Immigration and Border Security policy. Thank you very much. Please. What a group. This is a very talented group of people. Well, i thank you very much. We need talent for what were doing, believe me. Were here to discuss the tremendous threat of ms13, one of the most violent and vicious gangs anywhere in the world. Weve really never seen anything quite like this, the level of ferocity, the level of violence, and the reforms we need from congress to defeat it. Im honored to be joined by dhs secretary neil sen, top officials and federal Law Enforcement and our local sheriffs, great, great sheriffs. Were also joined by congressman peter king. Peter, thank you. Congressman lee zeldin, lee, good to have you. Martha, martha mcsally. Good, i hear youre doing well out there. Thats what the word is. Congresswoman barbara comstock, thank you, barbara, nice to have you. And congressman Michael Mccaul whos been an expert. Ms13 recruits through our broken immigration system, violating our borders and it just comes right through whenever they want to come through. They come through. Its much tougher now since weve been there. But we need much better border mechanisms, and much better Border Security. We need the wall. Were going to get the wall. We dont have the wall, were never going to solve this problem. Ive gone to the top people. Many of these people are at the table right now, including this group. And without the wall its not going to work. During my state of the union, i called on congress to impose the loopholes that have allowed this deadly gang to break so easily into our country. My administration has identified three priorities. We went through and looked very closely. Weve identified three priorities for creating a safe, modern and lawful immigration system, securing the border, ending chain migration, and cancelling the terrible visa lottery. Weve been discussing it, talking about it in congress, talking about daca and how we can work that out. And i think the democrats dont want to make a deal. Well find out. As Congress ConsidersImmigration Reform, its essential that we listen to the Law Enforcement professionals in this room today. So im going to turn it over to secretary neilsen, well begin a discussion, and you folks might want to stay for a little while. Secretary . Mr. President , thank you for hosting this round table today on ms13. As you know, its the first gang dangerous enough to be classified as a transnational criminal. Weve talked at length of the destruction and violence it causes in our communities. Were here today to hear from a variety of folks who work every day to combat this. Its my privilege to be here of the men and women of dh sprks and doj who make it their job every day to fight this and other violence. And also, members of congress, we thank you for your support of dhs and doj. Thank you all. If your recently announced framework, as you know, you asked congress to close loopholes you just talked about. When we talk about ms13, we have two or three main loopholes. The first is we have an inadmissibility problem. When they come to our border, i have to let them in. I cannot keep them out by virtue of being in a gang. Once we detect these things are unique to our country. No other country has this. This is unique to our country. Its got to change. So the framework that proposed will close these. I remain hopeful to work with congress on your behalf and administrations behalf to close these and other loopholes to secure our borders. So without going into further detail id like to turn it over to john cronin. He will walk us through a bit more of ms13. As you know, mr. President , as you just stated, one of the most significant Public Safety threats that our communities face comes from ms13. Ms13 has more than 30,000 members worldwide. But the gang has a particularly massive and troubling presence on United States soil. The numbers are staggering. An estimated 10,000 ms13 members are living in our country. Theyre primarily composed of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from el salvador and they have infiltrated our entire country. Ms13 members in 40 states and the District Of Columbia. It is estimated there are upwards of 2,000 ms13 members in los angeles, between 800 and 1,200 in dallas and houston. 2,000 in long island, 800 and 1,000 in boston. And 3,000 members right here in the d. C. Metropolitan area. And mr. President , as you just said, ms13 is probably the most ruthless and violent gang terrorizing our streets today. One of their mottos is means kill, rape, control. And mr. President , it is a motto that ms13 lives by. Ms13 members engage in indiscriminate violence, they commit rape, extortion, murder, often just for the sake of it. They recruit children to be their murderers. They gang rape young girls, sell them for sex. They attack their victims with chains, bats, machetes, firearms. A photo up there, mr. President , of a shotgun and a machete that was recovered from ms13 members who were stopped by the police as they were on their way to murder a student at a high school in woodbridge, virginia. In january of last year a 15yearold girl from a suburb of d. C. Was stabbed 13 times with knives and a wooden stake by ms13 members. Her killers filmed her murder so that they could show their leaders back in el salvador. And her body was then bar barically dumped next to railroad tracks. You know the story of two teenage girls who were best friends and were savagely murdered by ms13 thugs in september 2016. You had their parents as guests at the state of the union. A year before that, four ms13 members in boston lured a 15yearold boy where they took turns stabbing him to death. The four murder ers passed around two knives as they methodically ended his life. The next photo, mr. President , are the remains of someone suspected of being a rival gang member. Ms13 members lured their victim into the woods of central long island where they beat him with sticks and a fire extinguisher and then cut his throat with a pocket knife. Once dead, the savages sadistically stuffed his body into that Drainage Pipe where it went for months without being discovered. In october of 2013, ms13 members murder someone they believe to be a snitch in a park in falls church, virginia, stabbing him with knives and slashing him with a machete. When they were done they buried the body in a shallow grave in the park. A few months later in the very same park, ms13 members murdered a recruit who had violated murdered a recruit who violated gang rules. They severed his head and they buried his body as well. Thats the first of the two shallow graves used to bury the two bodies and the second of the two graves. Shallow graves used to bury two bodies in a park just about 10 miles from here. We cannot and we will not let our neighborhoods be overrun by Violent Crime. And that is why dismantling violent gangs and specifically ms13 is a top priority of the department of justice. Like i said, mr. President , ms13s motto is kill, rape, control. The attorney general Jeff Sessions has said before, the department of justices motto is justice for victims and consequences for criminals. And we, too, are living by that motto. The department of justice is devoting the resources necessary to ensure that our citizens are no longer being held hostage by murderous savages like ms13 members. And it is working. Last year, the department secured convictions against more than 1,200 gang members. We charged the most federal firearm prosecutions in a decade. We brought the most cases against violent criminals in at least a quarter of a century. And we also are enhancing the capacity of the northern triangle countries, el salvador, honduras and guatemala. So they can combat ms13 themselves. This past summer, attorney general sessions visited el salvador, where he met with the El Salvadoran attorney general melendez to discuss joint efforts to dismantle ms13 at its roots. Soon after that meeting, 700 gang members were charged in el salvador. Mr. President , in total, our work with our Central American partners has resulted in arrests and charges against more than 4,000 suspected ms13 members. And we will not stop. The department of justice will be surging more federal prosecutors, hundreds of federal prosecutors to the field with specific directions to focus on Violent Crime and immigration. And we will continue to use our robust criminal statutes to arrest violent criminals for whatever crime they commit, murder, racketeering, kidnapping, Drug Trafficking and get them off our streets. But, mr. President , because ms13 is based and operates in el salvador, and ms13 largely directs its Murderous Mission from prisons in el salvador, it is not enough to enforce our Domestic Violence crime laws against gang members in the United States. To effectively combat transnational organized crime, we also need enforcement of our immigration laws. The reason ms13 is so massive in our country, the reason why they have 10,000 members in 40 states and the District Of Columbia is because many of those gang members have illegally entered our country. Now, the department of justice and our state authorities can continue to prosecute scores of ms13 members located in the United States, but when we fail to enforce our immigration and human smuggling laws, when we have loopholes in our immigration laws and when we have porous borders and insufficient enforcement of our immigration laws, ms13 can simply replenish its jail population by sending more and more gang members across our borders. And that is why the department of justice under the attorney generals leadership is also focused on stopping the flow of criminal aliens entering our country. The attorney general has directed his prosecutors to renew their focus on immigration offenses, especially for offenders who have a nexus to gangs or drug cartels. The attorney general has sent additional prosecutorial resources to the southwest border and he has created Border Security coordinators in each United States attorneys offices. They have been tasked with enforcing our immigration laws with a special emphasis on criminals like ms13 with a nexus to the southwest border. And lastly, mr. President , on the smuggling front, the department of justice is working with the department of Homeland Security to identify smuggling routes and to investigate and prosecute ms13 Smuggling Networks. Mr. President , the department of justice, along with the department of Homeland Security and our federal and state Law Enforcement partners, is committed to taking all lawful measures to end this scourge of terror to our communities. Thank you, john. This is actually removing thousands of them out. Some into the prisons, but literally thousands of people are removed out but they come back as fast as we take them out. Different ones. Not even the same ones. Different ones. But they come back. And we need these immigration laws changed. Were just not going to be able to continue to do this. They just come in so fast, so easy, and then you have catch and release. You catch people and you have to release them right away. Not another country in the world has the stupidity of laws that we do when it comes to immigration. If we dont get them changed this isnt politics, this isnt republican and democrat, this is common sense. So it has to be it has to be taken care of. Okay. Sir, its my privilege to introduce you to angel melendez, the special agent in charge of our i. C. E. Office in new york city. Im extremely proud of everything our hsi office does all of them, but new york in particular leads the fight against ms13 and they truly day to day put their lives in danger. He does a terrific job. Angel. Mr. President , good afternoon. This is quite the privilege to brief you on some of our efforts. One of the things that is very important to address when were talking about ms13 is that this is a war. Were at war. A war in their countries against the command and control. Its an issue that were facing at the borders. Once it goes beyond the borders, its a war that were battling on the streets. With our local and Law Enforcement partners. The most important the most important piece to any strategy in addressing ms13 is collaboration, intelligencesharing and Immigration Enforcement. Collaboration across the spectrum, across the continuum with countries such as the northern triangle countries where we do have vetted teams of Foreign NationalLaw Enforcement officials working side to side with hsi and cvp in those countries. Locally, we do the same thing. Weve been able to effectively implement a unity of effort within the department of Homeland Security where all of its agencies, all of its components that have a direct nexus to Immigration Enforcement and to controlling the borders are working together to face ms13. One of the things thats we look at is elicit pathways. How do they get here . Who brings them here . And what weve been able to see is that ms13 is not an organization that has their own smuggling apparatus. So they do utilize other organizations that are completely experts are complete experts in the smuggling aspect. Last year we were able to convict an individual who was responsible for a Smuggling Network of special interest aliens coming in from pakistan through brazil to central america, mexico and the United States. Its that same type of elicit pathway that ms13 exploits, and we continue to work with our attorney patterns and our state and local partners and dhs partners to be able to identify those pathways. Capacity building and nationsharination informationsharing is extremely important. If we take the fight in their own territory, its less of a fight that we have to face here. But not withstanding that, once theyre here, we have to address it. So they came across the border. Now we have to look at how can we curtail recruitment . So when we look at the numbers, and im just going to talk about numbers as of and this is posted on the website already for the office of Refugee Resettlement. In 2017 alone, 2017 alone, 40,810 unaccompanied alien children were placed for resettlement. These arent the total amount of uacs that were detained at the border, these were the ones that were referred to be resettled within the United States. When you look at the demographics, it turns out to 21,881 of them are from northern triangle countries, they are in the right age for gang recruitment between the ages of 13 and 17 and they are males. I am not saying, and i want to be clear, that 21,000 of these unaccompanied alien children are gang members. What im saying, understanding ms13, is that theyre looking at these 21,000 unaccompanied alien children that came into the states as potential recruits to continue to fill in their ranks. Another aspect, another thing that weve been able to look at is across certain operations that weve been able to manage throughout the last couple of years, 30 is a consistent number that weve seen of ms13 members that have been arrested that are that came into this country as unaccompanied alien children. Specifically in new york, another another point of interest that weve been addressing or weve been looking at is the special immigrant juvenile program. 63 of the unaccompanied alien children had filed for this immigration status that provides them a road to a green card, to lawful permanent resident and eventually even to citizenship. This alien is able to apply to cis for this state. Now one of the things that weve seen is we dont know whats in the family court records. So we cannot utilize any information provided in those proceedings to validate with the information that we either have because of the encounter at the border or because of the process over in the local office. Finances. Finance is another important aspect of ms13. Weve been able to identify a very complex integral scheme of the way they move their money. Were not no way, shape or form are we talking money cartel type money, were talking about money theyve utilized to be able to finance not only their movements but their daytoday operations. Money that is coming from the states back to the command and control in the northern triangle. One of the most important tools that we have in our arsenal is the designation of ms13 as a Transnational Criminal Organization by the department of justice. The department of treasury i correct myself. I have and i have to say it, i have a i have numerous pages of talking points of things that i can talk about, but i want to give you, mr. President , our perspective from the field. When you have agents going out identifying based on intelligence and conducting targeted enforcement operations, they apprehend these individuals that were able to determine that are ms13 members and once they are presented to the immigration judge for detention purposes, we explain that these individuals are a threat to society and they are ms13 members, but we cannot provide all the information that we have because in many instances the information that we have is part of an ongoing criminal investigation. These individuals are being released. Then we have to utilize their resources to focus on these individual whos have been released. So from our perspective from the field, there are many things that could be accomplished within immigration immigration law. But i can tell you from my perspective of what im seeing on a daytoday basis, we have agents going out, we have agents arresting and then we have these individuals who were arrested being released again. Through our efforts since 2005, i. C. E. Has arrested over 7,000 ms13 members. In this quarter, this last quarter of 2018, weve been able to arrest 428 ms13 members. That talks about the numbers. So we know or we understand based on intelligencegathering that there are thousands of ms13 across the country. There are even more in the northern triangle and in mexico. Weve seen a presence in the country north of us, in canada as well. The fact of the matter is that we continue to arrest, we continue to arrest, and since we havent been able to shut down the pipeline, they continue to come into our country. It is something that we need to address to be more effective in disrupting and dismantling once and for all ms13. Thank you, sir. We need cooperation from the democrats, you know that. Because we have to change the rules. We have to change the laws. Thats all part of what were trying to get approved. Becauses rig because right now, the way it is right now, you cant do that. Everything is illegal. You cant touch. You cant do anything. If we dont get those laws changed, we will do better than anybody can do, but still, it will never be satisfactory. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Id like to ask the u. S. Attorney for the District Of Columbia to give us a few examples of cases that shes worked. Thank you very much, secretary nielson. Thank you, mr. President , for inviting me to be here to talk about ms13 and what were doing to combat it here in washington, d. C. As the u. S. Attorney for the District Of Columbia, my top priority is the safety of the people who live and work here, and that means protecting them from vicious criminal gangs like ms13. So in recent years working with our Law Enforcement partners, weve successfully prosecuted a number of ms13 leaders and members for murder, maiming, racketeering and other crimes, and a number of those individuals are now serving prison sentences of life or even beyond. In one case, a woman in d. C. Took in an ms13 gang member from her home country of el salvador and allowed him to live with her and her family. The gang member then began recruiting the womans son, who joined ms13. And when she objected, the gang member shot her in the head as she was waiting at a bus stop three miles from where were sitting right now. Then shot her again in the head as she was lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Miraculously, mr. President , she survived but she was permanently blinded by that attack. In another case my office handled, ms13 members repeatedly stabbed and killed a 14yearold boy near the Columbia Heights metro station, thats about 2 1 2 miles from where were sitting right now. In yet another case, ms13 members attacked a fellow ms13 member who had removed his gang tattoos. They stabbed him at least 20 times and killed him. We believe that these prosecutions, which took many years to build, help disrupt ms13 in the District Of Columbia, but we know that it continues to operate here in this city as well as next door in virginia and maryland. Were particularly concerned its international reach, including its violence and drug dealing and its efforts to recruit young people. Thats why we work every day very closely with our fantastic Law Enforcement partners at i. C. E. , at the fbi, at the metropolitan Police Department and other agencies, as well as our strong allies in the community who work to dissuade young people from joining gangs like ms13. Mr. President , were very grateful for the support that youve given to our efforts, for our Close Partnership with the secretary and her team and from the guidance and resources from our colleagues at main justice like mr. Cronan and i thank you again for the opportunity to brief you on this today. Thank you, jessie. Thank you very much. Id like to turn to director cissna, who youve been hearing from a lot as we work to revise our immigration system. Hes going to talk more about the backlog and how that further exacerbates this program. At the outset of your remarks, you talked about the power pillars of Immigration Reform that the administration is advancing right now. Getting rid of chain migration, the visa lottery, Border Security and some sort of daca fix. This issue of gangs attaches itself to each of those in a different way, and i think Border Security, obviously, if the border is not secure, its not just a question of border integrity or the integrity of our immigration laws, but as agent melendez just described, if these people are coming through because the border isnt secure, it harms Public Safety and the interior as well. Its all connected. With respect to the other three, any Immigration Program that has little to no selectivity is going to potentially allow malified actors to enter into the country. If the law does not help us. One thing, i want to amplify on something the secretary said. She talked about the loopholes weve also been struggling against and the priorities weve been advancing. The loophole that she talked about was that there are no grounds in the law right now that permit us to deport a gang member merely because he is a gang member. We have to wait until theyve actually killed somebody or harmed an american before then we have a reason to deport them. Then we can get them. If theyre here unlawfully, okay, but if theyre here lawfully and theyre a gang member, there is no ground to remove them. Similarly, there is no ground of inadmissibility. We assistant stop them from coming in and my people may have to grant them an immigration benefit because there is nothing in the law that makes a gang member merely because theyre a gang member ineligible for that benefit. Indeed, they might even get citizenship under the law right now. You have to have whats called good moral character to become a citizen, but gang membership is not explicitly on the list of things that makes you not qualified for good moral character. We can take it into account, we can look at it, weigh their gang membership against other things in their life, but we are not required to deny them citizenship. This is untenable. And i urge the members of Congress Sitting here today to help us fix that. That is a horrendous loophole. It affects Public Safety, it affects the integrity of our laws. It cannot stand. Thank you very much. Thank you. If i could turn it over to the sheriff from Loudoun County. If you could give us some perspective from the field. Thank you, mr. President. Im the sheriff of Loudoun County. Honored to be here. We represent probably one of the Fastest Growing wealthiest counties in the nation. Forbes magazine said one of the happiest counties in the nation. Despite that, we still have gang problems out there. A couple of years ago, we had two gang homicides directly involved ms13 members as both against 18th street member so they were both the victims and at assailants in this. One was a 16yearold boy waiting to get on the school bus. Got gunned down while just getting ready to go on the school bus. Another victim was stabbed 17 times. He was jumped by other gang members and stabbed 17 times. So its a very real problem out there and we have to be concerned about that what we do enforcement wise, and also being a full service sheriffs office, we also handle the jails. We have to make sure that anybody we get into that jail that is an inlegallegal alien, make sure we notify i. C. E. Weve had a great relationship with i. C. E. And theyve come and gotten practically everybody weve had in the jail. We notify them as quickly as we can in advance, and we do that. Now, we have a great relationship with our state and local counterparts, were part of a 12agency team that surrounds the washington, d. C. Area and that team is responsible for really going after many of these gang crimes that you see in the particular area. Its great. Im formerly with Drug Enforcement administration, so ive been able to leverage my federal partnerships with the dea and the fbi to make sure were all part of the same team, working together with Homeland Security, hsi, we have somebody on the task force. There we have members cross designated to fbi to us, us to them, so were trying to make sure that we have a robust interrelationships going on with everybody in the area to make sure that were not missing the trick when it comes out there to who is who, what theyre doing and how we can best go after these people. We also, and i know i worked quite a bit with congresswoman comstock here and i know shes pushing a bill here, project safe neighborhoods. I dont want to steal your thunder, but were looking to get additional funding to make sure we sustain this Northern VirginiaGang Task Force because it has been so successful in the area. Thank you, sir. Thank you, schiff, very much. I want to say, sir, i think what youve heard on this side of the table is it takes a whole of government approach and were able to do that under your leadership, which we appreciate. Its state and local and federal partners and also our international partners. I think youve heard a lot as well that were trying to work with the originating countries to help stop that. But you can only do as much as the law permits. Yes. And the law doesnt permit you to do very much. Yes, sir. Less than any nation in the world. If other nations see what were doing and they do watch what theyre doing, they laugh at us. They cant believe that, you know, these policies where you cant get people out that you know are killers, literally killers, and you have to release them. Were going to change it. One of the things that well do is have much better cooperation because some countries we not on top of everything else, we give them tremendous amounts of aid and they wont take their killers back when we have them, is that a correct statement, sheriff . They wont take them back. They say, no, we dont want them, yet we give them billions of dollars in aid. I told my people, anybody that doesnt take them back, we immediately say, thats okay, we just saved a lot of money. Were not going to do it. Immediately they start taking them back. Thats happened on numerous occasions. Theyve never done that before. They never thought it was appropriate to talk about aid and the money we give these countries foolishly. Id like to hear from michael and peter and lee real quickly and barbara, if you could. And as just as to what you think. Because i know youve been suffering with this. Peter and michael, i know youve been so much into it. This is what you do. Youve been suffering with this whole thing for a long time. One of the things that were trying to do is in the legislation were talking about, we have a lot of laws that nobody even mentions, but they have to be changed. They have to be gotten rid of. And we have very tough provisions for coming into this country. And it will cover you, and i think were very specific as to what we have to do. Yes, sir. We stop catch and release. We stop a lot of elements of what we have that are very, very bad and very dangerous for our country. Michael . Thank you, mr. President. Madam secretary. I was a federal prosecutor in my home state of texas on the border. Ive seen the heinous murders you talked about. The first bill i introduced was to end catch and release and here we are still talking about that problem. The difference, sir, is that youre president of the United States. The difference is that now we have the political will in washington to finally fix this problem. Ive seen it for a long time as chairman of the Homeland Security committee. You know, secretary kelly talked about Transnational Criminal Organizations possibly working with terrorists to get into the United States. I think thats the worst Case Scenario that we worry about is a special interest alien terrorist getting into the United States and killing americans. Thats our utmost responsibility. As you know, chairman goodlatte, myself, Marta Mcsally have worked to introduce a bill to achieve your four pillars of Border Security, authorizing a wall barrier system and technology and personnel and boots on the ground, ending chain migration, this lottery system that is totally random that really makes no sense. We have two terror attacks new york that were a result of those two programs. Then finally, fixing daca. But i just cant tell you how refreshing it is to have the leadership at this table all across federal, state and local paying attention to this very important issue. Its a Public Safety issue, but its also a National Security issue, and its time to finally end these dangerous loopholes. When i talk to the secretary, she says i dont have the authority to deport these dangerous criminals. Ive been down to the detention spaces. Ive seen these teenage males. That their home becomes ms13. That becomes their family. Then theyre a threat to our society. So we want to give the secretary that authority to end and close the dangerous loopholes so we can deport and remove these dangerous criminals from the United States. So as you know, we cant do a job, these incredible professionals at the table cannot do their job unless we change really the legislation. Were going to get it done. Frankly, ill go a step further, if we dont change the legislation, if we dont get rid of these loopholes where killers are allowed to come into our country and continue to kill, gang members, and were just talking about ms13. There are many gang members that we dont even mention. If we dont change it, lets have a shutdown. Well do a shutdown. And its worth it for our country. Id love to see a shutdown if we dont get this stuff taken care of. So we have to strengthen our borders, not by a little bit but by a lot. We are so far behind the time. By the way, the world is laughing at us because they cant believe these policies. They dont have it. I could name 15 of them right now. No other country in the world has what we have. And were going to get it stopped. If we have to shut it down because the democrats dont want safety, and unrelated but still related, they dont want to take care of our military, then shut it down. Well go with another shutdown. Okay. Peter king . Thank you, mr. President. Let me thank you for your leadership. I cant emphasize enough how serious the ms13 threat is on long island. My district alone, we had 17 murders in 18 months. You were out there, you went to brentwood right in the belly of the beast and saw what happened. Let me especially thank special agent melendez. They do a phenomenal job. He is really on the line. Also, i want to thank you, mr. President , apart from providing the leadership, which is so important. Also, grants into the Suffolk County police. More u. S. Attorneys are going into the Eastern District of new york. Operation matador has been extremely successful. All you can do is go after them once there here, but we need better policies to keep them from cup coming here. Angel mentioned the unaccompanied children issue. Six of 11 were committed as unaccompanied minors. I think we have to do more through hhs and the office of Refugee Resettlement to find out who these families are that the kids are being placed with. Theres been intelligence the Suffolk County police showing that often you have ms13 in el salvador actually either pressuring families on long island to take these kids or these families are ms13 families to begin with. Yet, local police are not notified often when these kids come in. There is only a prefunktery followup. If the family is going to be taking one of these kids in. Theyre going out and recruiting in the schools. 99 of the kids are good kids, but more than 30 of ms13 are these unaccompanied minors. Ive been to brentwood schools, seeing the harm that these kids are causing. Again, there is no followup by the federal government, really, as to families to what these kids are doing. A lot of the followup isnt allowed, you do know that. Right. The legislation doesnt allow you to go and do the followup, which is just crazy. If a foster child is placed with a family, there is more followup by the government. This is something i would really ask to be addressed, that we vet those families that the kids are going with and also stand with the police. We had the local socalled immigration advocates that fight angel, i. C. E. , hsi, the fbi, the local police, claiming this is some kind of a plot to deport everyone. When you talk to the victims, like the families you had, they will tell you they want you to do whatever you can, go in harder than ever. Within a mile of my house, theyre digging for bodies. This is serious stuff. I would say stay on it, mr. President. I know the problem theyve got. Theyve moved a lot of them out. We move them out and a new group comes in. Thats it. Because the laws are no good. Right. The laws are no good. The people we have, these people are the best. But the laws are no good. If you had the right laws, your job would be 100 easier, angel. Do you agree with that . Yes, mr. President. Were going to get them for you. One way or the other, were going to get them. Barbara . Thank you, mr. President. Thank you for the opportunity to work on this. I know this is included in some of the other legislation, but we did already pass in the house the criminal alien gang member removal act. Thanks to a lot of the people here around the table and thanks for the support from Homeland Security and justice. We had bipartisan support for that bill. Let me point out. We had over a dozen, i think a dozen or so democrats on board and i think we already have some democrat senators who indicated they would support that. That would make being a gang member a deportable offense. So i would certainly encourage our senators to get that on path quickly and then weve also the Northern VirginiaGang Task Force that i have in my area, we have seen Great Success when they were funded to where they need to be funded because they can assist they work with i. C. E. I was able to go out on a ridealong last summer with i. C. E. And with our local Law Enforcement. We picked up four gang members in Loudoun County and Fairfax County just on a friday night. A 22yearold gang member that we just picked up at a Shopping Center as people are going by with strollers and kids. He had been deported twice, he had been in jail for killing a teenager in el salvador and has come back here. Some of the technology they have that if we fully fund the Gang Task Forces, we can just take his thumb, but it on like an ipad that they have and we immediately could see his criminal record. So that night when we picked him up, i. C. E. Picked him up, we were there watching, they immediately, you know, put him in their car. They were they asked him to, you know, lift up his shirt, covered with gang tattoos. He put his thumb on that ipad and they we saw his whole record. So i asked our i. C. E. Agents who were there local, how many of these do you have . They said we only have two of these. These arent expensive items. If we can get this 50 million that is actually already gone through the judiciary committee, bipartisan support, everybody, all the democrats and republicans supported it, and we can get that in place. Those that two pieces of legislation will be a big help in addition to the things my colleagues are working on, and i would improlore, since i am jus over the river near the cia and sheriff chapman is the sheriff of the largest county. We dont need a Government Shutdown on this. Both sides learned that a Government Shutdown was bad. It wasnt good for them. We do have bipartisan support on these things. I think we need to talk about these cases that are going on. Weve had eight or so the Washington Post has done some actual great reporting. These are all stories about the gang killers recorded a teens final moments. People here live in fear just seven miles from the white house. Theyve before covering this and people know on a bipartisan basis this problem and we can we are not getting support from the democrats. You can say what you want, were not getting support from the democrats on this legislation. If you put this bill up in the senate, you will see a lot of we have to get that. They are not supporting us. Allow the secretary to stop them at the border and if theyre here, get them out quickly and have that alone be the deportable offense. Thanks, barbara. Lee . Mr. President , thank you. Its not just an awareness that you and your administration have towards the issue that were facing in Suffolk County on long island, but you have proven that you will do absolutely everything in your power to address a very personal issue for us. Last year, we had one woman in greenport on the north fork of long island who was murdered, allegedly, by a person who was an illegal immigrant, removed from our country and returned again. Were just hearing a story of the Indianapolis Colt player who was murdered was killed as well in a crash. Its a matter of physical security, quality of life, its a top priority for us and youre going to do everything in your power and we appreciate it. Just last week, a school board in my district was forced to take action against its own town for 10. 5 million in costs incurred due to massive overcrowding in local schools. Last year, 498 motel rooms were occupied by Illegal Immigrants who use this housing yearround. Residents have asked the town of southampton to enforce the towns safety codes and force the motel owners to comply with local Law Enforcement and in hampton bays as a result years later of one year after another of Southampton Town not doing the right thing with code enforcement, ms13 is committing heinous crimes in hayton bay, in the town of southampton. We hear in the news the horrific murder that took place of four enterands, two from my district, two from petes district with machetes. The crimes we dont hear the Human Trafficking and sex trafficking and Drug Trafficking, its all so important youre focused. Great appointment of rich donahue. Former 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper. He cares deeply about combatting ms13. Chain migration, visa lottery, temporary protected status, all these issues that were talking about, having a border wall making sure its funded. Temporary protected status. Temporary. Why is it that 16 years later someone would be in our country under something called temporary protected status . It proves that something is wrong with our immigration system. Were talking about unaccompanied minors. In that Central American country where that parent chooses to turn their kid over for a Dangerous Mission to the United States, and along that journey maybe before they get to the border, we hear these stories in correctional facilities held at gunpoint. They have to smuggle narcotics across the border if they want to complete their mission. The entire process from when their parents turn them over to when they end up in, say, brentwood, theyre completely set up for failure. America is a compassionate country. We have compassion for every child living in poverty, oppression, Gang Violence anywhere in the world, but we dont have the bandwidth for every parent to turn their kids over for this mission and to come to our country. And one other thing that i know you deeply believe and your passionate about is that the American Dream and hope and opportunity and everything that we want for people who come to our country believing in american exceptionalism, that this is the greatest country in the world, what about the person who is not here yet because they went to local consulate and said i want to pursue the American Dream for my family, and because theyre following the rules that they should wait in line behind the people who violated them is absolutely wrong. The project safe neighborhoods was brought up. This is an Important Initiative for our county as well. 500,000. It was amazing how far 500,000 went in Suffolk County to support our local Law Enforcement. You also helped secure through doj the designation of ms13 as a target of the organized crime Drug Enforcement task forces. Its a nationwide effort that utilizes the resources and expertise of our leading Law Enforcement agencies to disrupt the drug traffickers, a way theyre getting a lot of their money. Congress reauthorized money for the Bulletproof Vest Grant Program with bipartisan support. To echo one other point that was just mentioned, if someone is applying for status and they are a gang member and they get naturallilization. They should lose that if they were not honest. If its two years later or seven years later, even if they were completely honest on their application that they hadnt committed offenses in the past, if five years later theyre involved in a gang and they commit a serious offense, take away their naturalization. There is ant opportunity if youre given the opportunity to be productive members of our great country. Once again, thank you on behalf of a region of our country that desperately needed your leadership. We know that we have it we know that you have our back. I do. Thank you. Thank you very much, lee. Martha . Thanks for the opportunity to be here and thanks for your leadership on raising awareness of this dangerous gang and our broken immigration system and our failed border policies of the past. I represent a southern border district. Im also the chair of the subcommittee on maritime ranchers, border residents are having to deal every single day with the threat of gangs and other criminal organizations coming straight through their property right around their families, endangering the lives as theyre trafficking through. This is very real for the people that i represent. I appreciate your leadership on these issues. Weve got to secure our border. That includes, as you know, a Strong Border wall system and everything that our agents need in order to be able to secure as border. As everyone has brought up today as well, if we suspectly seal the border and we dont close these loopholes, these dangerous criminal organizations are going to continue to take advantage of us. In my community, the Border Patrol agents that i represent, they are telling these stories daily where theyre not evading Border Patrol, theyre looking for Border Patrol. They turn themselves in to Border Patrol and then they take advantage of the fact that they cant be turned around, that they make false asylum claims that the cartels have told them exactly what to say in order to make that false claim. If theyre an unaccompanied minor other than from mexico and canada, theyre released quickly into the interior of the United States. We cant do anything about it. Most of them dont show up for their court dates in the future. The criminal organizations are profiting off of taking advantage of these loopholes in our system. Our bill, chairman mccaul, myself, chairman goodlatte and labrador, we address these issues and your priorities and were gaining traction in the house on people getting behind our bill. Its common sense. It also includes the inadmissibility and closing that loophole, the bill weve already passed through the house. We believe this is the right piece of legislation to address your priorities and get it across the finish line. Who can be against this . Weve got to address these issues. This is not a game. This is serious business. I really appreciate your leadership and your whole team raising awareness. Daily peoples lives are in danger as youre out there going after these guys, but weve got to stop them where i live, at the border, that includes Border Security and closing these ridiculous loopholes that is in our legislation. So were going to tirelessly work with you to get this done, mr. President. Thank you, martha, very much. I just looked at the secretary and said did you take care of every one of these loopholes because were not going to have a second chance. We have one chance. We dont want to do a half baked job. So one chance, so, secretary, get it right. Get it right. Were going to go through hell to get this stuff approved, peter and michael and lee and barbara. Martha. Were going to get it approved. We have no choice. Its not like we have a choice. Its really its common sense but its much above common sense. So you have to have every one of these loopholes taken care of so we dont have to go through this anymore. No one else is going to be able to get it done. No, just under you. I just want to thank everybody very much for being here, friends and talented people. If we put our heads together, were going to solve this problem. With all that was said, were doing much better than any administration by far, by far. Nobodys even come close. But still, we have a long way to go. We can only be as good as the law. Thats right. Right now we want to do things, well, there is a law against this, there is a law against that, there is a law against everything. We have people coming into the country, you cant get them out and its ridiculous. Nobody even believes it. So we have one good shot at it, and its now. Yes. Hopefully you get it done. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Appreciate the time. Thank you. [ inaudible question ] i would shut it down over this issue. I cant speak for everybody at the table, but i will tell you, i would shut it down over this issue. If we dont straighten our our border, have a country. Without borders, we dont have a country. So would i shut it down over this issue . Yes. I cant speak for our great representatives here, but i have a feeling they may agree with me. Okay . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, press. Appreciate it. Thank you. A recent media report reveals military investigators have documented at least 500 cases of serious misconduct among generals, admirals and senior civilians in the last four years. The pentagon has created programs designed to try and prevent misconduct by military leaders and improve transparency. Well get an update front Different Military branches at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing at 9 00 a. M. Eastern here on cspan. The emerging threat that weapons of mass destruction pose in the hands of terrorist groups and other countries. Were live at the Senate Subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities at 2 30 eastern. Thats also on cspan3. You can follow both of these hearings online at cspan. Org or with the free cspan radio app. Sunday night on after words, black lives matter cofounder pa treat conkellers with her book, when they call you a terrorist kwn a black lives matter member war these interviewed by author and journalist toure. As we created black lives matter, we knew we have to get people on board. We have to also interrupt when people try to coopt black lives matter. So we spent a significant amount of the first year ensuring that it wasnt coopted, challenging people in our own movement sometimes, people that we love and artists to not say our lives matter, to not use it to say other communities matter, but to really focus on black people and to be okay and be allies and be in solidarity with black people. Then we took it out to the world. Watch after words sunday night at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 2s book tv. Cspans history series land mark cases returns this month with a look at 12 new Supreme Court cases. Each week, historians and experts join us to discuss the constitutional issues and personal stories behind these significant Supreme Court decisions. Beginning monday, february 26th, live at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. And to help you follow all 12 cases, we have a companion guide written by veteran Supreme Court journalist tony morrow, land mark cases volume 2. Next, the author of a new book on the u. S. Senate talks about the recent partisanship in the senate. Ira shapiros book is broken can the senate save itself and the country . He spoke at the brooking institute