The headline is going viral as if a single FBI–ICE raid just swept up thousands of MS‑13 members overnight. The reality, based on Justice Department and DHS records up to now, is more complex — and more gradual.

U.S. authorities have spent more than a decade building multi‑agency task forces against MS‑13, combining the FBI, ICE/HSI, DEA, local police and Central American partners. Operations like Raging Bull, Matador and others have produced hundreds of arrests at a time across multiple cities, and when you add up cases in the U.S., El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, officials say thousands of suspected MS‑13 members and associates have been arrested over the years.

But there is no evidence that a single, brand‑new “joint operation” just netted thousands of gang members in one strike. Real crackdowns come in waves: indictments in New York and Long Island, sweeps in Los Angeles and Maryland, coordinated stings with Salvadoran police. Press releases list dozens of names, not anonymous “thousands” from one raid.

Human‑rights groups also note that some Central American mass arrests have swept up people on thin evidence, raising due‑process concerns even as communities demand protection from brutal extortion and killings.

So the core idea — a sustained, hemispheric push against MS‑13 involving FBI and ICE — is true. The viral framing of one gigantic operation “just now” is not. The real story is slower, messier and ongoing: a long campaign of cases and courtrooms, not a single dramatic takedown.