Jose "Smiley" Saenz: Representing The Worst Of The U.S. And Mexico

​Jose Saenz, known as Smiley, was an aimless dropout and tagger in Los Angeles when he went on a killing binge.

He shot two rival gang members in an "honor killing," then viciously murdered the mother of his kid.

He then went to Mexico. He came back a drug-cartel solider, on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.

"The Killer of his Daughter's Mother," part of Village Voice Media's ongoing "Amongst Us" immigration project, asks:
 

How did a screwed-up teen raised in a rough American barrio rise to become one of the most vicious criminals in America, in all probability trained by cartels in Mexico, then sent back to represent the worst of both nations?