biotics and cures -- antibiotics , with the white >> my name is tracy mccormick. it is my pleasure to welcome our speaker today, attorney general sessions to discuss terrorism and immigration. i went to begin by apologizing our u.s. attorney could not be here today. he had an in avoidable conflict but passes along his thanks to you for all you do been coming here this afternoon.

attorney general jeff sessions has worked in and around law enforcement for 40 years. i am honored to be able to introduce him, given this commitment on the public safe to publicement safety. i also have a personal reason of attorney because general sessions, for one glimpse of the moment, my teenage son was almost impressed by me. very long hours when weekend, and my 17-year-old son said to me, why are you working so hard? work hard all the time, but this is crazy. i explained, when you are briefing the attorney general of the united states, i said, you have to be prepared. he looked at me wide-eyed and said, are you really going to be jeff sessions? i said, wow, he is actually proud of me. but no, like all self-interested teenagers, it was about me serving him -- can you get me his autograph?

all kidding aside, the attorney general goes with it means to work long hours and make personal sacrifices in preserving this country in securing public safety. he served as attorney general of alabama, was a federal prosecutor for 14 years, 12 as united states attorney, and for 20 years, he served as united states senator, including on the judiciary committee. he is the 84th attorney general of the united states. it is my pleasure to introduce them today. thank you very much. [applause] good to bes: very with all of you, and it is good to see state and local law enforcement officials here to comment because we are partners. his orderive gave right off the bat, and he can be to the and he said

department of justice, your goal is to reduce crime in america. given a lot of thought to that, we can embrace that if you look at how crime is fought in state and local, and we have to do this together. goal, our vision, and we intend to be partners. applying proper techniques of law enforcement, we could make america safer and reduce crime in america, and that is what we are determined to do. thank you for your team, i appreciate their work, there is isdoubt that this district recognized as one of the finest and most productive offices in america. sincerely, and you have done great work and do a ,ot of national security cases

in addition to a lot more than any district in the country does, so that is a special contribution to america's national security. i wish youend dana, could have been with us. i talked to him about coming, and it couldn't work out, but dana is a right hand to me. somebody i trust, i like, i value. have people like that with you, and he has worked in his heart out. texting you know, he is acting attorney general of the united states -- next thing you know he is acting general of the united states. conferrednstein was -- confirmed, he became director of the national security division of the united states of

america now he will be assuming a critically important role as chief counsel of the fbi. dana has been a great friend and great contributor. i want to thank our state and local law officers for what you do. and weships that we have like to believe we can make better. we will be working at it. today, we face a number of serious threats. 13 group vicious ms -- with, to thet deadliest drug epidemic in american history, we have never seen anything like it before. to radical islamic terrorism that the stick district has confronted.

they are determined to confront each one of these threats to give every american safety and peace of mind. that, we have to have the right policies in place. it is fair and reasonable to ask more from law enforcement while at the same time undermining their efforts through harmful or ineffective policies. i will talk a little about immigration policies today. those policies are not promoting insteadonal interest -- they select the vast majority of legal immigrants without respect to merit. as a result, law enforcement officers have more work to do. you go into more dangerous situations, confront more criminals, criminals who should not have been allowed in the country in the first place. million illegal aliens in the country, a the

size of georgia or portugal. and we cannot control or even know who was in the country, it is that much harder to keep people safe. matter,no hypothetical the effects can be seen across the country. last week, the department of justice and homeland security that revealsport that immigration and customs enforcement officers have aliens more than 1700 with national security concerns /11.e 9 - people convicted of terrorism offenses in the federal courts were born outside of the country. hassancludes mohammed in woodbridge virginia. was admitted to the united through migration

as a family member of a lawful, prominent resident. not a resident, but chain migration. now, he has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for attempting to help someone fly from richmond to syria to fight for isis. he planned on following him there later himself. -- followed a sudanese national who lived in on assess. he came to the united states through chain migration as a child of a visa lottery recipient and was naturalized. he is also serving an 11 year service -- sentence. he admitted to using twitter to provide advice and encouragement to isis and its supporters.

he also admitted that he assisted in iranian born friend to travel to syria to fight with isis. fall, we know, this sought to terrorist attacks in new york and less than two months. they were carried out by people who came here as a result of the diversity lottery and chain migration. as a result, eight people were killed. duty to not allow terrorists to enter into our country. yet we know that hundreds of them have endangered the lives of citizens that we were sworn to protect. committed by fetid immigrants, especially illegal definitiony -- in my a preventable crime.

even one victim's want too many, criminals have no right to demand entry into the united states. don't have a constitutional right to demand that we have a duty to select people we believe will be flourished and law-abiding in our country. we should strive to never admit criminals, not one. yet thousands of americans have suffered because of decades of a lack of immigration policies and lax enforcement. last month we released a report with the department of homeland security which revealed there were nearly 40,000 known or suspected aliens in the custody of the bureau of prisons. roughly one out of five prisoners in the bureau of prisons, means the immigrant share of the prison population is nearly two thirds greater than the share of the general population.

out of those in custody of the united states marshals service, nearlyate cohort -- 20,000 o those were foreign-born. that is more than one third of the total martial population and nearly triple the share of the general population. i am sure you have heard that immigrants are less likely to , butt crime than average one study that just came out look at the prison population in arizona and found that illegal aliens are more than twice as likely to be convicted of crimes ians.gular arizona i they are more than twice as likely to be convicted of murder. tens of thousands of crimes have been committed in this country that would never have happened

if immigration laws had been properly enforced and respected as they ought to be. three days ago, an illegal alien living in southern california was charged with rape of an intoxicated victim and first degree or glory. -- first-degree burglary. , and he tookr advantage of intoxicated females who got into his car. he should not have been here, but you can get licenses in some states, even if you are illegally in the country. this is an issue of a crime committed by aliens, and it doesn't just affect victims of those crimes. it affects all of us by placing an unnecessary and unfair burden on federal agents. had a briefing

by the fbi, and i know how difficult it is for them to maintain surveillance and to monitor individuals who come here that might be dangerous. it is a myth that we have unlimited agents who can spend a limited time monitoring, surveilling people who turn out to be dangerous. mathematics,r of and that is what happens when cities, counties, and states deliberately refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement. policieslled sanctuary force police to release criminals back into the community matter what crimes they have committed in those jurisdictions. we cannot continue giving federal grants to cities that actively undermine the safety of federal law officers and intentionally frustrate our efforts to reduce crime in america.

that is why under president trump's leadership, we started to channel law enforcement funding to cities that do cooperate with immigration enforcement. enforceeed is want to -- receive law-enforcement grants, they can, we want them to, but they have to stop impeding federal law enforcement. a department requested documents from 23 jurisdictions across the country to ensure that they are complying with the law. those that fail to respond completely or promptly will be subject to a subpoena. that these work documents that can easily be us, but to those -- to the cities and counties will show us that they are indeed following the law area for a permanent fix, i have to say, of our immigration laws and

disrespect, we are going to need congress to act. the american people have known for more than 30 years, that our immigration system is broken. is intentionally designed to be blind to merit. it doesn't favor education or skills, it just favors anybody who has a relative in america and not necessarily a close relative. that defies common sense. dice whendon't roll they choose who to hire. our military doesn't draw straws when deciding who to accept. but for some reason, when admitting new americans, the ourre of our country, government uses a randomized lottery system. president trump run for office and one by arguing that he will fix this program, this broken

system. whofinally, we have someone is listening to the concerns of the american people. you has the bold agenda that the american people have been waiting for. the president is determined to finally build a wall in the southern border, and it will make it harder and more expensive for a legal aliens to break our laws, smuggle drugs, and even human beings into the it will be costly and too much trouble, and they will stay home. our goal is not to see how many people we can arrest, that is legalityurpose, but in and to restore a legal system of immigration. we want people to apply, and wait their turn. if they are not selected, they are not entitled to come to the

country illegally. once that is established, people will start in large numbers of making this dangerous attempt. the wall will send a message to the world that in the united states of america, we enforce the laws of this country. theetter achieve that, president has proposed hiring ice than 10,000 new officers, attorneys, 300 new immigration prosecutors, and nearly 400 new immigration judges. with these new resources, our immigration system will move faster, more efficiently, and be more effective. a central idea of the president's reform proposal is switching to a merit system -based immigration. that means welcoming the best and brightest, but the parking fraud ands, identity

child abusers. system wouldsed better serve our national interest because it would benefit the american people, which is what this agenda is all about. this proposal is not unique, of course. is the lawed system in places like australia and canada. in those countries, future canadians and australians are chosen based on their likelihood of assimilating, thriving in the country, and contributing to society. a decade ago had the opportunity to meet with one of the architects of the canadian system, and ask how well it is working. place thateen in long, but he said it was working very well, it was very popular.

there was no chance that the people of canada would want to go back to their old system. that would be what we should do, in my opinion. it would be great for the economy, but more importantly, it would be the best way to ensure our immigration system does not continue to harm national security. and is indeed a national security issue. -- immigration is a national security issue. virginians know that better than just about anybody. it is time to put in place smarter immigration laws and start enforcing them. have waited people long enough, and we want to create a system that serves the national interest. that is what a great nation should do. there is nothing wrong or immoral to develop an immigration policy that we believe strengthens america and

makes us a greater country. president trump's merit waste system restore fairness and respect for the law. safer,d also help us be no doubt about that. i want to say one last thing. i love the department of justice and the great people that work here. ,he vast majority are dedicated hard-working, patriotic americans. it is an honor beyond words to lead them and serve them. from day one, my mission as attorney general is to ensure our great department has its rightful place as the crown jewel of the states government -- of the u.s. government. criticismbeen sharp of the department, and there is two ways to respond to these criticisms. one is to be defensive, and the other is to hear concerns and act on them professionally,

in ordernd completely, to maintain the public trust in their government. is to get every day the department back to its fundamental mission of enforcing the law and protecting the safety of americans with integrity and fairness. that is the first thing i think about when i wake up in the morning, that is what my team works at every day. that means returning to the constitutional role of enforcing -- asw as it does written it is written, not how a particular group thinks it is written. a law professor and a great writer -- told me, the 11th , years court of appeals ago, i have never forgotten it. think, ifn my mind, i

you respect the constitution, you will and force it as it is written, the good and bad parts. he didn't mean any part was particularly good or bad, and not what the judge thought. and i think it is true, if you are in the mind of commitment to the constitutional provisions that are clearly in the would be subject to provision by a judge in the future? so we need to do our duty and follow the law. concept,le like that some don't, but the constitution says that congress writes the laws, and we enforce them, not the other way around. it means eliminating political or favoritism in either direction from investigations and prosecutions. that sort of thinking is the antithesis of what the

department stands for. we will not tolerate it. it means identified mistakes of the past and correcting them. when we find problems, we are addressing them head on. not sweeping them under the rug. much of what we are doing is behind the scenes, it is not public, but some of it is in the public view. that is ok, this is our system, it is part of the process, and we're going to work our way through it. see criticism as necessarily a bad thing, we welcome congress as a partner in our effort to get better when they learn of a problem and start asking questions. that is a good thing. truly,ght the best, and breeds confidence. the department of justice is not does not always know

what is best, we are not perfect, no one is, and they could never be that we would conceal errors if they were to occur. -- no, we demand the highest level of integrity and professionalism from every person in the department of justice. everyone is expected to advance the mission of the department honorably, in service to the american people. if anyone falls short of these standards, we would not has -- hesitate to take appropriate action and will do it with accordance to the rules and procedures of the department of justice. while we're open to criticism, will also protect investigators and prosecutors from unfair criticism. our goal is justice. our work is subject to review with certain restraints. -- justifiedct review.

constantrequires improvement and adjustments, but it must be founded on integrity of the law. nothing is more important. that is our goal. thank you all for allowing me to be with you. think this united states attorney's office for your fabulous service to america. you have one of the best offices in america, and thank you all. that's work together. god bless. [applause] >> the president ordered a firing of robert mueller?