

Actual MS-13 gang members don’t bother encoding their tattoos. They straight up say “MS-13”. The gang is many things, ambuguous and shy are not two of them.
They’re kind of like white supremacists in that regard, they don’t try to hide who they are:
My kid was in your shoes about 4 years ago. He went with the SWE gig and is now making 300K per year. Of course, his specialty is AI, and he’s a cited expert with published papers and such.
No masters, no PhD. His wife also got her full citizenship last year.
But the real kicker is, if you aren’t satisfied with the three choices you’ve layed out, you must find a 4th path. Nobody says those are the only 3 choices.