orginal English.

As The Guardian reports, Even the word bible Oxford Dictionary says either one is OK. Least Surprising Headline Of The Week The chickens are on final approach, undercarriage down, ready for landing back on the roost.,

In fact, staying abreast of all the happenings in America this week has kept The Magpie busier that an AFL turnstile ticket-taker. And for the first time in his experience, an unfortunate moment: never before has a President publicly and purposely used the word bullshit, but President Agent Orange (Caution: defoliates constitutions) used it several times in a number of tweets when he discovered his Mueller troubles are far from over. The fun is just beginning but the American toonist s continue to have a field day. A subtle one from The New Yorker kicks off this weeks gallery.

And Finally, For Book Lovers In these trying times for our beloved city, The Pie thinks he has found some revealing reading matter, which may clarify things for you he spied these while browsing through Booktopia. There is this handsome tome on the antecedents of our current council

which has led to this academic follow-up summation

which was then naturally followed by

But there is one book we will never get a peek into it is Jenny Hills private get even diary, The Book of Revenge.

Thats our lot for now, (full edit in the morning), hope you enjoy the rest of Easter break, and trust you find some fodder in here to inspire you to jump into comments, they run 24/7. And as always, you can help the blog to stay aloft with a donation, the how to button is below sincere thanks to those whove helped out so far, it has been of great assistance. http://www.townsvillemagpie.com.au/caught-out-townsville-enterprise-doctors-political-survey-results/

Trump wants to deport MS-13 gang members. El Salvador is dreading their return.

By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post, May 24, 2017

SAN SALVADOR--The Trump administration’s push to deport more Central American gang members has alarmed officials here who fear the returning gangsters could exacerbate violence in one of the deadliest countries in the hemisphere.

This year, the U.S. government has deported 398 gang members to this country, compared with 534 in all of 2016, according to Salvadoran government statistics. This sharp increase in the rate of gang deportations--and the prospect of more gang roundups in the United States--have prompted Salvadoran authorities to hold emergency meetings and propose new legislation to monitor suspected criminals who are being sent home.

“This clearly affects El Salvador. We already have a climate of violence in the country that we are combating,” said Hector Antonio Rodriguez, the director of the country’s immigration agency. “If gang members return, of course this worries us.”

In tweets and speeches, President Trump has made MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, the leading symbol of the dangers of illegal immigration and the need for more and faster deportations. He has compared the gang’s “meanness” with that of al-Qaeda. He promised last week that the organization will be “gone from our streets very soon, believe me.” Recent high-profile killings, such as the murder of a 15-year-old Salvadoran girl in Springfield, Va., and a string of slayings on Long Island, have fueled concerns of an MS-13 resurgence in the United States.

In El Salvador, this gang and rivals such as the 18th Street gang have terrorized neighborhoods for decades. MS-13 formed in Salvadoran immigrant communities in Los Angeles in the 1980s, building its ranks with refugees from the country’s civil war. Waves of deportations over the years helped MS-13 take root in El Salvador and grow into a powerful criminal organization with tens of thousands of members across Central America.

Since President Salvador Sánchez Cerén took office in 2014, the Salvadoran government has been on a warlike footing against MS-13 and the 18th Street gang. Authorities have deployed thousands of extra police and soldiers to hunt down gang members and limited visitors’ access to prisons in an effort to stop gang leaders from using them to issue orders to members on the outside.

Salvadoran authorities think they slowly have been making progress. The number of homicides, which peaked in 2015 at more than 6,600, dropped by 20 percent last year and has continued to fall. Even so, El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the hemisphere, and gangs regularly prey on communities, kidnapping residents and demanding extortion payments.

Law enforcement officials in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities have launched raids recently to capture dozens of MS-13 and other Latino gang members. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced this month the arrest of more than 1,300 gang members across the country in what it described as the largest anti-gang crackdown in agency history.

Salvadorans are dreading the return of those captured in the U.S. raids.

“Probably we won’t feel the symptoms today or tomorrow or the next week. But probably in six months or a year we’ll be feeling the symptoms of what these deportations are causing now,” San Salvador Mayor Nayib Bukele said in an interview.

Gang members make up a small fraction of the deportee total. Salvadoran authorities say 6,922 people were brought back here from the United States in the first four months of the year, up slightly over last year.

This year the total number of deportations by the Trump administration has dropped about 12 percent, to around 56,000 people, compared with the same period last year. Officials have attributed the decline to the fact that the federal immigration court system is overtaxed.

But the Trump administration is clearly working to expel more gang members.

“You know about MS-13?” Trump said during a speech in April to the National Rifle Association. “Get them the hell out of here, right?”

Salvadoran officials worry that although the number of killings has fallen this year, gangs could quietly be strengthening or reorganizing. MS-13 has at least 49 different “cliques” in El Salvador, according to Guadalupe de Echeverria, the head of the homicide and anti-gang unit at the attorney general’s office. Over the years, some of these cliques have named themselves after the cities in the United States where members had lived before being deported.

One important dynamic within MS-13, Echeverria said, is a recent rupture between the historic leaders, most of whom have long been imprisoned, and an offshoot known as the “503”--the telephone country code for El Salvador.

“They have already formed a new group, and very probably with deported people,” she said. “We’ve already seen a certain amount of violence between them.”

To prepare for further deportations, the Sánchez Cerén administration recently proposed legislation to monitor gang members who return to the country. Under the measure, if the suspected gangster had no outstanding warrant for crimes in El Salvador, he would be asked to check in with police once a month and notify authorities whether he moved. The law also would create “internment centers,” possibly guarded by the military, that would be something like a halfway house for returning gang members.