Blanche, Mullin on 'unaccompanied alien children'

[00:00:00]lives at risk. Under President Trump's leadership, the Department of Justice is working alongside HHS and DHS to secure the border and protect American communities. There's a lot of ways that we do this. It includes punishing those who exploited the system and smuggled unaccompanied children across the border during the prior administration. More than 475,000 unaccompanied children entered the United States during the Biden administration. 475,000.

[00:00:38]Over 300,000 cannot be accounted for at the end of 2024.

[00:00:45]The way that this happened was typically because the criminals calling themselves sponsors trafficked these childrens to the border, usually committing fraud to do so. And oftentimes the children were abused, assaulted, and certainly exploited.

[00:01:04]In some cases, individuals would sponsor multiple children, which required them to lie on to government personnel and on government forms, claiming they were close relatives when in fact they were not. They would use fake or stolen identities and make other false claims during the application process in order to obtain custody of the children.

[00:01:28]I think I'm stating the obvious that when government fails to protect our borders, it is the most vulnerable who suffer. And this department and this administration has zero tolerance for unlawful activity and is committed to protecting children who suffered the consequences of open borders.

[00:01:47]Today we are announcing the indictments of three individuals. Marissa Kawi Ko her brother Carlos Augustine Kawei Ko and Glattis Marina Kchen. This was out of the northern district of Ohio. All three are illegal aliens from Guatemala who allegedly took part in a wide-ranging conspiracy to smuggle more than a dozen children into the United States by scamming the system and exploiting the loopholes created by the last administration. This is one example, one indictment, but it is not unique. There are over 15,500 super sponsor cases that we have identified along with DHS.

[00:02:32]And again, this these super sponsor cases are when somebody sponsors more than three children um unrelated and they're unaccompanied minors that come in the United States. I also want to announce today from the same district in Ohio, the Northern District, the sentencing of another criminal illegal alien who was convicted, also from Guatemala. He was a 27-year-old man who came to the United States, smuggled in a 14-year-old child by submitting false paperwork and lying on the forms claiming to be her brother, proceeded to sexually assault this young woman.

[00:03:12]And I these two cases, while only two, help explain how what was going on is really the stuff of nightmares.

[00:03:20]Um now these charges um brought by the Department of Justice show the important partnership between HHS and DHS and with the Department of Justice. All of us are going after those who illegally brought children to this country. And again, these are dangerous and lonely paths from wherever they're coming into the United States. And many of them have had heinous crimes committed against them.

[00:03:48]So leading and supporting the Department of Justice's nationwide effort against um UAC related crimes is Joint Task Force Alpha. The task force is a highly successful partnership between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security and obviously we use um investigative support from the FBI and other um agencies including HHS and their Office of Inspector General.

[00:04:12]Their joint task force Alpha's mission is to dismantle human smuggling and human trafficking rings throughout the Americas.

[00:04:21]So this is a a as as is obvious from the numbers, this is a vast problem, but it's something that we're extraordinarily focused on and will remain focused on until it's completely fixed, addressed, and remedied. Um some other things that the Department of Justice is doing to combat um human trafficking. We have directed every US attorney's office that they must pursue all viable charges related to UAC sponsor fraud.

[00:04:50]All available immigration violations and any other crimes involving unaccompanied minors such as labor or sex trafficking, aggravated identity theft, or alien smuggling. Every US attorney's office in this country has a designated UAC coordinator which helps streamline communication with law enforcement agencies and facilitate the prosecution of defendants involved um in trafficking UAC's.

[00:05:15]The criminal division is led by Tyson Duva who's with me on stage. The criminal division works closely with US attorney's offices and joint task force alpha to make sure that all the resources are brought to bear on the most egregious and important cases in this space. Um we we will not accept half measures when it comes to securing the border, protecting American lives, and saving children from exploitation.

[00:05:39]In this administration, as President Trump says almost every day because it's true, the border will be secure.

[00:05:47]innocent children will be protected and sponsors should be properly vetted and those who seek to commit crimes by way of our borders will face justice. So again, I I thank everybody for being here this morning. I would like to ask Secretary Mullen to come and say a few words. Uh now, thank you.

[00:06:10]>> Thank you, Todd. And uh first of all, I want to thank the u the Trump administration and President Trump's leadership in going after the worst of the worst. You know, I I tell people that I haven't quit smiling since I I've been Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, but I have to take that back because when we start digging into these cases and you start hearing the absolute um horrific things that took place underneath the Biden administration, under true neglect at best and criminal at worst, to allow 450,000 kids to go missing throughout this country. President Trump has made it a point to go find these kids because of our partnership with uh HH HHS and DOJ, Department of Homeland Security truly using the best of the best, which the Democrats sometimes want to demonize because a lot of times this is ICE, this is HSI, this is CBP.

[00:07:17]these individuals that the Democrats seem to want to defund, but because of President Trump, we finally funded them for three years, were able to push and go find these kids. We found 146,000 kids so far.

[00:07:33]146,000 kids. We still have nearly 300,000 missing. We're we're investigating reports to where some of these kids claim that they were raped six to 700 times.

[00:07:49]I don't care who you are. I don't care if you have kids. If you don't have kids, I don't care if you're a liberal, you're independent, you're a Democrat, you're Republican.

[00:07:58]If you can't stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you?

[00:08:07]Who are you? Every leader should understand what's going on. And do you know where we're finding the most of them?

[00:08:15]Sanctuary cities.

[00:08:19]Because they know they're safe.

[00:08:22]That's why they're called sanctuary cities. Because of President Trump's leadership, we're going into those sanctuary cities.

[00:08:30]We have mayors like Mandami in New York who want to say, "You're not welcome."

[00:08:37]as a mayor, he knows what's happening on the streets. He knows who he's harboring. And at this point in a bait by saying that we can't cooperate, we're going to we're going to go find the worst of the worst. We're going to rescue as many kids as we possibly can.

[00:08:56]We're going to enforce our nation's laws and we're going to write the wrongs that the Biden administration turned a blind eye to. It's because of President Trump's leadership.

[00:09:07]horrific to what's happening right in our own country because of four years of a blind eye that allowed unvetted sponsors to come pick up 450,000 kids on our borders knowing their reports why the Biden administration was in office their own reports was reporting that over a third of the females, regardless of age, was sexually assaulted before they made it to their border.

[00:09:47]They knew it was human traffickers that were trafficking these young kids to the border and then they were unvetting or or refusing to vet the so-called sponsors and there was zero wellness checks and they want to claim that Republicans because we're enforcing the laws is inhumane somehow.

[00:10:16]What's inhumane about taking care of our kids? As a father of six with three young girls, I will do whatever I have to do. I will I will move heaven and hell to go find these kids. And guess what? The same individuals that the Democrats want to demonize every single day, which is our law enforcement, is out there doing that job. And I am proud as I can possibly be to sit here as secretary to say because of our relationship with DOJ, with HS, HS HHS, and this administration, we're going to find you. And those that prayed on these young kids, we're going to bring you to justice.

[00:10:59]We're going to charge you. And we're going to work side by side with Todd Blanch and DOJ to make sure you pay for your crimes.

[00:11:08]So, I want to thank President Trump. I want to thank Secretary Kennedy. I want to s thank Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch for helping us fight against the worst of the f worst and bringing them to justice.

[00:11:27]>> Thank you very much, Secretary Mullen.

[00:11:29]Um, Angie, you want to say words?

[00:11:32]>> Good morning. Thank you. I'm Angie Salazar. the acting director of office of refugee resettlement. Today's announcement confirms what we already knew that during the Biden era, human smuggling networks exploited the immigration system and open border policies to profit and further their criminal enterprise at the expense of vulnerable children. You've heard the scale of the problem over 450,000.

[00:11:57]I just want to emphasize those children were all referred to or R. That is an average of more than 300 children per day for four years. By law, ORR is responsible for the care and placement of unaccompanied children. In principle, that responsibility should mirror the standards of the American foster care system, which demands rigorous background checks, vetting of caregivers, uh financial stability verification, and home visits before a child is turned over. Instead, these children were released to adults who were rarely seen in person. They were sent to addresses that were not visited or verified. The children were shuffled by contractors through airports and delivered to unvetted sponsors.

[00:12:48]In 2024, the DHS Office of Inspector Inspector General reported that nearly 300,000 of those children could not be accounted for. We continue to hear claims that this was merely a paperwork issue. It was not. When the government lacks reliable contact information or an effective means of tracking children, that is a child welfare failure. OR suspects that over 40 unaccompanied children are linked to this organization via aliases, documents or addresses. And this is exactly why ORR reforms are necessary. Under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy and President Trump, OR has reviewed our data and identified over 81,000 addresses that were used repeatedly to take children, over 76,000 instances where mandatory safety checks were missing, over 97,000 cases that lacked background checks, and instances where fingerprint and DNA and human trafficking risks were either not required, ineffective, or applied in an inconsistent manner. manner.

[00:13:58]The Trump administration has taken immediate action to find these children um and closed the loopholes. You've heard to date we've located with Department of Justice and and DHS approximately 146,000.

[00:14:13]Some have been located that were sexually assaulted, others deceased, and some committing heinous crimes.

[00:14:20]So what has changed today? OR requires valid identity documents, fingerprint background checks. We identify repeat sponsors. We require DNA testing when family relationship is claimed. We also verify income and we uh physically most importantly we physically verify the homes, the addresses, and we meet with sponsors in person. And for the first time, OR is in lock step with our law law enforcement partners to identify bad actors and protect children. We are prioritizing child safety over placement speed and modernizing our systems to strengthen oversight and accountability.

[00:15:02]Every child referred to OR O to O's custody deserves protection. Thank you.

[00:15:15]Thank you, Acting Attorney General Blanch and Secretary Mullen and Acting Director Salazar. I'm Tyson Duva, Assistant Attorney General, and I run the Criminal Division. The Criminal Division is at the forefront of some of the department's most important initiatives, uh, including going after people who abuse and exploit our most vulnerable, our children who arrive at our borders alone. In the Northern District of Ohio, which is under the leadership of United States Attorney David Ter, our offices are partnering together to announce the charges that acting attorney general Blanch described as three Guatemala nationals and the sentencing of the fourth. All living in this country illegally and all tied to smuggling of unaccompanied alien children into the United States. And I'm going to talk about those cases a little more specifically. Marita Koek Ko was arrested in Ohio for leading an alien smuggling network and submitting multiple fraudulent sponsorship applications for unaccompanied alien children. Marissa's brother Carlos Kek Ko was also indicted for his role in that conspiracy for smuggling including for one of the children that Marita helped smuggle into the United States.

[00:16:25]Another, Glattis Marina Colchen, who was herself fraudulently sponsored and smuggled into the country as an unaccompanied child, now as an adult, is charged with doing the same thing. We also secured a prison sentence yesterday for Juan Tiel Xi, who lied to obtain custody of a 14-year-old girl and then sexually assaulted her. He will serve a total of 10 years in prison based on his state and federal convictions.

[00:16:53]These cases tell a story. First about the crimes that people commit to come to the United States illegally. The dangers and risks associated with that often long journey, including tragic consequences of vulnerable children being subjected to smugglers who exploit them, often sexually and physically. And second, how criminals use a child protection program to commit fraud.

[00:17:19]In the Marita Coak Coke case, between December 2020 and October 2023, Marita submitted sponsorship applications using others identities, falsely claiming him to be childrens of close relatives to obtain custody of them. She used other people's birth certificates, Guatemalan consular ID cards to deceive ORR, even submitting photographs of herself holding someone else's ID. Several of those applications were successful, causing the ORR to release children to her care. This was a business. Payments were deposited into her and her co-conspirator's bank accounts. Two weeks ago, agencies Marit agents searched Marita's residence in Cleveland, Ohio, and found Marita and eight other adults and four minor children living there. Nearly all the adults were illegal aliens. Four had themselves been accomp unaccompanied children. This case highlights the fraud and abuse perpetrated by illegal aliens and exposes how this government program was manipulated to bring children to the United States and deliver them to unvetted people. Juan TLG is a separate case. He was sentenced yesterday and those convictions stem from alien smuggling, making false statements, and aggravated identity theft. In September 2023, G arranged for a coyote to have a Guatemalan family's 14-year-old girl illegally enter the United States. He submitted a sponsorship application and lied that the girl was his sister. He was entrusted with her care and sexually assaulted her multiple times. She told her the sex was repayment for bringing her to the United States. 14 years old.

[00:19:03]For Z's state and federal convictions, he will spend the next 10 years in prison.

[00:19:08]Since day one of this administration, Joint Task Force Alpha, led by the criminal divisions, human rights and special prosecution section has stepped up to the challenge and quickly assembled a team of prosecutors to work with OR and HSI and other investigative partners in these area. The cases announced today are just a snapshot of the important work and there are others.

[00:19:32]In Louisiana, we convicted an illegal alien from Guatemala who submitted a fraudulent sponsorship application, falsely claiming the child was his brother. In Georgia, we indicted two illegal aliens from Honduras who targeted a child online, lured her to the United States, and filed a fraudulent sponsorship application to gain custody of her. In Kansas, we indicted another illegal alien from Honduras and a Kansas woman for fraudulently seeking to obtain custody of a UAC. The charges and sentence announced today are the work of law enforcement cooperation, HHS, OIG, HSI, FBI, and our partners at HHSR.

[00:20:15]I would like to again recognize US Attorney David Ter for his leadership and excellent partnership on these cases charged in this district and the prosecutors and agents on the line who handled the cases, did the complaints, brought them to grand jury and handled the sentencings. There is much to be done and under the leadership of acting attorney general Blanch and Secretary Mullen, we will do the work. Thank you.

[00:20:42]>> Thanks, Tyson. Uh, okay. So, we'll take a couple questions on what we're here for today.

[00:20:47]>> Go ahead.

[00:20:48]>> Um, so I have an on topic and an off topic. The on topic is first of all, is this is this problem still widespread?

[00:20:54]Is it being completely stopped?

[00:20:55]Secondly, you said you located 146,000 of them and 300 are still 300,000 are still out there. What's what's their fate? Are they being deported or are they being allowed to stay in the country?

[00:21:06]>> So, let me Secretary, do you want to address the first question and then I can handle?

[00:21:11]So, um, on on the 146,000 we found with the sponsors, uh, though some of them were just wellness checks that we went through, uh, that were maybe not vetted correctly, but the the the child was okay, the person was in the country legally, uh, we were able to check that off. Other ones were criminal, so those that, uh, were exporting the children were charging. DOJ is helping with that.

[00:21:36]Some were in labor trafficking uh rings.

[00:21:39]Some were in sex trafficking rings. Uh some we couldn't maybe uh prove that either the child was being utilized in that way because the child was refusing to speak. Uh we have either found legal sponsors for the child and then have gone through the process of deporting the individuals. The vast majority of the 146 though were obtained illegally.

[00:22:02]The vast majority and so charges are still moving forward with those. We can I I'm not able to um release the exact number of the individuals that were being the children that were being exported um and and trafficked. As the the gentleman spoke right before me, some of the some of the individuals now that were brought over are children are now now adults. The ones that are here are adults. We're working on the process of sending them back.

[00:22:27]>> So this widespread and then I have a second question. Still widespread.

[00:22:31]>> Go ahead.

[00:22:32]>> Is this still a widespread problem at the border? And then I have a second off topic >> whether it's well >> I mean it's not wide sport spread. I mean I think it's pretty I don't think there's any dispute. The borders have have been closed to folks that are not are not allowed in and it's been that way for over a year. But yes, we are still dealing with a crisis in this country from what happened for four years. And and and the one of the reasons why we wanted to have you all here today is to remind folks of the crisis that was created that we are still dealing with. When you when you talk about numbers and you say 450,000, all right, and then you say 300,000 are are still are still unaccompaned for at least partially. And then when you look at the great work we've done in a year, a 100 plus thousand. That's all great, but there's still a tremendous amount of work left to do. I mean, that's that's And will we be finished in a year? No. No. I mean, this was a a problem that was created for a long time. It's hard to find. I mean what what what acting director Saler talked about is true like you you have all the over 81,000 addresses in this country had multiple unaccompanied minors um associated with those addresses >> and that that that's the the crisis we're dealing with >> on the UFC on the UFC fight.

[00:23:50]>> I'm I'm not going to talk about the UFC fight. We're just here to talk about this >> order if he does order that that it be blocked. I >> I'm not going to talk about the UFC fight. We're here just to talk about why we're here today. Go ahead.

[00:24:01]>> Thank you. Um Just a clarifying question on that. Why would children not be eligible for U or T visas even if they've aged out? And uh second, if I can, are there still efforts to expand child and family detention uh for processing these people or these uh ch migrant children?

[00:24:19]>> Who wants to answer the first question?

[00:24:21]Just question. Uh yes, if they're if we identify that they're victims of crime, which is what the you know 26 crimes under the U visa or tra human trafficking, right? Held against their will for commercial sex or forced labor, they will still be eligible. Of course, >> people aren't being or those children or if they've aged out, they're not being deported >> even if they've aged out. If you're like the laws here, if you are a victim of those crimes that law enforcement certifies them as such, then they're entitled to those.

[00:24:52]>> Um, other questions?

[00:24:54]>> Sorry. And the second on detention.

[00:24:55]>> Yeah. What's the second one?

[00:24:56]>> Is there are there still efforts to expand child and family detention?

[00:25:00]>> To expand child and family detention. I don't know if that's >> So, we have we [clears throat] only have one family detention center right now and it's in Texas. Um because of President Trump's secure border and uh we have zero coming into the country illegally at this point. Uh we uh the detention center is not even close to being at capacity. So we're uh those that are being held there. We're looking for placements and and trying to get them back to the country where they came from and entered the country legally from.

[00:25:30]>> On zero people crossing the border, the Saber program run by counties in Arizona through California. They are saying that they're still seeing uh unapprehended crossers. The apprehension rate is 33% there. So people are still crossing the border.

[00:25:43]>> So when you start when we start talking about zero entries, there's no one that we're apprehending that we're allowing into the country. I'm sure there are some gotaways uh because we're still building the wall to secure the border.

[00:25:54]But that number is extremely small. We went from having tens of thousands a week, sometimes in a day to uh single-digit numbers. But we aren't able to see that. That's why we're building the wall. That's why President Trump has made it a priority to get the wall built from the Pacific to the Gulf of America.

[00:26:11]Uh we will have the primary wall completed um probably this time next year and we'll just have very small corridors uh for individuals that's going to be trying to enter the country legally where we can allow them to enter uh enter if they truly have a claim or have the right paperwork in place. But we are allowing no individuals to claim asylum to come into this country unless they can truly prove by legal statute what they have to require, not because they say it the correct things on the on on a handwritten card, but prove that they have an asylum need.

[00:26:44]>> Thank you, Secretary.

[00:26:46]>> Thank you very much. Um, question for the attorney general and question for Secretary Mullen. Attorney General, uh, I heard Secretary Mullen call this true neglect at best. I'm wondering what is the evidence that government officials knowingly participated? In other words, are you alleging that the previous administration knowingly approved sponsor placements despite knowing there was evidence of fraud? Or are you alleging failures in screening and oversight? And can you just talk about the evidence that might support that distinction and be specific about how it applies to a certain number of cases?

[00:27:19]>> So, I I don't think it can be disputed that the last administration knew this was happening. I mean, putting aside the public reporting about it at the time, for many years during the Biden administration, we didn't um go and hire forensic accountants or um rockstar federal agents to find out the data we're showing you. It's data that the government had and that government possessed. And so there were individuals occupying positions of leadership in this country that knew this was happening and either, and this is what Secretary Mullen was talking about, either didn't care, encouraged it, or a little bit of both.

[00:27:56]I I don't think that that can be disputed. I don't think you're going to get DHS officials from the last administration um telling you, "Oh my gosh, we're shocked. Wait, you're telling me there were hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors? Oh my god, I had no idea. That's not true. Of course I knew." And so I don't and and where and when you talk about um the outrage that is is hopefully coming through from what Secretary Mullen said and what what I'm saying now, it should be outrage amongst everybody that this happened and and it did happen. And and so whether somebody closed their eyes to it and whether somebody just, you know, was negligent or whether it was something much more intentional and and part of a policy that was in place to to literally just have open borders, including unaccompanied children who were being abused and trafficked. Um, that's not for me to answer. But I will tell you that this is not something that we that we had to dig far and deep um to to uncover. I mean, we've been talking about it since January 20th, but but and we'll continue talking about it, but yeah. So, I don't look, I'm not I'm not indicting um indicting the the the past leadership right here on this podium, but you also cannot ignore um what was an incredible um dereliction of duty at at best.

[00:29:11]>> Encouraged though, is quite a charge. I mean, what evidence evidence do you have of that?

[00:29:15]>> What evidence of what? To say that it was encouraged this behavior is quite a charge.

[00:29:20]>> Well, you can insert whatever word you want. I said encourage. If if you know there's a problem and you're in a position of leadership to stop it and you don't stop it, what word should I use? I mean, I I use the word encouraged. If it isn't as if this was a a single day problem, you have a situation that happened over a number of years. They knew it was happening. It was brought to their attention it was happening. Um and and they didn't do anything to stop it. As a matter of fact, when you look at the end of 2024 and there were 300,000 like you just think in your mind the that number and or the number of of young children then we had no idea where they were in this country. I mean that's that's um I I continue to use words encouraged. So >> I want to give you an opportunity to respond to that and answer that. I also want to ask you specifically about some of the sanctuary cities as well as where these kids are coming from. if you can be more specific about some of these problem cases. I also do have an off topic question.

[00:30:17]>> So, uh I don't think I need to explain what I said any more than what I said.

[00:30:21]Uh it's negligent at best and criminal at worst when you're not taking care of the kids that you're entrusted to take care of. Negligence can turn into criminal. Now, that doesn't mean we're going to go after the individuals, but you can't, as as acting uh attorney general said, you can't just simply turn a blind eye to it and say it wasn't happening. You can't even deny that.

[00:30:42]Everybody in this room knows it was happening. It was being reported at the time it was happening and there was no outrage and no one tried to hold these people accountable. And kids now have been paying for it. They've been getting raped over and over and over again because this pre previous administration chose not to enforce our nation's laws and protect the most vulnerable. That is shameful.

[00:31:07]>> I want to ask about immigration policies that are already shaping the World Cup.

[00:31:11]At least one referee from Somalia and one Iraqi team staff member were denied entry at US airports in recent days and dozens of fans have been denied.

[00:31:20]>> Call it you call it politics.

[00:31:22]>> No.

[00:31:22]>> What' you say? I forget what how you started that question.

[00:31:25]>> Policies.

[00:31:26]>> Yeah. policies are we're not going to allow people that have criminal or maybe perceive to be have criminal ties to come into this country. I don't care what your situation is. Um we I'm not going to get into why we denied this individual, but there's a reason why this person was denied it. Now, the left media wants to go out there and report and say this guy's a victim of because we're, you know, anti-Somia. No, we're not. We work closely with FIFA um and the administration on a regular basis.

[00:31:51]We talk to uh FIFA and their directors constantly. Anybody that was denied, we made the case for and showed them why they were denied. Now, to get into specifics of it, I'm not getting into the specifics of it, but Iran chose a um uh that was a difficult path. If there was any country we wasn't going to allow in here, Iran would probably be the reason why we wouldn't allow them in here, but we did. And we worked closely with the individuals with restrictions.

[00:32:16]And uh and so there was multiple more than just these two. There was multiple individuals throughout um I mean, we have a World Cup here. We got a lot of countries that doesn't exactly have access to the United States and we did a phenomenal job on getting as many people cleared as we could but some people just can't clear and that's just the way it works with getting a visa to come to this great country.

[00:32:39]>> Yes.

[00:32:40]>> Thank you. Um how does the partnership with law enforcement that you've described change your ability to find and protect these children? And then secondly, how many of these children have you been able to reunite with their families in foreign countries?

[00:32:54]>> Well, first of all, let's talk about the 287G program, which is the greatest partnership we can have. It's shameful that we have governors like in Virginia and governors in in uh New York and governors in California and and uh and other sanctuary states that are refusing to allow their own law enforcements to join in the 287g program where we simply go after the worst of the worst. And we say to local law enforcement, the state enforcement that if you will help us, you don't have to enforce. Just if you run across these individuals, keep them.

[00:33:27]We'll pay you for your time. and we'll even give you some of the equipment and we'll pay for some of the equipment.

[00:33:31]Just hold them and we'll come pick them up. And and we have sanctuary states now that are popping up and like New Jersey that are [clears throat] saying no, it's against the law for any state agency or any any local agency to join in the 287g program to enforce our nation's laws. I don't even know how that's possible to be honest with you. Why wouldn't you want to take the worst of the worst off your streets? Why would we allow it? Let me just give you one statistic. 50% of all the murders has happened in Fairfax County are by illegals. 41 individuals in Tennessee have been killed killed this year by illegals. Well, in the last calendar, in the last 12 months, why why would any politician say that we wouldn't want to get those individuals off our streets? Why wouldn't they want to partner with DHS and the 287G program to help rid this type of activity out of our country and out of your communities? And um I can't make sense of stupidity sometimes. Uh we allow political theater to get in the way of actual law enforcement. And all we're saying is let's protect our streets and let's make sure that our kids can go play in our yards, that you guys can go on a run in the mornings.

[00:34:50]You that live in Washington DC, do you know what it was like two years ago, what's it like today? Can you go run streets? Can you go run the capital and feel safe? Could you have done that 18 months ago?

[00:35:04]No. And you know that. But because of President Trump's strong push for law enforcement, our communities and our cities are becoming safe again. Why wouldn't any elected official want the same in their backyard?

[00:35:22]>> You spoke about Mayor Mandami and sanctuary cities.

[00:35:26]>> Um, >> how do you envision the operations from your department in New York or other sanctuary cities as compared to what happened in Minnesota or California prior to you? When you take when you take somebody like Mandami who is just this radical socialist that's anti-law enforcement, anti- police, it's shameful because NYPD PD is awesome. They're phenomenal to work with. They have the best crowd procedures. Uh they have the best law enforcement agency. I'd put them up against just about any city around the country and they have a pride about them of doing so. But you got a mayor that's not allowing them to do their job. And it's shameful. All these guys in the NYPD, they just want to go to work. They want to do something that they feel like they were called to do.

[00:36:12]And they're great at it. But they got a leader that's handcuffing them. And um hopefully people in New York will, you know, will wise up and get a true leader in there in in a few years.

[00:36:25]>> Operations look different than Minnesota or California. Well, if we had partnership with NYPD, we could clean that city up in 30 days.

[00:36:35]I mean, I mean that sincerely. We could clean that up with President Trump's leadership and us flexing with the ability we have. We've seen it happen in in Memphis. We've seen it happen in New Orleans. Uh we've seen it happen right here in Washington DC. We know how to do it. We just got to have, you know, politics set aside and let law and order uh be be the uh the mainstream of why we decide we going to do what we're going to do. I >> have one on topic and then one off topic. You said you and the mayor don't get along and you're expressing concern about some of the governors and sanctuary states that you call. What are you willing to do to bridge that gap?

[00:37:14]>> I'll work with anybody that's wanting to to work with us. I when I got um sworn into office, I said, "I don't care if you got a blue state, red state, blue city, red city. I don't care what it is.

[00:37:24]I'll I'll work as hard to protect my backyard as I will to to protect yours.

[00:37:28]I don't see color when we start talking about law enforcement. Uh what I see is criminals and we're going after them."

[00:37:36]Uh we've reached out multiple times through this whole FIFA and we can't even get past the first person at the desk. Uh so I'd sit down and talk to him anytime. I don't think really think we're going to get anywhere. I think President Trump tried that and you see the way he treated President Trump I mean President Trump literally brought him into the Oval Office let him stand beside him uh tried to actually give the olive branch and say listen we can set our political difference together but President Trump loves New York City he loves the Knicks too obviously um and um and the fact that the the way the mayor treated him once he left the oval office will tell you what type of man he is.

[00:38:09]How many of these 81,000 that you've got identified there? How many of those are have criminal um cases that you're that you're trying to pursue?

[00:38:22]>> I'll leave that. I'll let our attorney general answer that.

[00:38:24]>> What was the question about how many are >> 10,000 addresses? Um how many do you know have committed crimes and people there have committed crimes? I don't have I don't have the numbers in front of me, but just it's not as the point of that number isn't that there are 81,000 criminals. It's just a sheer number. So, some of them it might make sense why there's three um unaccompanied minors that are not related in one house. Um maybe, you know, depending on the circumstance. So, it's not it's not that every single one is a crime, but when you when you heard what what what the work that that that is being done to it's as simple as a site visit or simple as a a forms check to make sure that that everything's in order. So, for some of those 81,000, yes, I'm sure it's fine. For some of them, there are horrible crimes being committed. And so, we announced a couple charges today.

[00:39:11]There's a Tyson talked about ongoing cases that I think, you know, joint that that we're working on. It is a big priority in every US attorney's office.

[00:39:20]And so I think that I I expect you'll continue to see the the results of that.

[00:39:24]All right. Thanks a lot everybody. I appreciate it. Thank you.

[00:39:30]>> Any evidence of