A/HRC/11/7/Add.2 page 10 of low-skilled Mexican migrants, and migrants from Central and South America and the Caribbean who travel through Mexico en route, offering mostly employment in the low-skilled service, commercial, domestic and agricultural sectors. These migration flows fill a need on the demand side, and provide employment opportunities potentially unavailable in many migrants’ countries of origin, but there are disadvantages for migrants with irregular status in the United States. It is estimated that their salaries are 60 per cent lower than those of citizens or migrants with regular status, and they are vulnerable to wrongful termination and xenophobic and discriminatory acts of violence with no recourse or remedy. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur noted that it was not only the responsibility of the Government of the United States and members of the private sector to be aware of and change these practices, but also that of the Government of Mexico to demand better conditions for their labour force in the diaspora, regardless of their status. 2. Transnational gang networks and deportation 29. Another dimension of the migration of the Mexican (and Central American) population is its relation to the spread of transnational gang networks, and related deportation policies. This has become a regional phenomenon, with many activities in the United States and in the border zones of Mexico and Central America, and a serious threat to peace. There are two main elements of this phenomenon of interest within the discussion on the human rights of migrants one is the gang members themselves, who are often detained, arrested, abused and deported, and another is that the smuggling and trafficking of persons has become a business for many of the operators of these networks. 30. There is no agreement as to the precise origins or motivations of the gangs. Although there are numerous copycat or splinter youth gangs, the main components are divided into two rival gangs (or maras): Barrio 18 (also known as 18th Street gang) and Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13). The majority of the members are males, in their teens or early twenties. They sustain themselves by organized crime networks of smuggling in drugs and persons and extortion. They are notorious for their violence (including beheadings and mutilation), kidnappings, violence against women and their increasing geographical and numerical pervasiveness. Reports estimate there are 70,000 to 100,000 members from as far south as Honduras, spreading north to Mexico and in increasing numbers on both coasts of the United States. One cannot overstate the regional dimension of this phenomenon and its consequences, with Mexico at the centre. 31. For those members who operate in the United States, many of them Mexican (but also El Salvadoran, Honduran, Nicaraguan and Guatemalan), the principal policy response of the United States Government (Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation) has been either incarceration or deportation. The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau estimates that 70 per cent of gang members who are picked up by the police are deported; the members are often found in the United States without documentation and broadly linked to gang activity, yet sufficient evidence is often lacking to prosecute them of a specific crime. The United States Government therefore deports suspected gang members on a regular basis, flying weekly private jets of deportees and releasing them in their country of origin. Deportation further perpetuates the phenomenon and its cycle has been referred to as a