Remarks as prepared for delivery
Thank you, Kurt, for that kind introduction. Thank you for your seven years of service to
the Department of Justice and for your outstanding leadership now as United
States Attorney.
Thank you to Anthony Hutchings, Buck Herron, Dan Smith, Bob
Frank, Scott Conrad, and Jerry Williams for your leadership on the Board and
for the invitation to join you today.
I also want to thank Chief Ryan Oster, Chief Clint Peters,
Chief E.J. Clark, Chief McGee, Chief Steve Crawford, Chief Roger Nasset, and
all of our law enforcement officers who are here today.
I especially want to thank Sergeant Tim Berger and Officer
Richie O’Brien of Butte, Montana. We
were together about a month ago when they won the well-deserved Top Cops Award.
Last May, Sergeant Berger and Officer O’Brien put their
lives on the line after one of their own was struck down. They engaged in a more-than-100-mile chase
after two criminals shot and killed Deputy Mason Moore of the Broadwater County
Sheriff’s department. These officers are
true heroes who kept the people of Montana safe and brought justice to those
responsible for murdering one of your brothers in blue.
Let’s hear it for these two exemplary officers.
It is an honor to be here with you all – with the selfless
and courageous men and women of law enforcement. The President has directed us to support you
in your work—and we are committed to doing that. And his first order to me when
I was confirmed? To back the blue.
Donald Trump ran for office as a law-and-order candidate and
now he is governing as a law-and-order President. Under his strong leadership, we are finally
getting serious about the rule of law.
As a prime example of that, the Trump administration is
taking strong steps to make our schools safer.
Today I am announcing the Department of Justice’s first
grants under the STOP School Violence Act, which President Trump signed into
law. Under this new law, the Department
of Justice will provide $50 million to train teachers and students and to
develop an anonymous reporting system for threats of school violence. In the coming months, we will offer another
$25 million in these school safety grants.
Working with the Department of Education, these grants will
go a long way toward giving our young people safety and peace of mind.
But what I’d like to talk to you about today is the steps we
are taking to help you—our men and women in blue—by restoring the rule of law
in our immigration system.
Policing has always been dangerous work. But unchecked illegal immigration has made
the work of police officers all across America tougher and more dangerous than
it ought to be. It may not seem to be a
problem here, but make no mistake about it: our porous Southern border puts
you—and your brothers and sisters in uniform—at risk.
Earlier today, the Department of Justice and the Department
of Homeland Security released a report that shows that more than one-in-five of
all persons in Bureau of Prisons custody were foreign born, and that 93 percent
of confirmed aliens in custody were known or suspected illegal aliens.
Officers like you had to arrest them. Officers like you had to go into dangerous
situations to take these people off of our streets—people who never should have
been here in the first place. You
shouldn’t have to do that. And to add
insult to injury, you’re paying taxes to incarcerate these people.
And even when you’re not dealing with immigrant crime
directly, you’re dealing with it indirectly.
For example, most of the heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl
in this country got here across our Southern border. Tens of thousands of Americans die every year
as a result.
Here in the West, most of our DEA agents tell us that the
top drug use is methamphetamine.
In 2016, more than 7,500 Americans lost their lives to a
methamphetamine overdose alone. For fentanyl, it was over 20,000.
And this number has been increasing. According to the Montana Department of
Justice, methamphetamine violations in this state rose by more than 400 percent
from 2010 to 2015. Meanwhile heroin
violations increased 1,500 percent.
Our porous border is a big factor in this problem. As just
one example of many, in April, we arrested a teen trying to enter the country
carrying 14 pounds of fentanyl across the border. That’s enough to kill 3.1
million Americans.
Any rational person that takes a look at this situation sees
the need to secure the border and end the lawlessness.
But there is an open borders movement afoot in this
country. From coast to coast, there are
politicians who think that having any border at all—any limit whatsoever—is
mean-spirited, unkind, or even bigoted. Sometimes they try to hide it;
sometimes not.
And I’m not just talking about the extremists or known
radicals, here. I’m talking about
powerful, influential politicians.
For example, the vice-chairman of the Democratic National
Committee recently wore a t-shirt that says “I don’t believe in borders.”
For another example, the Mayor of Oakland has called illegal
aliens “law-abiding.” Think about
that. By definition that is not true.
In 2013, back when everybody thought Hillary Clinton would
be president and when she could still make millions giving speeches to banks,
she reportedly said in one secret speech, “my dream is a hemispheric common
market, with open trade and open borders.”
This is the presidential nominee of a major political party.
But these are just the explicit, overt examples. There are plenty of other examples of
politicians who try to sound like moderates but who vote for open borders
policies. Apparently, even the libertarian CATO institute does too.
We must pause and think about this seriously. President Trump’s policies are not extreme,
this is extreme. The caravan that came to our southern border demanding entry
recently was organized by a group called “pueblos sin fronteras”—people without
borders.
Can America welcome all who want to come here? One poll says
150 million people worldwide want to come here. No nation can sustain such a
surge. Europe is in political turmoil over excess immigration. Open borders is
an extreme, reckless and dangerous idea. It can never be a sane policy for
America.
For decades, the American people have been begging and
pleading with our elected officials for an immigration system that is lawful
and that serves our national interest—one that we can be proud of and that’s
fair and just. There is nothing mean-spirited
about that. They are right and just and
decent to ask for this.
But we’ve been blocked at every turn. Any law enforcement policies are attacked by
open borders radicals. And every time something is proposed that would end
illegal immigration, it gets blocked. If
it works, it gets blocked.
For example, we’ve had Kate’s Law before the Congress. Kate’s Law is named after Kate Steinle, the
young woman who was shot to death in San Francisco by an illegal alien who had
been deported five times. Kate’s Law
would increase the penalty for re-entry after deportation. That would deter illegal aliens from
committing this crime.
But no. This bill has
been blocked.
We’ve had the Toomey Amendment, to cut funding for sanctuary
cities. That was blocked.
We’ve had the Secure and Succeed Act, which would increase
funding for border security. That was
blocked.
No wonder the American people are so frustrated. If it works, it gets blocked.
President Trump has made it clear that legislation is needed
to end the illegality. And it is. Congress must act.
But at this Department and the Department of Homeland
Security, under President Trump’s leadership, we’re not going to wait around
for Congress to get its act together. We
are taking action and we are enforcing the law without exception.
Unfortunately there has been a lot of misinformation about
there about some of the things that we are doing. The reports have been so wrong that some
people might even call it “fake news.”
And so I’d like to take a few minutes to clear things up.
For example, members of the media claimed that the
government had “lost” thousands of children in the United States. That turned out not to be true.
Several reporters have tweeted out photos taken of Homeland
Security facilities during the Obama administration and then used them to
attack President Trump.
Sadly, there are many other examples of the media getting
this wrong.
So let’s clear up some of the misinformation.
Under the laws of this country, illegal entry is a misdemeanor. Re-entry after having been deported is a
felony.
Under the law, we are supposed to prosecute these
crimes. Our goal is to prosecute 100
percent of illegal entries on the Southwest border.
If you cross the Southwest border unlawfully, then we will
prosecute you. That’s our goal. It’s that simple.
If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, that is a
crime, too. We will prosecute you for a
felony as the law requires.
That much should be clear.
But there has been some confusion about this.
If you bring a child, it is still an unlawful act. You don’t
get immunity if bring a child with you. We cannot have open borders for adults
with children.
And when parents are prosecuted for illegal entry, their
children cannot go to jail with them—just like when American citizens commit
crimes. The Marshals’ detention facility
doesn’t have a facility for children.
There are too many coyotes—human smugglers and human
traffickers—who take kids across the border for a hefty price. The consequences are sometimes tragic.
Hundreds of illegal aliens die every year trying to make it
to this country. In many cases, children
are trafficked, abused, or recruited by criminal gangs. No one should subject their child to this
treacherous journey—and yet the open borders lobby encourages it every day.
This is what happens: After apprehension of adults by the
Department of Homeland Security, the children are cared for by the Department
of Health and Human Services—and they are transferred to HHS custody within 72
hours. And they are well cared for. In fact, they get better care than a lot of
American kids do—all at taxpayer expense.
We currently spend more than $1 billion a year in taxpayer
dollars taking care of unaccompanied illegal alien minors. Most of these are in
HHS custody. They are provided plenty of food, education in their language,
health and dental care, and transported to their destination city—all at
taxpayer expense.
Because of the Flores consent decree and a Ninth Circuit
Court decision, ICE can only keep families detained together for a very short
period of time.
We take unaccompanied children—on the taxpayer’s
dime—anywhere they want. They are nearly
always placed with a family member—sometimes one who is also here
illegally. If they’ve got family in
Missoula, we take them there from El Paso, Texas, free of charge. If they’ve got family in Boston, we take them
there. It’s more than generous.
It’s almost unbelievable.
It cannot be that someone can walk into a country contrary to the laws
of the country and then be allowed to roam free in the country while their
children get a free ride anywhere they choose.
So what is the alternative to following the law and
prosecuting illegal entry? Well, under
the Obama administration, the alternative was essentially no prosecution—de
facto open borders. De facto amnesty.
If you showed up illegally at the border with a child, then
you got off scot-free. Unsurprisingly,
word got out about this and more and more people started bringing kids with
them—more than 3 times as many this May as last May. It didn’t have to even be their child—it
could be anyone. You can imagine the
horrible abuses that resulted. And the open borders crowd has the gall to blame
those who want to end this lawlessness and the dangers these children face.
Look, I hope that we don’t have to separate any more
children from any more adults. But
there’s only one way to ensure that is the case: it’s for people to stop
smuggling children illegally. Stop
crossing the border illegally with your children. Apply to enter lawfully. Wait your turn.
Some people in the media have chosen to attack us for
enforcing the law. But I’m not ashamed
of the United States of America. I am
not going to apologize for carrying out our laws.
We’re not the ones breaking the law. If you don’t want to be separated from your
children, then don’t smuggle them illegally.
My duty is to enforce the laws of this country—and that’s what we’re
going to do.
If they wanted to, Congress could end illegal immigration
tomorrow. I hope that they will. The many good and constitutional proposals
that will actually work, like the wall, must not continue to be blocked.
I believe that our political leaders owe it to you, our
fabulous law enforcement officers, to get this issue right at last. We’ve got to stop the flow of drugs and crime
into America. It is not fair to keep
asking you to go into dangerous situations.
We are under no obligation to accept a single criminal into
this country. Not one. Those whom we do accept into this country
should have a crime rate of zero.
Tom Homan of ICE tells us that nine out of ten of the
illegal aliens that they arrest in the interior have criminal records. Nine out of ten. Seventy-two percent are convicted criminals.
This is a great nation—the greatest in the history of the
world. And we are the most generous in
the world—admitting 1.1 million legally every year. It is no surprise that people want to come
here. But they must do so properly. They must follow our laws—or not come here at
all.
And so this Department, under President Trump’s leadership
along with the Department of Homeland Security, is enforcing the law
resolutely. We will finally secure this
border so that we can give the American people safety and peace of mind.
That’s what the people—and especially you, our brave men and
women in blue—deserve.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment