From the white house, it is just under an hour. We are here to discuss the tremendous threat of ms 13. One of the most violent and vicious gangs anywhere in the world. We have not seen anything quite like this, the level of ferocity, the level of violence and the reforms we need from congress to defeat it. I am honored to be joined by secretary nielsen. Top officials and federal Law Enforcement and our local sheriffs, her great sheriffs. Were also joined by congressman peter king. Peter, thank you. Congressman lee zelman, good to have you. We have barbara. Thank you barbara. Nice to have you. Callongressman mike Mullen Michael mccaul. To our broken immigration system, by letting our borders and it comes right through whatever they want to come through. It has been much tougher since we have been there. We need much better border mechanisms and much better Border Security. If we dont have the while we will never solve this problem. Without the wall, it will not work. State of the union i called on congress to close the immigration loopholes that have allowed this deadly gang to break so easily into our country. Identifiedration has we haveiorities, identified three priorities for creating a safe, modern and level integration system securing the border, and in chain migration and canceling the terrible visa lottery. It,ave been talking about were talking about it in congress, daca and now we can work that out. I think the democrats dont want to make a deal that we will find out. As Congress Considers immigration reform, it is essential that we listen to Law Enforcement professionals in this room today so i will turn over to secretary nielsen where we will begin discussion and you people may want to use date for a little while. Roundtableu for the on ms 13, it is the first game dangerous enough to be classified as a transnational criminal organization. We have talked at length of the devastating construction and worknce and we are here to to combat this. Dhs is the men and women of to make in the job every day to fight other violence, cross our borders and to be joined by members of congress have some great leadership. To close thengress loopholes you just talked about. When we talk about ms 13 we have two or three men new pose. The first is we have an inadmissibility problem. When it comes to our borders, i have to let them in. I cant keep them out by virtue of them being in a gang. Once we catch them, i cannot remove that by virtue of them being in a gang. This is unique to our country, no other country has this. This is unique to our country. That has to change. These are other loopholes to secure our borders. So without going into further detail, this is the acting assistant attorney general. Mss will be a bit more of 13. Significante most Public Safety threats that our ms 13. Ty has comes from ms 13 has over 30,000 members worldwide. The gang has a particularly massive and troubling presence on United States soil. The numbers are staggering. Ms13imated 10,000 members are in our country. Mexico and el salvador and that infiltrated our entire country. This is the District Of Columbia, it is estimated that there are upwards of 2000 members in los angeles, between 800 and 1200 in dallas and houston. 0 in long island, 800 8001000 in boston. Mr. President , as jesus said, ms 13 is probably the most ruthless of gangs terrorizing the streets today. Kill, their mottos is rape, control. It is a motto that they live by. . S professor smith jeanne 13 recruits children to be their murderers. They gang rape young girls. They sell them for a fact. They attacked their victims with chains, machetes, firearms. There is a photo of a shotgun and a machete. That was recovered from the members were stopped by the police as they were on their way to murder a student on a high school at a high school in woodbridge, virginia. Year, the of last 15yearold girl from a suburb of d. C. Was stabbed 13 times. They filmed her murder. This way they can show their leaders backing up. They were barbaric white dumps next to railroad and seven. Two teenage girls who were best friends and murdered by ms 13 times in september of 2015, this was the state of the year. That, in september of 2015, four ms 13 members of boston lord a 15yearold boy where they took turns stabbing him to death. They passed around to knives and they methodically ended his life. Those are the remains of someone who is expected to be a rival gang member. Ms 13 members lower their victims into the woods of centralize up Central Islip in long island and then cut their throats with a pocket knife. Once dead, they stuffed his body into the drainage pipe. It went for months without being discovered. Ms 13 members murdered someone they believed to be a snitch in virginia. They stabbed him with knives and 10 with machetes. And they were done, they buried the body in a shallow grave in the park. Just a few months later in the very same park, ms 13 members murdered a recruit who had violated game rules. They severed his head. They bury his body as well. Buried his body as well. Here is the second of the two graves. Shallow graves used to bury two bodies in a park 10 miles from here. We cannot let our neighborhood be overrun by Violent Crime. That is why dismantling violent 13 is a tops priority of the department of justice. Thatsessions has said theyre looking for justice for victims and consequences were criminals. 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 matter is cited savages murderous savages like ms13 members. We have charged the most federal firearm prosecutions in a decade. We are enhancing the capacity of the northern triangle comp countries. Ms 13. Y, they can combat this past summer, Jeff Sessions visited el salvador where he met with the el salvador attorney general. They discussed efforts to 13. Antle ms this has real resulted in arrests and charges. We will not stop. The department of justice will be starting more federal prosecutors to the field with specific directions to focus on Violent Crime and immigration. We will continue to use our robust civil statute to arrest violent criminals for whatever crime they commit. Murder, racketeering, kidnapping, Drug Trafficking and get them off our streets. Mr. President , because of this salvadorg based in el and they largely direct printers missions from prisons in el salvador, it is not enough to enforce the Domestic Crime laws. To effectively combat transnational organized crime, we also need enforcement of our immigration laws. Reason ms 13 is so massive in our country, the reason why they have 10,000 members in 40 states and the district of many of thebecause members have illegally entered our country. The department of justice and our state authorities can continue to prosecute scores located in the United States but when we fail to support the human smuggling was when we have loopholes in our immigration laws and when we have insufficient enforcement of our immigration laws they can replenish the jail population. They send more and more gang members across our borders. That is why the department of justice on 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 focus on immigration offenses. Has sentney general resources to the southwest border and has created for security coordinators in the united state attorneys offices. They are tasked with enforcing our immigration laws. Especially of criminals like ms 13. 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 ms 13 Smuggling Networks. The department of justice along with the department of Homeland Security and our federal and state Law Enforcement partners is committed to taking all presence inend this our committee. Quite this is after removing thousands to the presence. They come back as fast as we take them out, different ones. Not even the same ones. They come back. We need these immigration laws changed. We are not going to be able to continue to do this. They come in so fast and so easy. Then you have catch and release. Worldother country in the has the stupidity of laws that we do when it comes to immigration. This isnot politics, not republican and democrat, this is common sense. It has to be taken care of. It is my pleasure to introduce you to angel melendez. This is the special agent in charge for our ice office in new york city. Im extremely proud of everything our office does. New york in particular needs the fight against ms 13 and they put their lives in danger. Is a president , this is some of our efforts, one of the things that is fairly important when we are talking about ms 13 is that this is a war. We are at work, a war in the countries against the commandandcontrol. It is an issue we are facing at the borders and want to go but be on the borders, it is a war we are battling on the streets. With our local and lawenforcement partnership. Piece to anyrtant strategy in addressing ms 13 is the collaboration and Immigration Enforcement. Collaboration across the spectrum with countries such as the northern triangle countries nationaldo have for officials working side to side with hsi, the cbp in those countries. Locally, we do the same thing. We have been able to effectively implement a unity of effort into the department of Homeland Security where all of these agencies, all the components that have a direct nexus to Immigration Enforcement and control in the borders are working together to face ms 13. One of the things that we look at his illicit pathways. Who brings them here . What we have been able to see is that ms 13 is not an organization that has their own smuggling apparatus. A do utilize other organizations that are complete experts in the smuggling aspects. Last year we were able to convict an individual was responsible for a Smuggling Network of special interest aliens coming in from pakistan to central america, mexico and the United States, it is that same type of illicit pathway that ms 13 exploits. We continue to work with our foreign partners and city and local partners to be of the to identify those pathways. The Capacity Building and information sharing is extremely important. If we take the fight in their own territory, it is a fight that we have to base here. That, once they are here, we have to address it. They came across the board and now we have to look at how we can curtail recruitment. When we look at the numbers and i will talk about the numbers posted on the website for the office of refugee resettlement, 40,810 alone, unaccompanied alien children ,ere placed for resettlement these are the total amounts that would be seen at the border. These are the ones that will be resettled in the United States. When you look at the demographics, it turns out that 21,881 of them are from the northern triangle countries. They are in the right age for gang recruitment and they are males. Im not saying thats what 1000 of these unaccompanied alien children are gang members. , understandingg ms 13 is that they are looking at these 21,000 unaccompanied alien children that came into the states as potential recruits help their ranks. Another thing that we have been in to look at is operations that we have been him to manage throughout the last couple of years. 30 is a consistent number we have seen of ms 13 members that of been arrested, they came into this country as unaccompanied alien children. Specifically in new york. Another point of interest that we have been addressing and looking at is the special immigrant juvenile program. Of the unaccompanied alien children have filed for this immigration status that provides and a road to a green card eventually even to citizenship. Works is basically this provides an order of special costs in which this alien is able to apply for this status. One of the things we have seen is that we dont know what is in the family court records. We cannot utilize any information provided in those proceedings to validate with the information that we have because of the encounter at the border are because of the process over in the local office. Another, finance is important aspect of ms13. We have been able to identify a very complex scheme of the way they move their money. In no way shape or form are we talking money cartel type money. Were talking about money that they utilize to build to finance not only their movements but their daytoday operations. Money that is coming from the states back to the commandandcontrol in the northern part. One of the most important schools that we have in our arsenal is the designation of ms 13 as a criminal organization by the department of justice. I have numerous pages of talking give them i want to perspective from the field. When you have agent identifying based on intelligence and conducting targeted enforcement will have it be able to determine the ms 13 members and once they are presented to the immigration judge, or detention purposes, we explain that these individuals are threats to society and they are ms 13 members but we cannot provide all the information that we have. In many instances, the information we have is part of a ongoing criminal investigation. The individuals are being released. Then we have to utilize the resources and focus on these individuals that have been released. From our perspective from the field, there are many things that could be accomplished within immigration law. I can type from my perspective both what i am seeing, we have it is going out, arresting and then we have individuals that were arrested and releasing them. Efforts in 2005, isis arrested over 700 ms 13 members. In this last quarter we have ms13ble to arrest 428 members. We understand based on intelligence gathering that there are thousands of ms 13 across the country. In the seen a presence country north of us in canada as well. Is that of the matter we continue to arrest, we continue to arrest. Been able tont shut down the pipeline, they continue to come to our country. This is something we need to address to be more effective in disrupting and dismantling once s13. Or all, m we did cooperation from the democrats. We have to change the laws and that is all part of what we are tried to get approved. Right now, the way it is right now, you cant do that. Everything you do is illegal, you cant touch, you cant do anything. If we dont get those laws changed, we will do better than anybody can do. Still, it will never be satisfactory. I with a for a few examples. Thank you for inviting me to talk about ms13. As the u. S. Attorney for the District Of Columbia, my top priority is the people work year and protecting them from vicious criminal gangs like this. In working with our Law Enforcement partners, we prosecuted a number of ms 13 leaders and members for murder, maiming, racketeering and other crime. A number of those individuals are now serving prison sentences of life or even beyond. In one case, a woman took in an ms 13 gang member from her home country of el salvador and allowed to live with her and the family. The gang members began recruiting the womans son to join ms 13. When she objected, the gang member shot her in the head as she was winning at a bus stop. This was three miles from where we are sitting right now and shot her again in the head as she was lying on the ground in april of life. Miraculously, she survived. She was permanently blinded by that attack. In another case my office handle, they repeatedly stabbed and killed a 14yearold boy. This is near the Columbia Heights metro station. This is out 2. 5 miles from where we are sitting. They tapped ae, fellow ms 13 member who had removed his gang tattoos, they stabbed him at least 20 times. We believe these prosecutions took many years to build. Ms 13 and theupt District Of Columbia but we know it continues to operate here in the city as well as the store in virginia and maryland. We are particularly concerned about the International Rates including drug dealing in efforts to recruit young people. That is why we work every day with our fantastic Law Enforcement partners at ice. Also, the fbi and other agencies. Allies or our strong to dissuade young people from joining gangs like ms 13. We are very grateful for the support that you have given to our efforts. Also, from the guy who was in resources. I thank you again for the opportunity. Thank you so much. We are working to revise our immigration system. At the outset of your remarks, you talked about for killers of immigration reform. Getting rid of chain immigration, Border Security, the lottery this issue of gangs attaching themselves to each of those in a different way and i think Border Security obviously. It is not a question of border integrity or integrity preservation laws. If these people are coming through, it harms Public Safety and the interior as well. It is all connected with respect to the other three, and Immigration Program that has little to no selectivity is going to essentially allow actors to come into the country. One thing i would have a fly on what the secretary said, she in theabout the loophole priorities we have been advancing. The loophole she talked about was that there are no grounds in the long right now that permit us to deport the gang members merely because she is a gang member. We have to wait until they have killed somebody 400 american and then we have a reason to deport them. They are here unlawfully, ok. Is no grounds, similarly, there is no ground up in a disability. We cant stop them from coming there is nothing in the law that makes a gang member merely because they are a gang member, ineligible for that benefit. Citizenshipven get under the long right now. You have to have what is called good moral character to become a citizen but gang membership is not explicitly on the list of things. We cant 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. I urge the members of Congress Sitting here today to help us fix that. That is a horrendous loophole in Public Safety, it affect the integrity of our laws, it cannot stand. If you could give us some perspective from the field. Here andonored to be we represent one of the fastest growing, well this counties in the nation. In Forbes Magazine says it is one of the happiest counties in the nation. We still have gang problems out there, a couple of years ago we had to gang homicides against 18 street members. Boy. As a 16yearold he was gunned down just getting ready to go on the school bus and another victim was stabbed 17 times. So it is a very real problem out there. We have to be concerned about that. Service of in the his, we also handle the jails. This is an illegal alien and we had a great relationship with gotten there, and practically all the money we had in the jail. We notify them as quickly as we can in advance and we do that. You have great relationships with our state and local counterparts. This is part of the Northern Virginia gang task force. That team is responsible for going after many of these gang crimes you see in the particular area, it is great. Fill you in with the Drug Enforcement administration so i can let that level my federal we areships to make sure all part of the same team working together with home and security, hsr. We had somebody on the task force there. We had members cross designated to the fbi. We are trying to make sure that we have a robust relationship going on with everybody in the area to make sure we are not missing a trick that was who, what theyre doing and so lets go after these people. I know we have worked quite a bit with the congressman, she is pushing a bill here. We are looking to get additional funding. Ets turn over to it takes a whole government approach and we are able to do that. States, locals, federal partners and also international partners. I think you have been working with originating countries. Do as much asy the law permits and the law doesnt permit you to do that much, less than any nation in the world. If other nations see what we are doing and they do watch what we are doing, they they laugh at us. They cant believe these policies were you cant get people out that you know are killers, literally killers and you have to release them. We will change it, one of the things we will do is have much better cooperation because some countries are at the top of everything else, we give them tremendous amounts of aid and then they will take their killers back when we have them. We bring them back into the country and say we give them billions of dollars in aid. I tell my people anybody that doesnt take them back, we immediately said that as ok, we just saved a lot of money. We wont do it and that havent on numerous occasions. They never had done that before. They never thought it was good to talk about aid. Ill let you hear from michael and peter really quickly and barbara if you could and just to as what you think, i know you have been suffering with this, peter and michael, you could somewhat into it, this is what you do, you have been suffering with this whole thing for a long time. One of the things were trying legislation, we have a lot of laws that nobody mentions. It has to be changed, it has to be got permit of. Provisions forgh cummings of this country and it will cover you. We stopped catch and release. We stopped a lot of elements of what we have that is very bad and dangerous for our country. In my home state of texas, i am the federal prosecutor. Ive seen these heinous murders that you have heard that for too long. Wasfirst bill i introduced to end cache belize. Here we are talking about the problem. The difference is that you are president of the United States. The difference is we have the. Olitical will in washington ive seen it for a long time as chairman of Homeland Security. The secretary talked about transnational criminal organizations. I think that is the worstcase scenario that we worry about. A special interest alien terrorists getting into the United States and killing americans. We have worked to introduce bills to achieve your for killers of Border Security, authorizing a walk very system and technology and boots on the ground. Ending chain migration, this lottery system that is totally random that makes no sense. We had to terror attacks that were the result of those two programs and finally, fixing daca. I just cant tell you how refreshing it is to have leadership at this table paying attention to this important issue. It is a Public Safety issue but Issue National security and time to finally gained and these dangerous loopholes. When i talked to the secretary, she said i dont have the authority to deport these dangerous criminals. Been down to the detention spaces, i see these teenage males, their home becomes ms 13. That becomes their family and they are a threat to our society. So we want to give them the secretaries did 32 and and close the damage loopholes. These incredible professionals cant do their job unless we change the legislation. We will get it done. Frankly, i will go a step further, if we dont change the legislation, if we dont get rid of these loopholes where killers can come into our country and continue to kill gang members, were talking about ms 13, there are many gang members that we dont mention, lets have a shutdown. We will do a shutdown. It is worth it for our country. I would love to see a shutdown. We have to strengthen our borders. We are so far behind the time. The world is laughing at us because we cant believe these policies. Know them right now, they theres no other country in the world has what we have. We are going to get it stopped. If we had to shut it down because the democrats dont want safety and unrelated but still related, didnt want to take care of their military and then shut it down. We will go with another shutdown. Peter king . Peter my district alone, we had 17 murders in 18 months. The hsi, working with the fbi, the Nassau CountyPolice Officers are doing a fantastic job. Also, i would think you mr. , we have granted to the Suffolk County police. More attorneys are going into the district of new york and it has been a stream was successful. All you can do is go after the ones that are here. Becausereally an issue we have found that in the last murder indictments, 611 were unaccompanied minors. Was 30 of those arrested in ms 13. We have to do more to find out who these families are and the kids were they being placed with. The Suffolk County police showing up. You have ms 13 either pressuring families on long island. For these ms 13 families to begin with. The local police are not notified often. Inhink we should have been they are printing of the families and much more. People about it but forget about it. These are the kids going out and recruiting in the schools. Ive been to centralize the schools, seen on these kids are causing. Local police dont even know what they are doing. Legislation is allow you to go into the followup. That is crazy. This is something that has to be addressed. Have the local immigration advocates. They fight ice, they fight the look of police, they fight the fbi claiming some kind of plot two point everybody. They was how you guys, they were used to do whatever you can. This is serious stuff. What if we move them out and a new group comes in. The laws are no good. The people we have, these people are the best. Were going to get them for you. Thank you for the opportunity to work on this. We did already passed the criminal galeon alien gang removal act. Had bipartisan support for that bill. Democrats are on board. Being a gangke member a deplorable offense. Senatorsncourage our to get that done quickly. And we have seen Great Success when they refunded to where they need to be funded. Ice, i was able to go out on a ride along last summer with ice and with our local Law Enforcement, we picked up for gang members in Loudoun County and fairfax county. Thats a zero gang member we just picked up as it were going beenth strollers, they had deported twice, in jail for killing a teenager in el salvador. Some of the technology they this we could just take and put it on an ipad and we immediately could see his criminal record. Themnight when we picked up, they were watching. He was covered with gang tattoos. He put his thumb on that ipad and we saw his whole record. I asked our eyes agents how many of those they had. 59 dollarst these that only went through the judiciary committee, everybody, of the democrats and republicans supported it. We can get that in place. That will be a big help. There are things that my colleagues are working on and i sheriff chapman well dont need Government Shutdown on this. Both sides have learned that the Government Shutdown is bad and we do have bipartisan support on these things. Aboutk we need to talk these cases going on. We had over eight or so. The Washington Post has done some actual great reporting, these are all stories about the gang killers in the final moments. , seven milesn fear from the white house. They have been covering this and people know on a bipartisan basis this problem. This is a boy from the democrats. We are not getting support from the democrats. Quite as they are not supporting us. We want the secretary to be able to stop was at the border. Mr. President , thank you. It is not just awareness that you and your administration have towards the issue we are facing in Suffolk County and long island, you have proven you will do 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 was murdered allegedly a person was an illegal immigrant. They were removed from our country and returned again. We just heard the story of the Indianapolis Colt player who was murdered and killed as well in a crash. It is a matter of physical security. It is a top priority for us. If you do anything in your power, we appreciate it. We were forced to take action against our own town for 10. 5 million due to massive overcrowding of local schools. Rooms inept98 motel and days were occupied by Illegal Immigrants who use this yearround. They have asked the town of southhampton to enforce the town safety code and force the motel owners to comply with local Law Enforcement. In hampton bays, as a result, years later appointed after another, the southhampton town has done the right thing with code enforcement, ms 13 is committing heinous crimes in the town of southhampton. We hear in the news when the perfect murder that took place of four constituents. Two from mike district and two from easter straight with machetes. The crimes we dont read about is with the Human Trafficking and the sex trafficking and the Drug Trafficking, it is also near focus and a great appointment, rich donahue, this is the 82nd airborne division. We are seven that he cares deeply about ms 13. Chain migration, visa lottery, temporary protected status, all of these issues we are talking about, having a border wall. Temporary protected status, temporary. Why is it that 16 years later, someone would be under our country that proves that something is wrong with our immigration system. The Central American country where the parent chooses to turn their get over. Along the journey, maybe before they get to the border, we hear these stories from the attack correction facility. They are the entire process. So when the end of staying in brentwood, they are complete set up for failure. America is a compassionate country. We have compassion for every child who is living in poverty. Bandwidth forthe every parent to china kids over for this mission and to come to our country. You the things that i know deeply believe youre passionate about is that the American Dream and hope and opportunity and everything we want what people come to our Country Living in american exceptionalism, that this is the race country in the world what about the person that is not here yet . They say i want to pursue the American Dream for my family and because they are following the rules, they should wait in line behind the people who violated them . Absolutely wrong. This is an important omissions initiative for our country as well. 500,000. He also helped secure the ms 13 and the joint report task force is, it is a nationwide effort to utilize our leading Law Enforcement agencies to disrupt andmajor drug traffickers Congress Also reauthorizes money for the Bulletproof Vest Partnership and Grant Program for bipartisan support. The one other point that was just mentioned, if someone is a plan for status and they are a gang member, they get nationalization. Reason, it was not known that they committed a serious offense involving gang activity. They should lose the naturalization if they were not honest in the application process. Two years later a seven years later, even if they were completely honest on the they are involved in a gang with a series of those, take weather naturalization. There is a duty when you are here. Whether youre staying to be a productive member courses of the country and thank you for all of thank you on behalf of the region of our country that need your leadership. We know that you have our back. I do. Iq for the opportunity to be here, they give for raising awareness, this dangerous gang i represent the southern border district. These gangs are trafficking through communities like mine. Border residents are having to deal every single day with the threat of gangs and other criminal organizations coming straight through their property, endangering the lives of the trafficking. I appreciate your leadership on the issue. We have got to picture our border. Includes uptodateas brought this. We dont close these loopholes than 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 stories where they are not even they are looking for Border Control. They turn themselves into Border Control and take advantage of the fact that they cant be turned around. They make false asylum claims. Told thems have exactly what to say to make those false claims. Intoare released quickly the interior of the United States. Most of them dont show up for their court dates and they are continuing, the criminal organizations are profiting off of our system. We address these issues and your priorities and we are gaining people getting behind our bills. It is common sense. It proves the admissibility in closing that will tell. We believe this is the right piece of legislation to address your priorities. Who can be against us . This is Serious Business and i really appreciate your leadership and your whole team raising awareness daily. We have to stop and where i was, at the border. That includes the Border Security and closing these ridiculous loopholes in her legislation. We will tirelessly work with you mr. President. Did you take care of everyone of these loopholes . We want have a second chance. Have one chance, we dont want to do a halfbaked job we have one chance. Secretary, get it right. We will go through how to get the stuff approved, peter, Michael Emily and barbara. We are going to get it approved. It is not like we have a choice. It is about common sense. You have to have every one of these loopholes taken care of. No one else is going to be able to get it done. I just wanted a everybody very much. When we put our heads together, we solve this problem. We are doing much better than any administration by far. We have a long way to go, we can only be as good as the law. Right now we want to do things and say there is a lot against this and that and everything. We have people coming into the country, you cant get them out and is ridiculous. So we have one good shot at it and it is now and hopefully you get it done. Thank you very much. I would shut it down over this issue. If we dont straighten out our border, we dont have a country. Without borders we dont have a country. When i shut it down over this issue, i cant speak for the great representatives here. Now president trumps weekly address released by the white house yesterday afternoon. He talked about immigration and the presence of the m