>> the heritage foundation event is about one hour and a half. >> good morning and welcome to the heritage foundation. we of course, welcome those who are joining us on our heritage.org website. for those in-house, we ask courtesy to see that your mobile devices have been turned off and for those watching online, you are welcome to send questions anytime.nts .

the third prism is one of security. national security and personal security. they see borders as defining a defensible's race and immigration as a way of enforcing that defense to the betterment of the national common wheel. tois, i think fair characterize the debate between these criticisms as an ongoing one. certainly since the last immigration in the 1940's, americans have been engaged in a debate. rightlya administration characterizes as leaned heavily on questions of commerce and culture, advancing them over

issues of national security. the trump administration is seen as reversing some of those trends in putting a greater emphasis today on national security issues as they relate to border security. the structure of our discussion is simple. with agoing to begin short panel discussion. we followed that with a keynote address with tom. for now, let me introduce my two colleagues. to the far end is a policy analyst at the heritage foundation. he specializes in homeland security issues, including cyber policy and the protection of critical policy. david joined heritage in 2012. he holds a master in public policies from george mason.

sitting closer to me is hans, who is an authority on a wide range of issues. fellow.senior legal co-author. before joining heritage, he served as the member of an elected commission, the authority charged with enforcing finance laws for presidential elections. let's begin with you, david. focus today and want to on some of the problems and issues around immigration enforcement, especially for the perspective of dhs. hans will be able to talk about what is going on with the doj and what's going on with stae

localities around the country. dhs has many responsibilities regarding immigration, but two i want to point out are border security and interior enforcement. i'll start with border security. border security gets a lot of talk in the u.s. border barriers, walls, member of border patrol agents, cameras, thse are the things we have heard during campaigns and we hear now. it makes sense we should talk about these things. it makes sense that the control of one's borders is the start of gun control enforcement. states hashe united 654 miles of fencing on the southern quarter that might be 354 are, of which

pedestrian fencing and 300 our vehicle fencing. in terms of staffing, at the end of 2016, the border patrol about 2400rol had agents. i think it is critical, especially at this event to step back and see how border security investments are part of a larger enforcement system. fencing , barriers, walls these might dissuade many from crossing into the u.s., but for many, it is not enough of a deterrent. many illegal immigrants will cross the border illegally if they think that once they get past the border, they will be allowed to stay. a border wall is just a several

minute short delay in what will be a several hour or day long trek to get to a city or town. stop immigration is to intercept these folks that the border using technology. technology is essential to directing border patrol agent to pick these people up. where border barriers and other walls are most essential art ien the areas around towns and cities. there illegal immigrants can cross the border and quickly melt into the regular hustle and bustle. in these urban and suburban areas, the extra few minutes it takes an illegal immigrant to cross the border is an essential period of time needed for border patrol to detect the pressing. thus, the best for security is built around technology and

border barriers that are tailored to the regional needs. this is the approach that has been endorsed by john kelly, who has testified his recommendations would the that "a wall makes sense here, high fencing make sense here and technology makes sense over there." but i want to move beyond border security. this is mostly an immigration enforcement event. i want to move beyond border security because i view the most important heart of this puzzle as the interior enforcement being done by ice. i'm excited to have the ice director here. upn immigration is picked by the border patrol, what happens when they overstate legal visas? i would argue these questions are some of the most important to answer in this debate.

if an individual believes that once they get past the border they are unlikely to be to ordered, then fences and border patrol are small obstacles to the safe interior of the u.s. if they believe they can turn themselves in a supporter, they will definitely asw a trip to the u.s. having a high likelihood of success. all the investments we have done are sadly facilitating the movement of those illegal immigrants into the interior of the u.s., if we continue the policy known as catch and release. so, border security must be backed up by other parts of the immigration system, ice, and the united states citizenship and immigration services, as well as parts of the department of justice. powerful border security will include more space, funding for these agencies, said illegal

immigrants can have their cases adjudicated quickly. this ensures that most illegal immigrants are not being released into the interior, but being removed as quickly as possible. for immigrants that do make it into the interior though, either by crossing the border or isrstaying legal visas, it necessary to back up these efforts at the border. this not enough to make it difficult to enter the u.s.. it must be difficult for the illegal immigrant to remain and work unlawfully. once found, they should be subject to removal with all the tools we have at our disposal and more we should give to ice. this includes increasing the use of expedited removal. we know the trump administration has started to do this. expanding the program which trains and deputize as state and local law enforcement to enforce the federal immigration laws. -- properly increasing

unfortunately, with the obama administration, enforcement was weakened, which reduce the number of individuals being deported. dhsiscal year 2016, removed or returned individuals. 8, about 1.2 million enforcement actions occurred. 2016 had the lowest levels of removals and returns since 1971. the policy of the obama administration was to allow people caught at the border to be released into the interior. the result is we have the average wait times in the immigration courts that have tripled under the obama administration, upwards of two years now in the immigration court system. together with the unlawful and unconstitutional deferred action programs that rewarded and

encouraged more illegal immigration, the obama administration failed to ensure proper enforcement was occurring. thankfully, the trump administration has begun to reverse these policies and it is critical it continues to move forward in these areas to reduce the number of illegal immigrants currently in the u.s. i am looking forward to hearing the director's remarks and seeing what the administration will be doing moving forward. i'll close with this, saying there is an important discussion regarding the legal immigration system and how it can be structured to incentivize legal immigration, but that is beyond the scope of my time here today. i wanted to throw that out there, but that is another important piece of this puzzle. [no audio] >> thanks, david. hans? >> they were two papers handed

out for people in the audience that came out, i wanted to quickly mention it. it is a paper i wrote years ago and it is on the steps that the state can legally take, given the supreme court's decision to assist the federal government. it is important for the states to do that. it is tough for the department of homeland security to do its job. the second paper is one i just released, and i wrote about how the immigration courts should be streamlined. i don't think a lot of people realize that illegal aliens have very expensive due process r ights, everything from the be represented by counsel to the rights citizens appreciate in the courts. i will concentrate on what is the biggest fight going on in

the courts, sanctuary cities. let me first say this false claim is constantly made that if you are against illegal immigration, if you want to see the immigration laws enforced, you must be racist. that is not true. no nation can exist if it does not control its borders and we are the most generous country in the world when it comes to illegal immigration. we taken one million legal immigrants a year, more than any other country in the world. the best statement on this was con, by barbara jordan, an i i think one of the first african americans elected to the texas legislature. then she went on to congress in the 1990's. bill clinton put her in charge of his commission on immigration reform. she said we disagree with those that would label efforts to control immigration as being inherently anti-immigrant.

it is a risk by any responsibility for a democratic society to manage immigration so it serves the national interests. unless this country does a better job of curbing illegal immigration, we risk undermining our responsibility to legal immigration. the biggest fight going on in the courts is sanctuary cities because the trump administration has i think correctly, through attorney general jeff sessions said that they are going to not allow cities and counties to have sanctuary policies in place that instruct federal immigration laws to apply for and receive discretionary grants from the department of justice. what our sanctuary policies? in essence, the policies do two things. one, they forbid the local law enforcement from exchanging any information with the federal government on the immigration status of individuals they

arrest who are committing local crimes. second, they refused to honor federal detainer warrants issued by the department of homeland security, when they learn that local law enforcement has arrested a criminal illegal alien and asks them to hold them for 48 hours so the feds can pic k them up. preventing local law enforcement from exchanging information with the feds is illegal under federal law. there is a federal provision that says no local entity can forbid its officials from exchanging citizenship information. so, when the city of chicago tells its law enforcement, you can't notify dhs when you have arrested an illegal alien for a local crime, such as rape, sexual assault, burglary, that is against federal law. and we know that is legal because when the law was first

passed, the city of new york under its former mayor rudy fedsani sued and said the could not do this. this law was unconstitutional because it, did local resources. the case went all the way to the second circuit, the second circuit threw out the city of new york's case. they said this lot is not, dear local resources because the federal government --they said this law is not commandeering local resources because the federal government is not requiring them to give information about somebody they have arrested. we are having a legal discussion here and a public policy discussion but i have to tell you on a personal note that i get really annoyed and frankly, local officials and

the sanctimonious attitude they take as if they are on the moral high ground with their sanctuary policies. what they are doing is creating sanctuaries for criminals. they are saying that if an illegal alien commits a local crime -- let's say robbery or assault -- and they are sentenced to six months in the local jail, at the end of that time, they would rather that criminal be released back into the local community, where they can victimize more individuals. that's better than calling up the department of homeland security so dhs can remove them from the country. and are americans victimized by this? yes they are. in 2005 the government accountability office did a study and released a report. they looked at the criminal histories of 55,322 illegal

aliens who were in federal, state and local prison. these individuals entered the country illegally and were in the country illegally when they committed their crimes. these 55,000 illegal aliens were arrested almost 460,000 times. they committed almost 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging 13 per alien. and they were not in jail for immigration crimes. 12% were for violent friends. 15% were for burglary, larceny, theft and property damage. none of these crimes would have occurred if these individuals were not in the u.s., and many of them would not have occurred if, after they had served their sentence for committing this crime in the local jurisdiction, dhs have been called and they had been removed from the country. an updatedo did

study looking at 251,000 criminal illegal aliens. they were arrested 1.7 million times for committing 3 million illegal offenses. the second policy, the refusal to honor detainer warrants, there's two things you should realize. these local jurisdictions are treating illegal aliens better than they are u.s. citizens. what i mean by that is, look, if you are stopped on the side of the road by a state trooper because you are speeding -- i don't want to embarrass anybody in the room by asking how many of you that have happened to, it has happened to me -- what does the state trooper do when you hand him your drivers license? he goes back to his car to check it is a valid license and checks to see if there is an arrest warrant for you. ncic system,s the the national crime information

system maintained by the fbi. states put their arrest warrants into it. in virginia for speeding and there is an arrest warrant in california, i'm going to be detained as of the california officials can come and make arrangements to pick me up. same thing if there is a federal warrant on me. yet, st. mary's cities are saying if there -- yet sanctuary cities are saying if there is a detainer warrant on the, they will not honor it. that is the reason kate steinle is dead, the young woman murdered by an illegal alien in san francisco a couple years ago. she is dead the cousin of the sanctuary policy. -- she is dead because of the sanctuary policy. a detainer warrant was filed by

dhs, asking baby notified before the man be released. san francisco decided not to press drug charges against him and decided not to honor the detainer warrant. what is so tragic about this is, that's not the first time it has happened in san francisco. in 2008, another family had their father and two teenage ms-13illed, shot by an gang member who had been arrested and convicted twice previously, once for a gang related assault and attended robbery of a pregnant woman. in both instances, san francisco refused to notify dhs, so he was not picked up. so, he was able to kill three members of this family because of the sanctuary policy of san

francisco. if they had informed dhs, this would not have happened. let me end quickly with one other story, which tells the states of when local and refuse to assist the federal government and try to obstruct enforcement of federal immigration laws. u.s.er alien was in the illegally because he had entered as a tourist. then he became a student without changing his immigration status and then he overstayed his tourist visa. he was detained of a lady portable from almost the first -- you must detainer ball -- he was detectable and deportable from almost the first moment he was in the u.s. the trooper either asked him questions about his immigration status, nor did he check with the law enforcement support

center. the center is maintained by dhs. it's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week so law enforcement officials can call dhs and check the immigration status of individuals they detain and arre st. if the state trooper had contacted this center, they could have informed him he was illegally in the u.s. he could have been removed from the country. astead, the trooper gave him $270 speeding ticket and let him go. that ticket was found in the glove department of his car two days later after he flew united airlines flight 93 into the ground in pennsylvania. that is a direct result of that state's refusal to assist the federal government. i'll end with this. critics of pro-enforcement policy say it is any immigrant, but that could not be further from the truth. favoring the rule of law is not

mean-spirited or racist. it is the core of why americans welcomed immigrants. i'll end with this. this statement is from barbara jordan. this sums up what our immigration policy should be. credibility and immigration policy code be summed up. those who should get in get in. those who should be kept out are kept out and those who should not be here will be required to leave. thanks. [applause] >> thanks, hans. i'm going to ask a couple of questions -- if there is time we might take a couple questions from the audience. let's start with you, david. your discussion was rather critical of the obama administration. is there anything the obama administration did right?

are there things they did that are worthy of praise that should be continued? >> it is a complicated one, but yes. the obama administration started removing more people caught at the border. this is a numbers game. in the u.s. when people were caught, they were returned. colloquially, most americans would think as being returned as the same thing. but the policies of dhs are two different things, a return and removal. traditionally, most were returned, while arrests occurring in the interior, that resulted in removals. that is not a hard and fast rule, but a rule of thumb. president obama started removing more people caught at the border. this is a good thing because people who are removed, if they reentered the u.s. there is a penalty attached to it.

theou remove someone, you de-incentivize them from coming back. they stopped removing people from the interior and all those people being returned were now being removed at the border. ofch is why the net sum people being deported fell, but the total number of people being removed increased. there's also a shell game aware that was occurring. it is a good thing to remove more people caught at the border. because of the legal consequences. but it is a bit of a shell game, in terms of, there were a lot of other areas harmed at the same time. >> ok, fair enough. so hans, i'm going to give you a magic wand that you may waive. you could get congress to pass and the president to sign any single change in immigration law

that you wish. what is it? >> i would do two things. >> oh no, i gave you one wand. i'll give you two. >> i would make the e-verify system mandatory. thebiggest way to get illegal alien population to self-report is to dry up their ability to work and one of the ways to do that is to make e-verify mandatory. the second thing i would do is -- >> e-verify is.at >> if you want to get a job, your employer is required by federal immigration law to check your documents to make sure you are a u.s. citizen, or if you are not a citizen that you are legally in the country and have a work authorization. the e-verify system is set up

with dhs. they could easily call and check with dhs deceive you are entitled to work in the u.s., but it is a voluntary system. the state of arizona made it mandatory and said that any employers who after using the e-verify system, if they knowingly and intentionally hire illegal aliens, they could lose their business license. the u.s. chamber of commerce sued over that and it went to the supreme court and the supreme court said it is legitimate for states to make the system mandatory. that kind of a system throughout the u.s. would help dry up the jobs, which drives the majority of people to come here illegally and many with self deport if they could not send remittances back to their home country. the other thing i would do is correct the ms misinterpretation of the 14th

amendment, which has caused the united states to legalize birthright citizenship. we are one of the few countries in the world that recognizes that, only about half a dozen do. it makes no sense. it is the misinterpretation of the 14th amendment. if one of your parents is a u.s. citizen, you should be considered a u.s. citizen. but if both of your parents have come to this country illegally, it makes no sense and it is a misrepresentation of the 14th amendment. >> david, i will give you the wand. do you want to use it? use thef i were to wand, i'd probably -- i would probably change some of the things along the lines of how state and local governments -- some of the things hans was talking about, but also the 2a7g

program. governments, local they should be allowed to aid in federal law. there should not be a burden of proof on dhs. let state and local governments who want to help help. with the schedule i have, we have five minutes more with the panel, before we turn to the keynote address. that'slots of questions, why they asked me to do this, but i am happy to open it up to the audience. would you wait for a microphone please and tell us who you are? sir? >> good morning. my name is john and i am a member of heritage foundation. is really,n i have when an illegal alien is

detained in the interior, what asis of the law that gives them due process? >> that is a good question. what the courts have said is states isthe united going through the removal process to try to take someone out who has been detained, due process -- the amount of due process they get is only what congress decides to give them. that's basically what the court has said. so, to the extent that congress wants to limit those due process rights, congress has the ability to do it. that is why congress, some years beingaid that aliens removed have the ability to go to immigration courts, which are administrative courts within

the department of justice. they can appeal their decision to the board of immigration appeals, but their ability to go to the federal courts has been limited. they can only go to federal courts of appeal. i don't see any reason for that. i think they get more than they should in the due process rights they are given and i think congress should take away the ability to go to the federal courts of appeal, which are being flooded with a lot of meritless appeals. second, just everybody can hear you. >> the follow-up question is, how many other countries provide that due process that the united states provides? >> well, there's a great difference in what they provide and don't. i think that the united states, in the same way it is one of the most generous countries in the world when it comes to legal immigration is quite frankly,

quite generous in the due process rights it gives to illegal immigration's. one of the best things the illustration did was to end the catch and release policy. it basically said that went an illegal alien was caught in the interior of the country, they would give them a date to appear before an immigration judge and then release them. to talk to border agents and others, they refer to the catch and release policy as the catch and run policy because the long-term rate at which illegal aliens did not show up for their court hearings was over 40%. there are not any other courts in the country that have that kind of a nonappearance rate. >> actually, i was always amazed by that and i wondered about the 60% who showed up. from their perspective, it is a questionable decision. waite back, if you will

for a microphone to come back to you. >> hi, thank you. maria espinoza with the remembrance project. the question we get most often is why do mayors of sanctuary cities get away with not enforcing laws? could you speak to that a little bit, hans, and why they are -- and explain immune?thethey are >> they try to full the residents of their cities. they paint said sh century policies -- they paint sanctuary policies as protecting all of their citizens. but they protect criminal illegal aliens from being the federalm government being notified. i think there is a lot of

fooling of the public on on in this situation. >> we will take one more question in the front before we go to the changeover of the panel. >> jeff martin, a short comment and then a question. the comment is regards to giving the obama administration the credit for the removals of the mexicans. that program was started by the bush administration and the obama administration gets the credit for continuing it. the question is, with regards to the issue of detainers, and whether or not they have any legal standing,a judge in oregon ruled you could not hold people without having a court order to do so. and therefore, it was illegal to be holding people under detainer requests. the obama administration agreed with the position that detainers were voluntary, rather than legal. would you agree? >> now, i think that is a

misinterpretation of the law. if the federal government's ability to hold an illegal alien, i don't see how it is suddenly illegal for a state or local government to hold the illegal alien at the request of the federal government. the second part of this is, look, what dhs is asking, particularly, for example -- and this has been made clear with the case in chicago. they are asking the federal be notified 48 hours before the locals really somebody. if an illegal alien is in jail for let's say burglary, and they are serving a six months sentence, how is it a problem if the federal government says, look, 48 hours before you release this criminal alien for --ving a six month sentence

please notify us 48 hours before you would normally release them, how could that be a problem? that defies common sense that the city does not want to do that. >> well, with that, join me in thanking our two panelists. breakl take a 30 second as they exit stage left. >> so, the genesis of this event was the wonderful opportunity that we had to invite to our

podium one of the leaders in the trump administration's immigration enforcement policy. i'm deeply honored to be able to holman, theas acting director of ice, which is the principal investigative agency of the department of homeland security. onbecame acting director january 30, 2017. homan served as the executive director of the ice enforcement and removal operations. year veterana 33 of law enforcement and has nearly 30 years of immigration enforcement experience. he has served in numerous capacities in law enforcement, including, i was pleased to learn as a police officer in my

hometown of new york city. he has also served as a u.s. border patrol agent, a special agent with the naturalization service, ins, which became part of ice, as well as a supervisory special agent and deputy assistant director for investigations at ice. he holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and received the presidential rank award in 2015 for his exemplary leadership and accomplishments in the area of immigration enforcement. please join me in welcoming thomas d. homan. [applause] you.ank i appreciate the invite. people ask me why i do things like this. i would like to send a message to the public that what they are reading in the media is not accurate. i spend a lot of time trying to set the record straight on what ice does, and what we don't do.

i started in border patrol in 1984. so, i've worked the frontlines for several years and became a special agent. i investigated an organization that smuggled people into this country for 20 years. i have last eight years, been in charge of the removal operations of illegal aliens. so, i have worked the entire immigration lifecycle. i'm not the smartest guy to sit in this chair, but the first cop to sit in this chair. i actually retired january 27, of about three hours. on the way out of the ceremony i got a call from general kelly, asking that the president would like me to stay. when the president asks you to serve, there's only one

answer. so, i'm trying to send a message. as soon as i came into the office -- every morning i read the press clips. these are a few i read this morning. migrant sues the feds, claiming harassment. ttoop trump officials or portrayed as criminals. u.s. hauls in 100 cambodians to be deported. 18-year-old u.s. resident departed by heartless trump administration. family claims deception after ice detains denver father of four. that's just a few of the headlines i had the pleasure of

reading this morning. you know what they don't say? they don't say every one of these people are being removed. they got an order from a judge, issued from a bench and it's ice's job to execute that order. if anybody in this room ignored a judge's order, what would happen to you? they want to vilify the men and women for executing a judge's order issued from a bench. shame on these folks. people say we are racist, white supremacists. people should be ashamed for enforcing laws in this country? that's why i get emotional and start talking because the 20,000 men and women who work for ice are american patriots by the very fact that they read this every day, and they still hip,ped a gun tot o their

defend this country and defend public safety and get vilified for doing it, but they keep coming back day after day. i appreciate the invite. every time i do one of these ff views me six pages of things they want me to say. i will start this way, but i will get off topic because i am passionate about what we do, i am passionate about getting the truth out to people about what ice does. the heritage foundation has been a friend and advocate for the work we do and on behalf of the 20,000 men and women, thank you for this opportunity. i want to talk about ice enforcement and priorities, what we do and don't do. my statements on the hill have been talked about a lot out there. aliens should be afraid, should be looking over their shoulders. if anybody in this room -- if

you go down the highway, raising 100 miles per hour are you worried that you will get a ticket? if you line your taxes, are you worried you will get an audit? people that knowingly and intentionally violate the laws of this country, enter this country illegally, which is a crime -- when you permit a crime against this country, you should be worried. that's the way it's supposed to be. if we keep sending the message it is ok to violate the laws of this country and of the worried about enforcement, then we're never going to solve the border crisis. it's never going to be sold, as long as people think they get a free pass. i heard a lot of good comments by the panel. the millions of people to enter this country and become part of our society that for the people

who ended line and do it this way, but to admire them. there is a right way to enter the country and a wrong way. the wrong way is not acceptable. the president made this clear. there is not another law enforcement agency in this country where people ask them not to enforce the laws. nobody asks fbi, dea, atf -- name a federal or state or local law enforcement agency where politicians say, don't enforce that law, don't take that law seriously. that law, butct you are sworn to ignore it. no other agency has been asked to do what ice has been asked to do. this president made it clear. he signed a series of executive orders.

it was a lot of paper, words and sentences. he could have written them in one sentence. ice will now enforce the laws enacted by congress on the books. we did not create any new laws to enforce. this president said, i am taking the handcuffs off the law enforcement officers. you can now enforce the laws on the books. that is what he has done. country spends billions of dollars a year on border security, detention, immigration , appealsttorneys courts and circuit courts. at the end, a judge issues a final order. they need to be executed. not, therethey are is no integrity.

if a federal judge makes a decision, this needs to be held up. to be executed by the men and women of ice. why would anybody follow the rules and laws of this country if at the end you don't like the decision, ok, we will forget about it? i get asked all the time, why do we arrest somebody who is been here for 10-15 years with two u.s. citizen kids? if we don't, and we continue to send this message, you can hide in the shadows of the u.s. citizen child, or you can go to the immigration court and get an order and ignore it. if you have a u.s. citizen child, you are off the hook. the law means nothing to you. you are exempt from federal law. if that's the message we want to send, you are never going to solve the border crisis. if people think they can come

into this country legally and have a u.s. citizen kid, and that gets him off the hook, you will never fix the border crisis. i've been doing this a long time and we have got to stop sending that message. last week the of illustration -- last week, the administration laid out several reforms. one thing that is accurate is the white house developed these policies. certain people that have a white supremacist agenda -- these policies written by career law-enforcement officers. they asked us, they asked cis and they asked ice. give us what you think you need to enforce the law in a meaningful way.

we have made great progress on the border this year. whether you like this president or not, like his policies or not, you can't argue with results on the border right now. why? because we are enforcing the rule of law and sending a strong message. you will get your due process. once the decision has been made, it will be enforced. the priorities and policy sent to the hill last week were created and written by career law enforcement officers, including myself. they asked my ideas and my staff and we put together our wish list of priorities and policies. these priorities reflect the input of law enforcement professionals throughout the three organizations. they laid the groundwork for serious immigration enforcement. this president takes public safety and border security seriously. and thank god for that.

the policies we sent up were clear and concise. from a law enforcement perspective, they make sense. this president and administration has allowed the ice officers to do what they are supposed to do, enforce the laws. the fact of the matter is you enter the country illegally, overstaying a visa, skipping immigration court, committing crimes illegally, if we don't address them, then there is no integrity in the system and we will never fix it. i have been around since 1984, i was here during the last amnesty. that was supposed to be the last time we did it. did it work? no. because as long as people think they can get into this country illegally and be immune from the law, we won't fix it. this president is fixing it. the numbers are at historical lows. we have to continue down the path to we are on the right path. we have made significant progress this year under this

president. both executive orders and priorities announced at the white house include measures to hold sanctuary cities accountable. california's governor this month signed legislation making california a sanctuary state for illegal aliens, including those who have committed additional crimes. it's called sb-54. that law nearly eliminates all cooperation with with our law enforcement partners. it points to legitimate authority. it prohibits local law enforcement from contacting the federal government to house detainees and refuses the law enforcement agencies to contact us. sanctuary policies are shielding aliens from enforcement.

i will give you an example, two months ago in sonoma county, i'm familyy arrested for triggered anery i.c.e.o ice filed a detainer, sonoma county sheriff's department released him on bail before ice could respond. two weeks later, he murdered that girlfriend. had we been given time to take custody, most likely he would be in guatemala. every criminal immigrant tickets -- gets released by a sanctuary city that reoffend has committed a crime that has been preventable. i will say it again. sanctuary cities are releasing public safety threats back into the public. that does not make sense to me. even immigrant communities don't want criminals in their communities. if you are a child predator, do you feel the same way? they don't want these criminals back in their community. the irony of the sanctuary policies, let me explain.

i got a letter from 12-14 congressman about my reprehensible statements in response to the california sanctuary law. i said i have no choice but to arrest people in neighborhoods and at work sites. let me explain my statement, which i explained to them. 100 times, i explained to the people who created the sanctuary policy before they made it a law, when i go to a jail, they are going to arrest a public safety threat. that is why they are in the jail. number one, they are in the country illegally. there already committed one crime against this country. yet they commit another crime against the citizens of this country.

a countyare sitting in jail. this is a person in violation of federal law in a county jail, which is probably not a choir boy. there are county officers the don't allow us into the jail. this law doesn't allow us to get the detainer. which means what? when he gets released back into the community. my job is to locate him and arrest him. it's a public safety issue. arresting somebody in a county jail is safer for my officers. cpimtu tjeu are om a ao -- county they are in a jail. haveow they don't weapons.

it is safer for the alien to be arrested in county jail because there will not be all this emotion in the street. it is safer for the community because the public safety threat is not in the community. that makes sense. arrest the criminal inside the county jail, safe, secure. when sanctuary cities release them, i have to knock on the door, the most dangerous part of law enforcement, knocking on the door of a criminal on his turf with access to who knows what. when i made this statement by passing this law and not allowing access to jails, what you have done is forced my hand. now i have to go to their homes, not only a public and officer safety issue, we have to knock on the door. in a jail, i will arrest the criminal. when i go to the home and find that bad guy, he will probably have other people with him who have immigration issues. well, the new executive order says no one is off the table. those politicians that shows to -- that chose to make a political statement over that of public safety that want to tell

their communities that sanctuary cities protect the communities, wrong. now you just put all of these people who were not on my radar on my radar. when we go to a home or place of business, we will find others. that is an intentional misconception, mismessaging by these politicians that sanctuary cities protect the communities, they don't. i am going to do my job. they can call themselves sanctuary cities all they want, my officers are going to do the job. that's the message, more officers in jail means less officers in the community. that's simple math. that's something you won't read in the media. for me to make a statement that you are forcing my hand to do more operations in neighborhoods, you can call it anything you want. that is just fact. you have forced my hand to do that. are you stoking fear in immigrants?

are politicians in the media stoking fear and saying ice conducts raids, sweeps? we arrest people in churches, hospitals, schools, when we don't. we don't conduct raids, we don't conduct sweeps. we conduct targeted enforcement operations. the fine men and women who are professional. when they go to arrest somebody, they know exactly who they will arrest and where to find them based on modern investigative work. we don't go into neighborhoods looking for people who look different than us. people say they are racist and white supremacist. we remove people from over 104 countries last year. many latino, many not. we are enforcing the laws. when the story is out ice conducts raids and does a never sweet, we conduct targeted enforcement operation. we don't set up roadblocks, we don't arrest people at churches, hospitals, or schools.

do we arrest people near schools? yes. said we arrested somebody dropping their daughter off at school, several blocks from the school, after he dropped his daughter off and officers verified the mother was there to receive the child in the day. officers take great care in what they do. when you have a sanctuary city policy, that you can't arrest someone in jail, you have these groups that tell you and others don't open your doors to ice, don't answer the questions. we can't arrest them in jail. we can't arrest them in their homes because they have been trained not to. what option does that leave us? we have to wait until they leave. when you are in new york, los angeles, chicago, and when you pull the car over, you are within a block or two from a church, school, or hospital. we don't arrest people

at hospitals, schools, or churches without prior approval from headquarters. it has to be a significant issue, to do that. that is a fact. you won't read that. it is a continued vilification of what we do. withse people don't agree what we do. you have a right to your opinion but don't vilify the men and women of ice who are following their oath to enforce the laws of this great nation. this is the greatest country on the face of the earth. you can't want to be a part of this country and not respect its laws. you cannot have it both ways. sanctuary cities are not the america i grew up in. for politicians and restrictions, and states and city localities to intentionally shield those in the country illegally and committed another crime and they are sitting in a tax payer funded jail, to not get access to a law enforcement officer is un-american.

it is not the america i grew up in. we all should be on the same safety.protect public no matter how they want to spin it in their op-ed's, releasing public safety threats does not make sense and increases the public safety threat. century city's entice sanctuary more illegal entry. cities are a human smugglers best friend. what a sales pitch. i will get you into chicago or los angeles and you can get arrested and they will not work with ice. safe place to be. sanctuarythink cities are doing that? so, sanctuary cities are a danger to public safety. they are a violation of federal law. they entice more illegal

behavior, more deaths occur because of this. people are dying to enter this country. i have had a long story of able say you want to arrest all of these people. you would understand my emotion. dead there when they found thens smuggled cross border on a truck. the smugglers don't care. they are out to make a buck. they don't care about the health and well-being of these people. i was in headquarters on detail when we found 19 dead aliens in the back of a tractor-trailer in dallas. i got a phone call to lead the investigation, 19 dead aliens in the back of a tractor-trailer. i went down there. the crime scene was kept secured. i walked into the back of that tractor-trailer. i was surrounded by 19 dead aliens around me. they suffocated in the tractor-trailer. one was a five-year-old boy. that haunts me to this day. i had a five-year-old boy at the time. what do you think that

five-year-old child went to the last 30 minutes of his life? what do you think the father who was holding that child went through in the last 30 minutes of his life knowing that he put that child in that position and could not change it and they are suffocating in the back of this black, hot tractor-trailer? the alien smuggling organization doesn't care about them. what do you think they went through? when i was in phoenix, arizona, we rescued hostages all the time. women were raped, children were molested. we did one investigation, we rescued a hostage and got into the house and he was in a closet wrapped up in duct tape. he had a hole and a straw so he could breathe, for days. when people say i am cold and heartless, you have not seen what i have seen. we have to end this stuff here taking itresident is

seriously. call us anything you want. i have thick skin. we will not be bullied and not enforce this law. it is working. the numbers don't lie. does the system need to be fixed? absolutely. that is congress's job. it is working. we need to stick with it. what we sent up the hill last week, the policies we are asking for to continue doing what we are doing our something we need to fix this entire system. people say -- when you talk about the actuary cities, not only does it entice people to hire these organizations, puts people at risk, they will continue dying entering this country. you are bankrolling the criminal organizations that smuggle these people. these are organizations that smuggle weapons, dope, do drugs, and people who want to do harm to this country.

it's the same illicit pathways. the drug cartels in mexico control their pathways and their areas. you not going to do anything in that area unless you pay a tax. they control all that. by sanctuary cities putting people in more danger in making this dangerous journey, enticing people to make that journey, putting the public safety at risk. you are also bankrolling criminal organizations that want to do harm to this country. people say they want us to focus on the criminals. i hear it all the time. ok. focus on criminals, but don't allow me in your county jails. right? think about it. these politicians are suing the trump administration for threatening to withhold funding from sanctuary cities. they don't want to fund the

border wall to keep them out, but they want to fund sanctuary cities to keep them in. that is backwards. as you can guess, i am passionate about sanctuary cities. despite the refusals of some politicians to work with us, we we will have a positive effect. we already are. since january 22, we arrested more than 100,000 illegal aliens in the interior of the united states, a 42% increase. our issue is detaining over 80%. we have enforced the laws that we were sworn to enforce. i told you about the sense location policy.

churches, schools. people want to mis-message that we arrest aliens. there is a jurisdiction passing laws that we can't arrest people in a school. that strokes fear. we don't do it. there is a message behind all that. how to be arresting criminal alien in a criminal courthouse? think about that. i have seen fathers arrested for failing to pay child support. there is a message behind all of that. house arrest. how dare we arrest a criminal alien? think about that. i have been in court where i have seen fathers arrested for failing to pay child support. the judge said, you have not the child support in six months. you are going to tell me that a federal law enforcement officer cannot take custody of a criminal inside a courthouse? people say he has a right to due process. he also has an obligation to a federal court that already ordered that he be removed. we arrest him outside. we will arrest him in a nonpublic setting. it has to be a last option.

they have to be a public safety threat. and we cannot get him anywhere else. to arrest continue people at courthouses? absolutely i will. he is a public safety threat i am not going to let him walk back out into the public. that is not what we do. that is not what this country is about. when i testified on the hill, people want to beat me up for the statements that i made. when i went to the hill to testify at that time, why should i not want the same thing for the men and women of ice. if i can arrest somebody in

a safe setting like that, why wouldn't i? the men and women of ice already put themselves in harms way every day, but we want to increase it now? we want you to arrest people where it is more dangerous. common sense. as far as courthouse, i want apologize. we will continue to do that. combined with border apprehensions, data show priorities are working. we also made it a priority to enforce laws against ms 13. criminal gangs are a priority. ms-13, we will take them out. i been on media, i actually went with the president to new presentationdo a

there. we arrested 1400 gang members already, in many ms 13. the focus on criminal gangs is a higher priority because they are vicious. a very violent gang. we will arrest them send them to prison and when they are done there, we will send them back to wherever they are from if they are here illegally. if there is not enough evidence to prosecute them criminally and they are here illegally, we will still send them back. it is the right thing to do for the safety of this nation. we are not looking to arrest them and remove them, we want to dismantle the entire organization. we have officers in 40 countries across the globe. we are working with officials. in el salvador. we will dismantle those organizations. over 53lly arrested last month. there

we are not just talking about arresting them. we are talking about doing away with ms 13. the street officers, law enforcement officers, on the front line, they want to work with us. believe me. i have talked to many of them. these are politicians making these decisions. the california sheriffs association came out against the latest sanctuary law in california. sanctuaryack to cities because it just annoys me. chicago, illinois, highest crime rate in the history of that city. more gun deaths in the history of that city. it's a plague, right? are they doing everything they can to protect the citizens of that city? no, because ice officers aren't allowed in county jail. they don't share information or honor retainers. the percentage of criminals in the country illegally will get released right back into the community to reoffend. anyone can google recidivism rates. 50% of those released, criminals, will commit another crime in the first year.

over half of them. three quarters will reoffend within five years, so chicago has chosen politics over public safety. out of -- out of -- war they declared on immigration enforcement. they want to release criminals back into the community rather than work with the department of homeland security. i have been doing this a long time, to be at a place where a sworn law enforcement officer cannot walk into a county jail to talk to somebody in the united states illegally and committed another crime in a taxpayer funded facility does not make sense to me. so i want to tell you that law enforcement, the sheriffs want to work with us. i am not here to vilify the fine men and women that strap a gun to their hip every day and enforce the laws. they want their community safe

also. but, their hands are being tied in many areas across the country. the other day one of the presenters talked about a program where law enforcement agencies come to us and want to help us. we train them and teach them how to process people and identify people. we do it in a jail setting. it is like a force multiplier. enforcements law officer. they will screen everybody, and once they find someone here illegally, they will process them. they are supervised by a nice officer. it is a force multiplier. they want to work shoulder to shoulder with us. thisve already doubled with this president. ofwill triple it by the end

the year. that has been a meaningful positive under this president. numerous positives as far as public safety and this president. the executive orders ask us to expand these agreements. we will triple them by the end of the year. i went to texas about two months ago and i signed 18 agreements in one day, 18 sheriffs. i want to work with you all. i want some immigration authority. then you have a place like california who does not want have anything to do with that program and they want to stonewall you doing your own job. that is the dynamics we are looking at. as far as detainers legality and non-legality, there was a court decision on the fifth circuit saying they are legal. -- while they're while they're -- they want to argue in the courts over detainers. i won't hold them a minute

passed i would normally hold them, but we will let you know when they are going to be released so you can arrest them. harm'sesn't put them in but sanctuary cities refused to do that too. even though they have no liability there. but they refuse to do that. i am almost done. we are working with the doj on a lot of things. again, sanctuary cities. i think we should file suit. we are hiring more attorneys come immigration attorneys, to make the system go faster. we are increasing ice personnel in foreign countries, central america, europe. we want to push the borders back. then secretary kelly said -- i would rather play the away game rather than the home game. i am all for it. let's stop these criminal organizations where they start. if we can stop an organization in san salvador or mexico before it gets to our shores, because once it crosses our border, they are here for a long time. if you look at the numbers in central america in the last couple of years, it has

skyrocketed. that is why immigration courts have over a 600,000 case backlog. what is a shame is most of them won't get it. they are taking advantage of the system. the backdrop is there are people in this world that really need our sanctuary, that are really in fear of political asylum and they get caught in this whole process where people are clogging the system. that's part of the policies on the hill also. we have to look at the whole political asylum spectrum and have meaningful threshold so people can take advantage of it. another thing this president has done, we used to have 26 recalcitrant countries the refused to take back their people. we have a supreme court ruling that we can only detain for six months. these are some serious criminals. the 26 are down to 11 or 12 now.

we just sent notices to these countries saying -- you better change your ways or there will be visa sanctions. this president has taken this on headstrong and we are making progress and we are doing visa sanctions against countries that don't cooperate with us. they have a responsibility to take them back. they are not supposed to be here. we have to remove them. this president takes that seriously. we have to change certain court decisions in the ninth court.

consequence and deterrence is meaningful for illegal activity. illegal activity will decrease if there is a consequence and deterrent to that activity. we all learned that has kids. and i truly believe that. when we had this surge of families in 2014 coming across the border, once we built family detention, we had a court decision that you can only hold them for 20 days. we will feed you, give you clothing, give your vaccination, what would stop it? we targeted those families and had a final order to remove them. it's a family. i get it. about iteel good but we have to execute those orders. when we did that, guess what? we took a beating in the media, but guess what? those numbers were down again. my overall message today is that under this president we are enforcing the laws the way they were meant to be enforced and have had a significant impact on crossings across the border. the families and children are still higher than we want them to be. the traffic and victims protection act has good intent, but that is being abuse now by people who want to come and claim they are escaping violence. if you are a parent or sponsor that pays a criminal

organization, put your child in the hands of a criminal organization, and you can hide in the shadows, we will put them in immigration proceedings. the first phase of it just finished. we will prosecute them first of all, and second of all, we will put them in immigration court and take them out of the shadows. if this eight or nine-year-old is truly escaping persecution, that parent should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him. i call that parenting.

as far as the family units, we are looking for some good judicial rulings on that. again, let me explain something. i want to be clear. do i feel bad about the plight of some of these people? bad aboutcers feel the plight of some of these people? absolutely we do. law enforcement, i shared a few things with you, but every state, local law enforcement officer sees terrible things every day. whenever they take a child away from the parent, families get destroyed over that and an officer has to arrest somebody, officers feel bad. they have hearts. i mean, i am a father.

i mean, do i feel bad about these people? yes, i do. i have a job to do. if we don't do that job, it will get worse. most people think ice officers are heartless. shame on them. the men and women who work for me are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters. i am not asking anybody to cut us slack. i am asking for recognition for the men and women of ice who have a difficult job and put their own safety at risk every day for this fine nation. thank you. with that i will end. thank you. [applause] >> we have time for maybe 1-2 questions before we have to run. would you raise your hand? boy, lots of hands. where are the microphones? i don't know right here in the front. if you would tell us who you are, please.

epoch times.the actually you can read our headlines, too, and they aren't so bad. i wanted to ask you about unaccompanied minors and the family units, the numbers have come up. you addressed it a little bit with the antitrafficking, but until a congressional change takes place, is there anything you can do? i know that especially the unaccompanied minor program is looked at as a recruiting platform for ms 13 in particular. can you talk about that a little bit? >> they will get their due process, but when we get orders, we will execute orders. we have a surge operation we just finished where we arrested 600. we will continue that. once you have had your due process and a federal judge has ordered you removed, we will take those orders seriously and take people into custody and

remove them. that's what we do. once people realize there is no free pass in the u.s. hopefully they won't sell their ranch and everything they own to pay a criminal organization money to get here only to be sent back home. there is a lot of messaging going on in central america. we have enforcement here that we are stepping up to send a message that there is no free pass. you are going home. we have messaging in central america on just that. then secretary kelly had a seminar in miami and invited officials from central america, called, "security prosperity." know, to let those, you centralnesses invest in companies for more

there, soies down hitting them from both sides. that is what we are doing. from a law-enforcement side and helping those countries take care of their own people. when there is a consequence and deterrence and we put a plane full of families on a plane and return them, it is meaningful. people will think about it before they put themselves in harms way and give their life savings to a criminal organization. let us not make that trip. >> we have time for one final question. in the back. >> mark, center for immigration studies. the one thing you did not talk about was worksite enforcement. i know there are bureaucratic issues in ice about that sort of thing. about aat announcement company getting a huge fine. are we going to see a resumption of routine worksite enforcement? >> i am glad you mentioned that. i have eight pages of stuff here. yes, the panel is right. unless you remove the magnets, as long as they think they can

come here and not be removed, they will keep coming. as long as they get jobs, they will try to come. we are stepping up worksite enforcement. i recently looked at how much time, what percentage of time is spent by homeland security on worksite enforcement, i will increase that by four or five times. we are taking worksite enforcement very seriously. we have already increased the number of inspections at worksite operations. you will see that significantly increase. we will do it different then how we have done it. we will prosecute, detain, and remove workers. >> with that, we have reached the end of what i trust you will agree was both an informative and engaging discussion on immigration enforcement. please join me in thanking, thomas holman for coming and sharing the day with us. [applause]

>> so john is here -- he's the guy -- >> yeah. >> will walk out this way. ♪ announcer: c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, discussion on the week ahead in washington. and eat economists talk about mortgage interest deduction. the discussion. congress meets today for

legislative business. later in the week there are to take up the budget resolution by the senate, a final vote possible by thursday. :00senate is back at three p.m. eastern to consider a $3.5 billion emergency supplemental for hurricane and fire relief that was already approved by the house. her procedural vote is set to advance the bill at 5:30 p.m. eastern. c-span two.e on communicators,he russia's involvement in the 2016 election. >> facebook has said that they learned a bunch of bats placed wereg the election replaced by a russian outfit under anonymous accounts and divisive clinically ads. not necessarily it seems like a bad one candidate or another by

aimed at selling division and really charged topics. senate intelligence committee confirmation hearing general.ia inspector he has been the acting inspector general since 2015. this is one hour, 20 minutes.

all this sharpley next nominee to the inspector general of the cfo of congratulations find your nomination of white to start by recognizing fear family that this year to date your wife kimberly? says will last yourself? en your daughter and her husband james. and your mother. our goal to conduct this hearing is to enable the qualifications chris already provided responses to 85 questions prevent -- presented by the committee to dave members can ask additional questions and hear from mr. sharpley in open session.

and receiving his master's from the naval postgraduate school. and to receive a commission from the u.s. air force with the counterintelligence officer with the special investigations. as director of security and towhee retired honorably from the air force in 2002 immediately following went to the office of the inspector general as a federal agent since then with the department of energy with those offices at the t.a.r.p. program landed 2010 cruz received the presidential word -- awarded in 2012 he retired as a federal civilian law enforcement officer starting his career at the