- 7/14/2025
DHS Sec. Kristi Noem holds a press briefing to detail the arrests of the "worst of the worst" illegal immigrants in Tampa, Florida.
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00:00Good afternoon everybody. Thank you so much for being here. Today we wanted to gather and talk
00:24about all of the excellent work that these officers behind us are doing every single day
00:28to make America safe again. It's been about six months now since President Trump has come into
00:32office as President of the United States and as you know he has a mandate from the American people
00:38to clean up our streets to help make our communities safer and has given me the job of focusing on
00:43homeland security and how we do that is that we focus on making sure that we're not only securing
00:48our border each and every day knowing who's coming into this country and who should not be coming
00:53into our country but also the illegal criminal aliens that we have on our streets getting them
00:58out and getting them out before they perpetuate more crimes and create more victims out of our
01:02families that live in our communities. Today I wanted to focus on some of the work that's being
01:06done here in Florida specifically in Tampa by these officers behind me and I wanted to call on all the
01:11American people to support our law enforcement officers. What we're seeing across the country
01:16is unspeakable as far as the increase in violence against those who are upholding the rule of law.
01:21Listen, under President Trump's administration there is no more winners and losers. There is the rule
01:27of law and the law is applied equally to everybody. Every single individual in this country will be
01:34treated fairly and we will uphold our law because that is what the American people asked for.
01:39We have since President Trump has been in office arrested over 286,000 illegal aliens. We have also
01:47recognized that 70 percent of those individuals have had criminal charges convicted. They were convicted
01:53of them or they have them pending against them. By far we have focused overwhelmingly day after day
02:00after day on bringing in the worst of the worst and getting them off of our streets. Those are the
02:05murderers, the rapists, the pedophiles, those who would perpetuate child pornography. They would traffic drugs
02:11and traffic our children and use violence against them. Notably, we have arrested 600 known or suspected
02:19terrorists off of our streets. And we have arrested over 2,700 known members of the Trendy Aragua gang and
02:26gotten them out of the United States of America. I want to give you a few examples today of the good
02:30work that has been done here in Florida and specifically here in Tampa as well. In March, ICE Tampa arrested
02:36a 27-year-old Guatemalan illegal alien who has a pending felony charge for cruelty towards a child. We also have,
02:44earlier this week, an illegal alien was arrested right here in Tampa for producing, possessing,
02:50and distributing child pornography. Listen to that. Not just for possessing it, not just for
02:54distributing it, but also producing it and committing victims out of our children. On July 7th, HSI,
03:01Sarasota and the Manatee County Sheriff's Office arrested a Mexican national with an outstanding warrant for
03:07sexual battery of a victim under the age of 12 years old. HSI Tampa also arrested a 24-year-old citizen
03:16of Qatar who has an Interpol red notice against him for child rape in his home country. A 35-year-old
03:23Venezuelan illegal alien had been previously arrested in New York City for assault with a weapon.
03:29In New York City, of course, they released him. They released him without any consequences,
03:34but ICE was able to take him into custody. HSI Tampa arrested him just here in June.
03:40We are bringing these individuals to bear for the consequences of the crimes that they have
03:44committed. Specifically, those that I addressed today are against our children and shows truly
03:49the deranged monsters that they are. This is what President Trump has committed to the American
03:53people. What I've committed to the American people as the Secretary of Homeland Security is that
03:58we will continue to go after these that would commit crimes and violence against our citizens.
04:03We'll get them off of our streets and we'll do it as fast as possible so that families can sleep
04:07safely in their beds at night. We also recognize that child sex crimes are truly the worst crimes
04:14perpetuated by the worst and most evil individuals. These depraved monsters are on America's streets
04:21today. There are more of them and they're out in our neighborhoods and we will find them and we will
04:26bring them to justice. Now in front of me, you also see a table filled with paraphernalia,
04:32with drugs, with guns that were brought in and confiscated by these outstanding officers behind
04:37me and many others. We have 25 kilograms of cocaine, several firearms that were seized by our heroic
04:43DHS law enforcement officers over the last two weeks here in Florida. Yet, thanks to the courage of
04:49our ICE and HSI officers, these drugs will never be able to poison our families. They'll never be on the
04:55streets of our communities again and these firearms will never be used to hurt an innocent citizen.
05:01They'll never be used to cause a parent to lose a child or a father to lose a daughter for a wife or a
05:09spouse to lose each other or for a grandfather to never grow up never knowing their daughter or their
05:14granddaughter. Thanks to the courage of all these individuals, we know that the rioters won't win,
05:20that the criminal drugs that are out there attacking individuals that are trying to uphold the law
05:25are not going to win and that open border politicians who are trying to defend those evil
05:29individuals by obstructing ICE's mission will not be successful. We will be stronger than they are.
05:35We will be bolder than they are. We will enforce the law and we will bring justice to the United States
05:41of America. Those individuals that perpetuate these crimes and those who help them and facilitate it
05:46and these elected officials, what they're doing is they're attacking, they're doxing and they're
05:50trying to intimidate our brave law enforcement who put their lives on the line every single day to help
05:55keep us safe. ICE officers have faced again a 700% increase in violence against them and their families
06:04in the last six months. But what I will tell you is we continuously every day continue to see
06:09citizens from across this country sign up and want to be an ICE officer. We have people volunteering
06:14every day from other agencies to have their backs, to go out on the streets with them and to operate
06:18with them. And we are continuing to recruit good men and women of this country who love our freedom,
06:24who love our liberty, who want safety on their streets to come join us. We want you to come and
06:29help us push back on this evil rhetoric that is happening against law enforcement officers that are
06:36just out there trying to do their jobs every day. The men and women of the Department of Homeland Security
06:41are not going to quit. President Trump has given us a big job. He's given us a big job to fix what
06:47went wrong over the last several years in the United States. We had an invasion over our southern border
06:53and the Biden administration let other countries empty out their worst of the worst into our country.
06:58Thousands of terrorists came into this country, thousands of people who are deranged individuals,
07:04murderers and rapists and child pedophiles. We have people that have come out of mental institutions that
07:09have been roaming our streets and still out there today, but we're determined to bring them in
07:14through the work that we do. I'll tell you that we will keep fighting every single day for the average
07:19American citizen who just wants to have a chance at the American dream. They just want to raise their
07:25kids and let them walk to school, go to church on a Sunday, and to enjoy their community, have a picnic,
07:30and not have to worry if there's some violent criminal ready to attack them. And now that the
07:35President's reconciliation bill, the big beautiful bill has passed, we also have more resources.
07:41We're going to come harder and faster and we're going to take these criminals down with even more
07:46strength than we ever have before. We have the funding to put in the training, the resources,
07:51the salary, and the support for our law enforcement officers that they've never had before. We will never
07:56apologize for protecting our nation's law enforcement. We will continue to arrest these most dangerous
08:02criminals and we are going to continue to thank our law enforcement officers. I would call on all
08:07Americans, if you have a law enforcement officer that you know in your life, go thank them today. Go cook their
08:13family a meal. Go spend some time with them and tell them how much you support them. As loud as these haters
08:18are, we should be louder in our love and our support. Don't be silent. Get out there and do something to have
08:24their backs and step up and be one of the few that helps us save our country too. We will take our country back.
08:30Now, I will always have their back. They will have the American citizens back and you are all doing
08:35the Lord's work. With that, I'll take any questions that you may have for me.
08:39Secretary Neal, on the issue of Florida, there's reports of water intrusion, air condition issues,
08:46alligator alcatraz, and some issues that have deteriorated conditions there. Is that something
08:51your department is aware of and do you have any thoughts on kind of how that's gone since it's
08:55initially been ruled out? I know you were supportive of that.
08:57Yeah, alligator alcatraz is held to the same standards that all federal facilities are and
09:02in most states and in other jurisdictions, federal facilities are upheld to a higher quality of
09:08standards than what some states and local jurisdictions have. So any issues that were
09:12there have been addressed. It's a fantastic resource for us to be able to utilize in order
09:18for a detention facility to repatriate people back home to their home countries. And what I would say that
09:24this is a alligator alcatraz is a state-run facility run on our behalf but we're incredibly grateful for
09:30the partnership that we have with Florida. There have been some questions about Florida applying for
09:35the grants or the reimbursements that will come back. Has that happened yet? Is DHS still
09:40I haven't heard of any issues with any contracts. I've heard that it's been smooth.
09:44reports that Florida hadn't necessarily applied for the reimbursements yet. Oh, they will. They will.
09:49We've got a fantastic partnership here in Florida and I've been so grateful for the governor and his
09:54leadership in this facility. Thousand bed facility can be continue to be expanded. We're looking at other
10:00locations as well. We've had several other states that are actually using alligator alcatraz as a model
10:05for how they can partner with us as well. What are some of those? Are there other states? I'm having
10:09ongoing conversations with five other governors about facilities that they may have. You know,
10:14I haven't asked those governors if I can share their names but announcements will be coming soon. As you
10:19all know, we need to double our capacity in detention beds because we need to facilitate getting people
10:24out of this country as fast as possible and to sustain our operations. But those governors have been
10:30fantastic. I will tell you, they are all Republicans. So, I would challenge some Democrats to start taking
10:36care of your states. Partner with us in a way to make your communities safer. What shocks me every day is
10:42these sanctuary cities and sanctuary states where they don't mind letting rapers and murderers run their
10:49streets. I mean, every day when you look at who we're picking up off these streets, they're perpetuating
10:55violence on communities. And I don't understand local law enforcement officers or governors protecting
11:01their people or protecting criminals and victimizing their people. I wanted to ask as well, of the detainees
11:08at alligator alcatraz, how many of those are people that have committed violent crimes? Oh, I can find out
11:14that specific detail to you. You know, you heard me reference earlier that those that we have arrested
11:20so far since President Trump has been in office, that 70 percent of them are convicted
11:25or have pending charges against them. Many of them, as well, beyond that, where they had final
11:31removal orders, which put them in that process for that. But we can get you specific details about
11:35alligator alcatraz if you'd like to. Again, and what I would tell you, it's a state-run facility. It's a
11:41first of its kind. It's a new model that we're going to be using going forward. But they have contracts
11:46with the federal government through the Department of Homeland Security and ICE that will be held to the
11:51same standards as all of our other detention facilities. I wanted to ask you, as well,
11:55a little bit more about if there are any plans specifically at alligator alcatraz in terms of
12:00like flooding or hurricanes, that sort of thing? All of the protocols have been in place to sustain
12:06any hurricane that would happen to occur to that area of the country, to that part of the state.
12:11That planning was put in before it was ever built, and we have those contingency plans laid out,
12:16and the federal government and the state government are in full partnership on that.
12:21Yes, ma'am. Hi, thank you so much. Yeah.
12:23When will we be able to track these individuals on ice locator as of right now?
12:27Which individuals did you want to track?
12:30For example, the individuals right behind you. Uh-huh. Why do you want to track them?
12:34Well, I want to see, you know, if they ended up in alligator alcatraz or they ended up in chrome.
12:38Oh, you're talking about, I thought you're talking about the officers.
12:40I didn't know. Okay, good. Thank you.
12:43Well, you can certainly, we can get you information if you want them. I have a folder here of people
12:50that we have picked up that have committed violent crimes against individuals in Florida,
12:54but even outside of Florida, that we can share with you. But we can keep their court processes
13:00as public as legally due. They're going through the due process right now and will face the consequences
13:06for their crimes, and then they will be returned to their home country to never come back to the United
13:10States. But if there's a specific case you're interested in, I'll get that for you.
13:14President Trump has talked about worst of the worst as being the people who have been the
13:18priority targets for immigration enforcement efforts. In places like Florida with such a large
13:24migrant community, the people you've highlighted today have crimes like you've mentioned. But what
13:29would you say as somebody who works day in, day out with the president to folks who may just be
13:34scared, who may not have committed a crime, who may be here legally, but are still scared that they
13:38could be stopped by ICE or the police or whatever it is?
13:42Yeah, I would tell them to go home. Go home before you get picked up, before you
13:49surround yourself with people who are perpetuating crimes. Don't hang out with gang members, cartel
13:54members. Don't be a part of a terrorist organization. If you are a good person, you shouldn't be breaking our
14:00laws and you should self-deport. If they self-deport, we will buy them a plane ticket. We'll give them
14:05dollars when they land there. I have gone to 10 different countries and negotiated security
14:09agreements with those countries, with their presidents, so that when they land in their
14:13country, they may have loans for housing available to them when they land. Their governments will
14:18support them with food, education for their children. They will train them for a skill set to fill
14:23a job. They have a future in their home country because of what President Trump has tasked me to do.
14:29He tasked me to go there and to make sure that when people are here illegally, that they can return
14:33back home to their home country and have a future. And then if they want to come back legally, we will
14:38absolutely facilitate that. We want people to do things the right way. We just can't allow the law to
14:44apply to some people and not to others. So we're hoping that those individuals will self-deport, take
14:49advantage of that, and get the opportunity to come back to America if they'd like to again. That is really
14:55what we have seen indicated already in the labor statistics that have been with, we've released,
15:00is that we have over a million illegal aliens that have left the workforce already. That tells me
15:05they've left the workforce and gone home because they recognized it was the right thing to do.
15:09And then they can apply for our visa programs. They can apply for our work programs that we are now
15:14running much more efficiently than the Biden administration, that we are cutting the paperwork on.
15:19We're doing an approach that is helping them with the paperwork in a way that's never been done before.
15:24If they thought it was too hard to come here and work before illegally, we fix that. We have fixed it.
15:30If you want to go home now, you can come back and we will help you get the visa that you need to come
15:34back and to work and to be a part of the American Dream.
15:36Secretary, is that the idea of folks leaving and coming back legally? It makes sense, but there have been ICE agents and others at
15:43immigration courts and folks presumably trying to go through that legal process, the asylum process and immigration courts.
15:49Well, asylum is completely different, though, than a work visa. I mean, asylum, you have to be threatened by
15:54your government and you have to have a real threat against you. And we are adding integrity back into
16:00these programs and how they're utilized. So we're not going to allow somebody to claim asylum that doesn't
16:06qualify like Joe Biden did. Joe Biden just let people walk into this country and say,
16:10okay, asylum, go be free, and did that for tens of thousands of people who were
16:15violent and a part of MS-13 and TDA. Not people who have overstayed who we had to go look for,
16:25people who had final removal orders, people that didn't follow the law. I don't know how you explain
16:31that to the American people. Say, okay, you have to obey every single law. And when you break the law,
16:36there's consequences for it. But then you say, but anybody from any other country, you get to wave
16:40that away. That's absolutely insanity. Any, no country does that. There's nobody that actually
16:46defends that except for the fake news and a bunch of liberals who actually are turning out to be
16:51communists and Marxists. They're not just liberals anymore. If you look at the Democrat Party, they're
16:55a party of communists and Marxists and socialists. So I would completely say nobody defends that. No
17:01American that I've talked to on the streets across this country will defend allowing illegal aliens to
17:07be treated better than American citizens. That's not what our founders intended. They came here to be
17:12free and to have liberty and fought for this country. And they fought the biggest military giant in the
17:18world that existed with their own personal handguns and muskets that they used to feed their families
17:25to give us this country. You think we're just going to let it go away? Absolutely not. I've got kids and
17:30grandkids that I'm going to fight every day for to make sure that they get the same chance to grow
17:33up with the opportunities that I had the chance to grow up with. Yes, sir? Back to Alligator Alcatraz,
17:38we've seen today from Democratic lawmakers here of the state of Florida talking about being turned
17:44away on an unannounced visit, and I understand... Listen, it's a state-run facility, so it's the
17:48governor's and the state's position that they, how they conduct visits. I will tell you, these Democrat
17:53legislators before have put us in jeopardy by just showing up unannounced with a bunch of violent
17:59protesters trying to break into ICE facilities. So at our federal facilities, we have a protocol in
18:04place for when you want to visit. I need to make sure I have enough officers there that I can keep
18:08everybody safe when they visit. You don't get to just show up with a bunch of protesters and break
18:12down a fence and break into a federal facility. That's never been allowed, and I'm not going to
18:16allow it on my watch. Florida at Alligator Alcatraz can make the same decisions if that is what they
18:22think is appropriate, but I'll leave that up to them because, as far as I'm concerned,
18:26the governor and his team have made wise decisions in this area before.
18:30Can I ask as well about, you mentioned that ICE agents have seen a 700% increase in violence
18:37against them when they're doing their arrests. I would love to hear a little bit more about
18:41any numbers you can share there, how that data has been collected, like how many ICE officers have
18:46faced that violence? Oh my goodness, thousands of them have. Thousands of them have. And I will tell you that
18:51violence is anything that threatens them and their safety. So it is doxing them. It's videotaping
18:56them where they're at when they're out on operations, encouraging other people to come
19:01and to throw things, rocks, bottles. We've seen Molotov cocktails thrown at them. If you watch the video
19:08from what happened in California at that marijuana grow facility, that was horrendous. That was horrendous to
19:15me. Those individuals that were attacking those officers were trying to kill them. Let me be clear,
19:21you don't throw rocks at vehicles like that and you don't attack them like that unless you're trying
19:26to do harm to them physically and to kill them and to take their lives. We went there because we knew
19:32specifically from case work we had built for weeks and weeks and weeks that there was children there
19:37that could be trafficked, being exploited, that there was individuals there involved in criminal activity
19:42and we found over a hundred individuals that were involved in that and unaccompanied children there
19:48that we had been looking for. Listen, nobody talks about the fact that President Trump has found
19:53over 10,000 children that were missing under the Biden administration. 10,000 children that were just
19:59lost because they were put into the system and were being exploited either through sex trafficking
20:04or work trafficking or were being victimized. And he has found them and brought their perpetrators
20:09to justice. We've had over 400 different sponsors of that federal agency that was run by Joe Biden to exploit
20:16these children. 400 different people involved in that have been arrested and brought to justice.
20:21Every single person working for this administration to help us uphold the law should sleep good at
20:26night with a peace that passes all understanding that you're doing God's work because those poor
20:31children will never have to be victimized again by people who just explain it away and say that that
20:36shouldn't happen. Yep, we can get you that. I can't give you the children's names but and but I can give
20:48you some more statistics that will help you build out some of the facts and detail around that. But
20:52Yeah, he's an idiot. I mean, he's frankly an idiot. We have all the right in the world to go out on the
21:05streets and to uphold the law and to do what we're going to do. So none of our operations are going to
21:08change. He made claims that were absolutely false. We are building cases. We are going in on doing our
21:15operations and planning them against individuals that we know are dangerous, that are violent, that have
21:20criminal activity that they've been involved in, and that's how we're building our cases. So he's
21:25making up garbage, filing decisions, and we're going to appeal it and we're going to win.
21:30Just to follow up, before the appeal, you said you're going to continue those operations.
21:33Yeah, our operations will continue. We will be in compliance with all federal judges' orders,
21:38but what he said that we couldn't do is go out and target people based on other qualifications that he
21:44made up. We're going to continue to do our investigations on criminal activity and uphold the law.
21:50All right. Does anybody else? Trish says one more. So, okay, I'll let you two ladies go. Go ahead.
21:55Okay, thank you. And now that the big vehicle bill has passed, are 287 officers in Florida
22:01expect to get any sort of funding increases? Well, we'll look at how those agreements are set up.
22:06Each 287G contract is different according to, you know, which law enforcement entity it signed the
22:14contract with. So many of them have financial resources. There will be more resources going
22:19into the program. I can't speak specifically to one agreement or another, but if you have one that
22:24you're curious about, I'll get you the details on it. But we have over 800 different 287G contracts
22:31now signed across the country with either local law enforcement, sheriff's office, city,
22:36or state entities. That has been fantastic. That helps us build out our support and helps us build
22:43out our numbers so that we can conduct these operations and do it in a way that we've got
22:47our law enforcement back to. And you had one.
22:50Will Tampa Bay be seeing any increases anytime soon?
22:52I would think so. You know, the bill gave us incredible resources to come out and to support
22:59our law enforcement. You know, the Department of Homeland Security, it's our mission literally,
23:04is to protect the homeland and to do it with honor and integrity in a way that really serves the
23:10American people. So we will continue to look for opportunities to do new things that maybe you
23:16haven't seen before that will make sure that we have our security needs addressed.
23:20Second, on a slightly different issue, but one important to the state is obviously FEMA.
23:25Yes. I know there have been talks in the past about sort of doing where the
23:28state in the wake of Texas is sort of hurricane season approaches. Is there any updated conversation
23:34about what to do with FEMA and getting rid of it? I know there's a commission out there sort of
23:39studying the idea, but Texas is obviously a big one and there's been some issues there. So I just
23:44wanted any update on the idea of getting rid of FEMA or where we are?
23:48So I think some of what you saw for our response in Texas is going to be a lot of how President
23:52Trump envisions what FEMA would look like into the future. We did things in Texas for a response
23:58very different than Joe Biden. In fact, we were immediately on the ground. As soon as the flooding
24:04hit, we deployed our Coast Guard. We had helicopters and airframe that were deployed and swift water
24:09rescue teams out of Customs and Border Protection. Our BORTAC teams, which I like to call the Department
24:15of Homeland Security's ninjas. I mean, they can do almost anything and they're specifically trained
24:20for situations like that where the unprecedented is happening. And then I went immediately there on
24:25the ground and talked to the governor about getting a major disaster declaration signed. And within
24:32an hour or two of them requesting it, it was done, decided by the White House. And we pre-deployed
24:38dollars right to Texas so that they could make the best decisions responding to their people.
24:43Before, FEMA has never done that before. Pre-deployed dollars to a state so that they could use that to
24:49save their people. So they could use that to go out and save lives. And that's what President Trump
24:53wants. He wants the states to be empowered. Listen, emergencies, and we're in the middle of hurricane
24:58season too, so it's important for Florida to know this too. Emergencies are locally executed. They are
25:04state managed. The state then manages it. The federal government comes in and supports. You don't ever want
25:09to sit back and wait for someone from the federal government to show up and to save you and rescue you
25:15out of your house necessarily because that in the past has not served people well under the Biden
25:21administration. With President Trump, we were there immediately, but we will always rely on those
25:26local officials and those state officials to help execute and to manage the response because they're
25:31the ones who know their communities best. They know where people are the most vulnerable.
25:38I think FEMA will cease to exist the way that it is today.
25:42We are fundamentally reforming that agency. President Trump may want to, in his prerogative,
25:49as he likes to do, rename things. He may come up with a new name for this agency that reflects the
25:55fundamental change that's going to happen there. But this agency will no longer be the bureaucratic
26:01agency where people have to wait 20 years for their claim to be paid. It'll be an agency that
26:06immediately says to that state and to that local emergency management director, what do you need?
26:11How can we support you? And then train them to have the skill set that they need to be serving
26:18their people immediately because they're always there faster. They're right there on the streets.
26:21If you don't mind, President Trump had posted on Truth Social talking about some of what you had
26:28spoken about earlier about the impacts on ICE agents in California. Have you spoken with the
26:33President directly about that post and do you envision ICE agents beginning to enforce
26:38his vision when it comes to arresting protesters who may attack ICE agents in the field?
26:42Yeah, he sent it to me. As soon as he was drafting it, he sent it to me. And that's what I love about
26:48this guy. He was ticked off and disgusted by what he saw happen to those individuals and to those ICE
26:55officers. And he loves them. He loves their families. He cannot believe how some people are treating them
27:02and using them as political weapons to try to win the next six months of messaging. And he's not going to
27:09allow it to happen. So he's a firm believer that people should face consequences when they break
27:14the law. And that when those individuals do that to our ICE officers, they should be able to do
27:19whatever they need to do to go out and to protect themselves under the law and to make sure that
27:25those perpetrators are brought to justice. Okay, last question. Yep.
27:29I'll find out for you. How's that sound? That's not a great ending question, but we'll end there.
27:47And thank you all for being sure. Well, I just, there have been reports, calls from folks
27:52impacted by Texas flooding. Some of them aren't being necessarily answered by FEMA folks.
27:56Absolutely not true. So, unequivocally, some of the reporting about, I guess, those are up to 2,000
28:01calls that people had trouble getting through that you're saying that it didn't happen.
28:06Absolutely not true. Have any of the, some of those contractors, the reporting in the gates were cut,
28:10but not brought back in? Is any of that element? That'll all be evaluated and it'll all be looked at. But we,
28:16I see nothing that's, I've seen nothing from all of my research since that article came out to see
28:22that that was true at all, so I'm throwing the bullshit flag. I just don't think it's true.
28:26Have contractors been brought back in that had maybe previously been let go at this point?
28:30I will get rid of any contract that doesn't respond to people because they know they were
28:34empowered to do it. And I'm just seeing, getting your feedback on the reporting,
28:38there have been reported that some of those contractors have been let go and perhaps brought back in
28:41after some of those alleged issues. Is any of that element? I'll find out on that
28:46specific data point for you. I don't know if any of them were let go and brought back in,
28:50but not in the last two or three days.