The finest attorney general the nation has ever had. A man of commitment, dedication but also a man of leadership and vision. Raised in alabama, became a lawyer, became a prosecutor, let me tell you a little bit about him personally. Raised in alabama, became a lawyer, became a prosecutor, became an attorney general for the state. He became a United States senator. That alone is an enormous compliment. But what he did this past year to restore the rule of law is phenomenal. Ladies and gentlemen, it is giving me no higher pleasure than to tell you you have a friend who is listening and doing exactly what Law Enforcement has asked for years. The list is long, whether it is Asset Forfeiture, returning the 1033 program, or a reversal of the cole memoranda. Please stand and give an amazing welcome to your attorney general, jeff sessions. [applause] sessions thank you, all. Thank you. Thank you indeed. Thank you. Thank you so much. I gotta say, you made my monday morning. Thank you for those great words. Your friendship and a leadership of the sheriffs association, that you provide all Law Enforcement in the country, it is indeed an honor for me. I spent 15 years as a prosecutor in Law Enforcement and 20 on a Judiciary Committee overseeing the department of justice. In a way it feels like returning home to return to that department. I love it, i respected, we try to honor it every day in what we do. I know you believe the same things, those of you and it is an honor for me to be with you and stand with you. Harold, thank you for your leadership and friendship, over 30 years of service to Law Enforcement. We appreciate that, and to the people of texas. Somebody said you have the smallest county in texas, its probably bigger than new hampshire, i dont know what they have in texas. [laughter] we also have harold. I would also like to acknowledge that we lost two Police Officers this weekend. Know you saw that, Anthony Morelli and eric jordan of westerville, ohio, shot to death around noon time saturday responding to a call for help. That is what you do, that is what your deputies do everyday. They are out there responding, trying to help people, and they are at risk every day. The American People i think know that, and the need to be respected for that. I want to join with President Trump and offering my condolences to their families at this difficult time. It is an honor for me to be with you. This association is one of the biggest Law Enforcement groups in america, more than 20,000, 75 years of history here. Thank you for what you do. I have heard how you have trained more than 1000 officers in using narcan, something we never thought about just a few years ago. An overdose reversal drug. You have donated thousands of not can kids across 21 different states and i am told you have already reversed hundreds of overdoses that could have led to death. I am also pleased to see that my home state of alabama is well represented. We have a 14 alabama sheriffs, i am told. Director bobby timmons, some of you know bobby, he has been around. He usually can be heard. Yeah, i hear you. He is right there. [laughter] also, mike hale, mike is in jefferson county. If you get in trouble on the redneck riviera, hoster will put you in jail. [laughter] i like to tell the story to foreign people, it is true. You have heard that flora bama is in his district. It is on the floridaalabama line. If they got raised in florida, they would go to the alabama side, if they were raised in alabama, they would go to the florida side. Sometimes we in federal Law Enforcement can help you by not being bound by jurisdictional limits and can be really good partners with you in important chases. I know many of you have met with President Trump, and jonathan, i think you will be doing that again. He is very open and very serious when he says i am a line order president. I doubt any president has met with more Law Enforcement groups in the time he is been there, and its not as if he hasnt had a few other things to do. He has done that regularly. [applause] i do appreciate your comments and saying we do listen, we want to be partners because we want to improve Public Safety in america. We want to see it get better, safer. We have to work with you to do that. I know that sometimes in the past, Law Enforcement has not received the support it needs and deserves. Politicians sometimes tie your hands and our hands with ineffective policies and fail to recognize the difficulties your deputies face every day. Sometimes they dont understand it or respect the importance of the work they do. This is not good. Let me say this loud and clear, President Trump and i are proud to stand with you. [applause] the most important thing any government does is to keep its citizens safe, and the first bill of rights is the right to be safe. Too often enough we are seeing bad judgment, even politics enter into the work we do. We are trying to confirm a number of important component heads of the department of justice. It is frustrating, i have got to tell you. That includes, we are being blocked from confirming the head of the Criminal Division, the civil rights division, National Security division. These are critically important components. We have outstanding nominees. Our nominee to the National Security division and Terrorism Division were approved unanimously in the community. But because of sometimes, and one senators concerns over unrelated issues like reversing federal law against marijuana, we cannot even get a vote. As attorney general, i will have the authority to Say Something is legal if it is not legal. We need our nominees confirmed. Safety and security is important. Those of us gathered here no protecting the safety and security of the American People is the mission we share. That is what we do. President trump understands that Law Enforcement officers are not the problem, you are the solution. I know firsthand the important work each of you do. I was a federal prosecutor for 14 years. It was a small office, i knew hoss back then. Now he is the high sheriff in baldwin county. I was blessed to work with law officers in my office, working cases and trying cases with them sitting at my side in federal court. I know what you do. We were a small office but we work closely with our sheriffs, and we knew our sheriffs in our district personally. And we prosecuted rafts of cases, drug cases, gun cases, International Fraud schemes, we prosecuted civil rights offenders, together we did. And you know on the question of civil rights, if one of your officers misperforms or abuses his office, ive never found that Law Enforcement objects to those persons being prosecuted. We certainly intend to do our duty there. Certain incidents within a department to not call for federal control of those departments. [applause] you have historic jurisdiction. Our chiefs of police have historic jurisdiction. States have a certain degree of sovereignty in what they do. We need to Work Together respectfully. There is nothing that i have been more proud of, i think, honestly, and felt more satisfaction from being a United States attorney in working on this case is with you, and i know you feel the same way. You are the blue line, we use that color loosely to cover our sheriffs, that stands between lawabiding citizens and criminals. Between sanctity and lawlessness. You protect our families, secure our country from drugs and violence, the people of this country, i think and am confident, appreciate what you do. I was delighted that last summer, gallup released their annual poll that showed that overall confidence in Law Enforcement increased significantly last year. That is a testament to the work that you are doing. Im not sure if you saw this, but there was a survey recently that showed more and more of our young people want to go into Law Enforcement. According to the survey, it used to be the number 10 dream job for kids under 12, Law Enforcement. Now it is number three overall, and for boys, it is number one overall. [applause] i like that. Athletes dropped while Law Enforcement went up. Ive got to tell you. That tells me we are doing something right. And what of my goals is to use what little bully pulpit influence i might have to celebrate the good things that you are doing. So, i have also been hearing from Law Enforcement that recruiting new officers is getting more difficult. Well, i think that is a very serious issue, but maybe this poll shows that we have turned the corner a i certainly hope so. We want the best people to come into Law Enforcement in feel that they are going to have a career of fulfillment and satisfaction and service to their community. We have got to keep that message out there every day. [applause] it was largely because of officers like your team the crime went down in this country over 20 years. Thats a remarkable thing. I was with former attorney general ed meese the other night, and he reminded me of what i generally know, but from 1964 to 1980, crime in america tripled. When i began as United States attorney in 1981, the murder rate was high. The murder rate has dropped to half of what it was in 1981. This is primarily the result of more sophisticated, better trained, Smart Policing and sheriffs work throughout this country. That is where most of the work is being done and we, and federal government we had honesty in sentencing. We had no parole. We did a number of things that also helps turn that side. It was a long and historic the klein, something i dont think most people in the early 1980s thought was possible it was a long and historic decline, something i dont think most people in the early 1980s that was possible. Crime went up every year during that time. So, over the last two or three years, the country, and some leaders, i think, lost some focus that led to this progress, and our work, your work has become more difficult. The result of some of our missteps is that Violent Crime went up by nearly 7 in 14, 15, and 16. Robberies went up. Assaults went up 10 . Rape went up nearly 11 . Murder shot up by more than 20 in two years. 12 percent in 15, which was the largest increase since 1968 in homicide. Another 8 next year. Meanwhile, we suffered the deadliest drug crisis in our history. With never seen anything like the 64,000 deaths we had last year. Did miss gracias, that is just unprecedented. The largest cause of death of americans under age 50, drug overdose, is really remarkable. I dont think it was a coincidence that Violent Crime and drug use rose during this time. I was reading one of our Department Funded studies that found that nearly a quarter of the increase in homicides is the result of the increase in drugrelated homicides. When i talk to people like you on the front line, they confirm that. Some think it is even higher. I know one chief of police that it was 50 . His jurisdiction dealt with drugs. That should be no surprise. If you want to collect a drug debt, you cannot sue in federal court. You collected by the barrel of a gun. Addicts also become desperate and get into all sorts of terrible situations. So, we are not going to stand by you are not going to stand by and watch violence and addiction rise. Plain and simple. We will not allow the progress made by our men and women in blue over the past two decades to simply slip through our fingers. We will not cede one community, one Street Corner to violent drug dealers or gang members. We will protect the poor as well as we protect to the rich. I know you feel that. [applause] mission. Ur that is what we are going to do. So, as attorney general, i am committed to combating violence, supporting your work. I have made it a top priority at the department. The day that i was sworn in as attorney general, President Trump send me a simple, direct, straightforward executive order. He knows how to do that very well. [laughter] he said reduce crime in america. Not preside over an everincreasing crime rate, but bring crime rates down. Well, we at the department of justice embraced that goal. We dont shrink from it, and you and i know from experience, it can be done, particularly if we are working together at a high level. Some people do not think it is possible. I think crime rates are like the tide. They just go up and down and nothing we do makes any difference, but strong Law Enforcement and smart prosecution can bring crime down. We are going to prove it can be done. It is our goal to reduce homicides in america. Not see them going up another 20 , go down. We want to reduce opioid prescriptions. Theres too much opioid prescriptions being put out in the streets today. [applause] im amazed. We have cases against doctors. We had a drug take down long ago not long ago and we had 50 doctors indicted. We have seen the data the dea is putting together in this package that shows the buyers and positions and how much is being prescribed by certain physicians. It is shocking. This has got to be stopped. People have failed to know, but you know how tough these addictions are. People cannot walk away and have a twoweek treatment and never be bothered high drug addiction bothered by drug addiction anymore. These are devastating diseases for people and they too often lead to death, family breakup, bankruptcies, mamas and daddies and men ending up in jail for some offense or another. These are the important things. We going to work on that. We are going to reduce the overdose deaths. There were 52,000 last year, 16, 64,000 in 2017. 64,000, and 2015 was 52,000. We think 2017 numbers are coming in. We think that there will be a slight uptick, but we wanted to go down this year. Down. [applause] those are explicit goals we are talking about in the department. Over the past year we have taken real action on this. In 2017, the department brought cases against the greatest number of violent criminals in a quarter of a century. We charged the most federal firearms prosecutions in a decade. I think that is a good partnership. We did a lot of those cases in the Partnership Way with our state and locals and it was a very good way to find ourselves together. Rselves we arrested and charged hundreds of people suspected of contributing to the Opioid Crisis. We secured the conviction of nearly 500 traffickers and 1200 gang members and worked with our International Allies to arrest or charge more than 4000 ms 13 members. We went down to el salvador and they were pretty supportive. That is a big problem in el salvador. That is a big problem in el salvador. They do not need to import it here. If they are caught here, they are selling dope, they are out of here. I will tell you that. [applause] that success, they did not like it, ms13. The director of the fbis Criminal Division testified recently the ms13 or team gang members back in el salvador have taken notice of what has been happening. They know that hundreds of members are now behind bars, so they are trying to send younger, more violent gang members back to the United States to replenish their ranks, but thats not going to succeed either. We are going to continue to pound them and i hope as you people are out on the street, as you identify ms13 members, you will help us because this is the most violent gang what is it and control is their motto . They are by far the most violent gang. Lets show them they cannot take over our street. [applause] i was at the state of the union and i had met in the state of new york previously some months before the mother and father of a girl who apparently disrespected the ms13 people. With baseball bats and machetes. One of them had just turned 16 and the other was a day away and they murdered them with baseball bats and machetes. This is the kind of thing we cannot tolerate in this country. Well, there is another reason. Were not going to stand by and acquiesce in sanctuary cities to nullify federal Immigration Law if they want to receive federal grants. [applause] i do not want to defund any jurisdiction, cities, states, but we want them to rethink we want them to change their policies and to start to quad cooperate with our i. C. E. Officers whose lives can be atch risk when they are chasing someone down when just a few days before they were in the state slammer. We can do better. We are not going to send funds to jurisdictions that do not meet the minimum standards of partnership. All of us have known how the detainee system has worked for decades. We are getting a lot more lawyers harassing, filing, and butcting than ever before, this partnership this jurisdiction holds prisoners for another jurisdiction is fundamental to successful Law Enforcement. It is just basic partnership. I know this is important to you. I was in florida last week and discussed our ongoing Opioid Crisis and i had the chance to meet with a number of florida sheriffs, and working with you, the National Sheriffs 17 sheriffs have worked out a statement with ice. Aliens held by these sheriffs are held under federal authority that protects these sheriffs from being sued for doing their jobs. I think that is [applause] i am hopeful that we will find it to be very successful. We have done this kind of thing before. Federal government pays and rents your spaces often to house prisoners. Maybe a good way to work this thing to ease some peoples concern by definition, it seems to me, removing such aliens, criminal aliens from our communities makes us safer, and i want makes us safer in that way. You know, if you admit somebody to the country and we cant admit all the people who apply we should admit people who are going to flourish here. We should admit people who can be successful here. We should not admit people who here to commit crimes. Why would we do that . [applause] if they enter and commit crimes, they should be sent home. Its just that simple and that is what Immigration Law has always been about until somehow we have lost our understanding of what the us of immigration the purpose of Immigration Law is. I also would ask you to consider 287g program. I think it is a fabulous program. I supported it in my early days in the senate. Alabama was one of the first states to adopt it. We will train, cross designate people in your department, in your jails so they can work effectively with federal Law Enforcement with minimum problems and maximum protection from liability problems. I hope that you will consider that as you go forward. We are already starting to see some positive signs on the crime front. In the First Six Months of last year, the increase in the murder rate slowed significantly. And Violent Crime overall Violent Crime number went down. Preliminarily, we see, in the First Six Months of this year. Publicly available data for the rest of the year suggest that we may see some further reductions there. These are major accomplishments that benefit the American People. We could not do this without the leadership of you and your department. Based on my experience, i going uphat morale is among our loud enforcement Law Enforcement community. I feel the difference when i travel across the state and it makes me feel really good. I think we have a lot of good reasons to be encouraged. Any life lost by our officers is too many, but it is encouraging that the number of officers killed in the line of duty declined last year and reached its secondmost level in more than happy century. That is something we should all celebrate and be thankful for. The number is too high, as the debt in ohio and the u. S. Marshall in pennsylvania that we lost a few weeks ago, certainly declare loudly. That 85 of Law Enforcement is state, local, and tribal . 85 . Yours are the deputies who have the critical street level knowledge, intelligence of what is happening in the community, the criminal elements. Federal officers have the unique capability to follow a case across state borders and Even International borders. We can be great partners in that way. We want to be a force multiplier for you. Our work is most effective when state, federal, and local investigators are paired with the expertise of federal law officers. I have seen it work and i know it works. We respect you. We know that you do not work for us, i can tell you that. That is why we reinstated our equitable sharing program. Civil Asset Forfeiture is a key tool. Fromevents new crimes being committed, it weakens the criminals and the cartels. Thel Asset Forfeiture take Material Support takes that Material Support of the criminal and makes it that Material Support of Law Enforcement. Funds that were once being used to take lives are now been used to save lives are now being used to save lives. [applause] there is nothing wrong with adoptive forfeitures. Congress is worried about it. We have all worked on it. Weis really important that convey to them how important forfeiture is. How it has always been a part of our system and how the Supreme Court on multiple occasions has a firm did has affirmed it. The whole thing is unconstitutional. How can it be . The Supreme Court has been ruling on this for years. Adoptive forfeitures cannot be adopted and torn down in federal court, unless the evidence your officers can bring forward is sufficient to justify a federal forfeiture. There we have the opportunity to share the proceeds with the people who did the predominant amount of work in seizing the money. It is almost all my way of observation, drug dealers with the money, and so often, 80 of the cases, dea tells us are not even detected. Contested. That mama they know did not give them 20,000 cash. For heavens sake. [laughter] [applause] you know, they used to say, well i won it gambling in las vegas. They would say, well, have you been to las vegas . But now, las vegas keeps records of that money, so they dont get away with that as much as they used to, seems to me. So criminals should not profit from their crimes. That is the first thing you want to do. Sheriff has been a longtime advocate for this approach and i particularly appreciate your leadership on it, helping Law Enforcement do their job and there are techniques and things that actually work out there, and celebrating the noble, honorable, and challenging work of our Law Enforcement communities will always be a top priority of President Trump and this department of justice. We know that this is important. So ive got two orders, actually three orders when i was attorney general. One was to reduce crime in america. The second was to protect the men and women in blue, and brown, whatever color you wear. The third order was to go after these transnational criminal organizations. That is our mission. It comes from the top. You can know that we are at it. We can do it. We can bring down crime and give every american more peace of mind, that families can let their Children Play outside and not have to do as the mother of these two teenage girls told me, that when they wait on the school bus, they have to stand with their children on the Street Corner. Something is wrong when that happens. So i want to close by reiterating my deep appreciation for the men and women of Law Enforcement, to me, personally, that you have given to me. And i want to thank every sheriff in america. Since our founding, the independently elected sheriff has been the peoples protector who keeps Law Enforcement close to and accountable to people through the elective process. The office of sheriff is a critical part of the angloamerican heritage of lawenforcement. We must never erode this historic office. I know this. You know this. We want to be partners. We dont want to be bosses we , want to strengthen you and help you be more effective in your work. [applause] the work that you do, that you have dedicated your lives to is essential work for our country. I believe it. The department of justice believes it. The president believes it, and you can be sure of this. We have your back. You have our thanks. God bless. [applause] general sessions, thank you for being with us this morning. Before you go, we want to present you with a small token of our appreciation. Pin and coin. We look forward to your continued involvement in support with the nations sheriffs. [applause] sir, i think you have a few friends in the room. And you were right, we will see the president tomorrow, a number of us. He told us a year ago that our job was to work with you and work with congress to solve many of the problems we lay forth last year. I want to leave you with one final word before i know you have to go for a family thing. You said that you have our back. We have your back and the president s back. [applause] thank you. God bless you. Attorney general sessions thank you all. God bless. [applause] here is a look at our live coverage tuesday. Mick mulvaney outlines the president s 2019 budget request. Legislative business at 2 00. On cspan2, the senate means that tenneco came to continue work on immigration legislation. Later, a Senate Armed Services subcommittee on the role in protecting u. S. Elections from foreign influence. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, journalist and filmmaker talks about her pbs frontline documentary the gang crackdown about the Trump Administration on targeting the ms 13 gang. Then mark zandi discusses stock market volatility, the gop tax cut, and rising deficits. Then were live in little rock, arkansas for the next stop on the cspan 50 capitals tour for a meeting with Governor Asa Hutchinson for discussion of key policy issues facing the state. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live 7 00 a. M. This morning. Join the discussion. Ruth gator been