- 4 months ago
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivers remarks in Chicago, Illinois about ICE recruitment efforts.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning, everybody. I'm Christine Ohm, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
00:19And it's been about seven months now since President Trump and his administration have
00:23been working to make America safe again. As you know, the Department of Homeland Security is
00:28tasked with making sure that we have a secure border, which we have overwhelmingly been
00:32successful with by President Trump's direction at making sure we're enforcing our laws in this
00:37country, that the rule of law matters, and that it applies equally to everybody. We have had for
00:42three months in a row zero illegal aliens entering the United States, which is the first time in this
00:49nation's history that we've seen that kind of security at our nation's border. Also, we've been
00:55working on getting dangerous criminal illegal aliens out of our country. Murderers, rapists,
01:01drug traffickers, human traffickers, going out, arresting them, and removing them from our
01:05communities so that our families can be safe again at night. Our top priorities have been these two
01:10items, securing our borders and arresting dangerous criminals and removing them from our cities and
01:16our towns and our states across the country from coast to coast. Since President Trump has taken
01:21office, we have arrested hundreds of thousands of these illegal criminals. I'm here today because
01:28the elected leaders in this state of Illinois are ignoring the law. In fact, they're being
01:33obstructionists when it comes to getting dangerous criminals off of their streets. They are deciding
01:38that dangerous criminals that are murderers, rapists, money launderers, have committed assault,
01:46that are trafficking children, are more important than the families that live in the communities here.
01:50That includes Governor Pritzker, Mayor Johnson, and others who have worked so hard to protect
01:56these dangerous criminals. They'd rather be a sanctuary state and continue to put those
02:01individuals above American citizens, American citizens who built this country, who've raised
02:05their families here for generations and just want to be able to walk down the street safely at night
02:10and put their kids to bed and live a peaceful life. Today, I'm highlighting four different examples
02:16of individuals that we've recently arrested here out of this office with a good work of ICE and our HSI officers
02:22that we've taken off the streets without the help of the governor or the mayor. Our federal officers have had to do
02:27this alone without their support, and these dangerous individuals are now no longer victimizing people
02:33because of the good work that we do.
02:34Hector Bonaparte is a 42-year-old illegal Mexican alien who had previously been convicted of predatory sexual
02:43criminal assault against a victim under the age of 13. We have Jarvan Flores Santos, who's a 40-year-old Honduras
02:51individual who was arrested back in 2020 the first time for aggravated criminal sexual abuse and attempted criminal
02:58sexual abuse of a minor under the age of 13 again. And Waldemar Jabik, a Polish citizen who had been convicted
03:06in 2014 for attempted murder and then also aggravated domestic battery. He was convicted of these after he
03:13stabbed his own wife and his 19-year-old daughter. It was not the first time that police had been called
03:19to his house for domestic disturbance, but he was never held accountable until recently by these federal
03:24officers. Dawn Gay Silas, a 33-year-old illegal alien from Micronesia, has had three DUI convictions,
03:33and as well as convictions of criminal mischief, of wanton endangerment, and driving without a license.
03:39These individuals would still be out on our streets today committing crimes and attacking people and
03:45harming them and hurting our children if Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson had their way because their
03:51choice has been routinely over and over and over again to release these criminals back on the streets.
03:56The debate over so-called sanctuary policies has real consequences. It has consequences for our law
04:02enforcement officers but also for the families that live here and the businesses that are just trying
04:06to provide for their community. Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson are answering that question every single
04:12day of who should be our priority, who should be our responsibility, and over and over again they're
04:20choosing criminals. In just the last seven months, ICE has issued over 1,664 detainers in Chicago alone.
04:311,664 detainers we have lodged against violent criminals and that is a 106% increase over what was
04:40issued during the Biden administration. Unfortunately, Chicago and its leadership has only honored 8% of
04:47those. That means every other person when they're released from paying for the consequences of their
04:51crimes back onto our streets without any notification to individuals or to the families that have been
04:57victimized by them. By getting those 8% at least off of the street, the brave men and women of ICE are saving
05:05American lives. Yesterday we announced that now our ICE officers are facing a 1,000% increase in assaults
05:13against them. And you read about the stories and hear what's happening from coast to coast every day
05:18in our national media and in our press. But it's in large part due to the pro-sanctuary state and cities
05:25policies and the language of elected bureaucrats and politicians that are reckless with their lives and
05:31endangering their families. Every public official should talk about and work to protect people,
05:36to keep them safe and American people's lives safe. I want you to look at the contraband that's in front
05:41of me. We have right in 20 kilograms of fentanyl that's in front of me on this table. That's enough to kill
05:4910 million people. And here out of this office, this was interdicted just days ago here in Illinois.
05:55And because these federal officers have been out on the streets picking up criminals and dangerous
06:00individuals, we were able to take this 20 kilograms of fentanyl off the streets and save over 10 million
06:06lives. They're also keeping these weapons out of the hands of criminals that would use it to rob and
06:12assault and to murder individuals in these communities. Unfortunately, all of the politicians
06:18that have spoken out against their efforts, their will, their desires, appears to be that they would
06:24like to have more of this on their streets, more drugs out there for their kids and families to be
06:29victimized, more guns out there committing crimes. That is not the work that we do in ICE. The work
06:35that we do is to protect people and make sure that we remove these weapons and drugs off of our streets
06:40and hold those criminals accountable accountable who would go forward and continue to use that to harm
06:45individuals. I just want to ask you for three things today. Number one, I want to ask you to support
06:50your law enforcement officers. Have their backs. Every single individual that's out there
06:55that is noisy and attacking them right now is having an effect that's ratcheting up the rhetoric
07:04and distorting facts and not allowing the facts to get out of what the work that they're doing every
07:08day and what we've done to help victims get some justice for the harms that were perpetuated in their
07:14lives. Those of us that appreciate the work of our law enforcement officers, the fact that we're a country that
07:19doesn't pick winners and losers, we apply the law. And if we don't like the law, we should be going to
07:24Congress to change it. But that is what these law enforcement officers do is they continue to uphold
07:30the law and make sure it applies equally to everybody. Second thing I'd like to ask you to do is stop
07:34putting criminals first. Stop making them the number one priority. They are perpetuating harm on
07:40American citizens and they need to be held accountable for it. And number three, I would ask that you think
07:46about the family members around you, the people you've spent your time with, the American citizens
07:51that live next door to you in your community. Start thinking about what kind of a community they want
07:57to live in, what your city should look like, what their families deserve, and put them first. Make them
08:03the priority because they're the ones who invested in this country and keep it safe and keep it
08:07productive and keep it the best country in the world. We'll never apologize here for protecting the
08:13American people. But we're going to continue to arrest dangerous criminal illegal aliens.
08:18We will defend the homeland. That's what ICE is doing. And I'm so proud to be able to walk with
08:22them and to lead with them while they fulfill this mission to really keep United States blessed far into
08:28the future. So with that, I'll open it up to any questions that you may have. Yes.
08:32You guys have spent $20 million of taxpayer dollars on a campaign to get people to self-deport
08:38using the CBP Home app. How many people have actually done that? What's been the return on
08:43investment for taxpayers? Well, actually, the $20 million campaign was to send a message to people
08:49that if they were here in this country illegally, that they should go home on their own. If they wait
08:53until we arrest them and we have to remove them, they'll never get the chance to come back to the
08:57United States. So it wasn't just on the app. It was also encourage them to voluntarily go home.
09:02We know thousands and thousands of people have used the app, but we also know that hundreds of
09:06thousands of people have left on their own, not utilizing a government program to do so.
09:12I've been to, I think, 10 different Central American and South American countries and visited with
09:19their presidents, with their foreign ministers, interacted with the Department of State. And over
09:23and over again, I'm hearing that hundreds of thousands of their citizens are coming home voluntarily.
09:28They've seen the ads. They've seen the messages on social media that if they go home on their own,
09:34they'll get the opportunity to come back to United States the right way. And so most of these countries
09:40as well are setting up programs to welcome their individuals home. They have housing loan programs
09:46that they're setting up. They're allowing them to have food assistance for several months. Several of the
09:51countries I've recently visited with are training individuals and workers to come home because
09:56their economy has a need for those individuals. So sending that message has been extremely helpful
10:02in making sure that people know that here we're going to enforce our laws and that there's a right
10:06way to come to this country. You're going to be allowed to do that if you voluntarily leave.
10:11We can get it for you, but each specific country has given it to us along the way.
10:19But I would say it's, we believe over a million people have gone home on their own.
10:25Since we have started this administration. Yes. But we've arrested hundreds of thousands
10:30of thousands that have gone through our system. Yeah.
10:55That's not true. Charges and convictions over 70% of them have pending charges against them.
11:00or criminal convictions. The others all have final removal orders, which means they're eligible
11:05to go back home.
11:14Nobody's getting swept up. We're running targeted enforcement operations across the country
11:20and using our case files and our information to know who is a criminal in this country that needs
11:26to be removed and who has a final removal order. Nothing's changed.
11:29Huh? What's wrong with that targeting? What's wrong with our targeting?
11:33Yeah. Yeah. Why are so many other people working here to work and they're following the law?
11:38They're not following the law if they're here illegally. There's a right way to come to this
11:42country. And so. Yes. But they're following criminal laws. You're talking about criminals, sir?
11:47Yes. I'm talking about criminals in these situations. Absolutely. But we also have every
11:51situation where we have those that have final removal orders need to go home because their due process is over
11:57and they have their paperwork and they're ready to travel. So that has been the priority since the
12:01very beginning. Nothing has changed. And over 70% of these individuals that we have gone out and
12:08arrested and removed from the country have had those pending charges and criminal convictions against
12:13them. That has always been the goal of the president. Yes.
12:16What are your policies specifically about identification and masks for ICE agents?
12:20Are they being told they do not have to identify themselves?
12:23ICE is always wearing something that identifies them, who they are, and what operation they're out on.
12:29I would say that they wear masks at times to protect their identities from dangerous situations.
12:35The leadership teams, we leave that up to them to discern what's
12:38necessary in certain situations. And with the rise in violence that we continue to see against these
12:43officers, with that 1,000% increase, it's making sure that they are safe while they do this job and
12:51that they get home to their families at night, too, is incredibly important.
12:54So is your understanding they are identifying themselves?
12:56Yes. I would like to see that because they have identification, they have gone into situations,
13:05and when they have been out looking for these dangerous criminals and have been identifying,
13:10verbally identifying themselves, and if there is a mask required, it's for their safety because of
13:15the situation that they're encountering. One more question.
13:18Rebecca? Secretary, you mentioned that it's been harder to work with officials in Illinois because
13:25of the way the government functions, but you're also in a mission to hire thousands more
13:29ICE officers and detain folks who are in Illinois. So how are you doing that, hiring people within the
13:36state or people that are willing to work in the state, and where are those folks going?
13:40Yeah. The response has been overwhelming. Part of the big, beautiful bill that President Trump
13:46advocated for allocated to us the resources to hire 10,000 new ICE officers. We have had that open for
13:54less than a week, and we have over 80,000 applicants for those jobs. So they're from all over the country.
14:00Some of them are retired ICE officers who want to come back now that they're going to be allowed to
14:03do their jobs, some retired CBP or other federal officers, and then we also have a huge amount of
14:11interest of people who just want to have their backs and work alongside them. So what we're doing then
14:16is to get them trained up as soon as possible, is we'll be training them through our federal academy,
14:21but we're also going to stand up some pilot areas of where people can train closer to their homes. If
14:27we have a lot of officers that have signed up and have offers from the federal government, we may
14:32do a training right here closer to home so they're not away from their families for so long. So that's
14:36being worked out as we see where the final offers are coming from. Do you know how long that training
14:40will last? Because normally it was taking about a year or so, how would you get those folks?
14:44Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be within weeks because we're going to give them credit for what they
14:49already know. If they're former law enforcement, they already have training and certifications
14:53that we will honor and look at. They'll still go through testing. They'll still go through drug
14:58testing and physical tests and all of that, but we want to make sure that it's an expedited where we
15:02check the box. If they have the experience, then it helps us not keep them stalled out in an academy
15:07for weeks at a time. I just wanted to ask how operations have been impeded by sanctuary city
15:15policies. If they have, do you feel like you're still on target to reach the amount of arrests that
15:21you would like in those sanctuary areas? Well, the lack of information sharing is hard. I would say
15:26anybody who serves in law enforcement would say they're used to partners. They're used to being able
15:31to call up a local law enforcement officer, a sheriff, a highway patrol officer and say,
15:37hey, do you have any information on this individual that is a murderer that's been cited in your city?
15:43That's not happening in Illinois. And when we're calling on those most dangerous individuals,
15:47when they're being released from your prisons, they're not even letting us know,
15:51not honoring our detainers. When we lodge a detainer against someone, it's when you let that person out
15:56of jail who's been paying the consequences, let us know so that we can pick them up and get them out of the
16:01country. Illinois is not partnering with us on that, which is very, very difficult when we know
16:07that those dangerous criminals are going to run free. And many times we go into situations where
16:12we don't necessarily have the law enforcement to play a backup role. There are times where we bring
16:19more individuals in, more federal officers, because we believe we need to do that for security reasons.
16:24So we have great partnerships across the country, over 800 of them with state and local law enforcement
16:30in other states. We wish we had that here. We wish we could build those partnerships.
16:35We're going to keep, we're going to keep plugging away. And for us, it's about getting dangerous
16:39people off the streets. So our target is to get dangerous people off the streets. Last question
16:44back there, can you hear some clarity on what a two-year-old might be in ICE? Can they be URO
16:49officers? And if so, do you have any concerns about how highly stressed that position is? And on the
16:56other end of age limits, why do you think someone in their 40s or 50s can do these jobs like the previous
17:02age gap?
17:03Well, I think us opening up the age requirement is wonderful for people to have opportunities
17:10that they've always wanted. So many people were forced to retire from law enforcement at a young
17:14age because of that arbitrary deadline. And now they'll be able to come back and serve a few more
17:20years if they'd like to provide for their families and then help on the mission of making America safe
17:24again. 18-year-olds can come and sign up and help us with processing and paperwork while they train and
17:29they get the experience. They can walk alongside our officers. They will all be as fully trained
17:36as any full-time officer before they're put in a situation that might require more of them. So we
17:40want everybody to be at the same level of skill set and knowledge when they're in out doing an
17:45enforcement role out on the job. Anything else?
17:49I don't expect you to be to know the details of every specific case, so I wanted to give you a little
17:56context that calls for a broader answer on the question. About four months ago, ICE publicized
18:03the arrest of two men to be responsible for a mass shooting in Chicago. Your agency named them and
18:09they got a lot of coverage. However, they have still not been charged in that mass shooting. So my
18:16question is whether it's people sent to Cripton and El Salvador or two men accused here in Chicago
18:22of a mass shooting, is it responsible for ICE to publicly accuse people of violent crimes before
18:29they've been charged? Well, we follow cases and prosecute cases and turn them over for prosecution
18:36just like any other law enforcement agency does. So when we sweep up somebody who's committed an act of
18:42violence like that and turn it over, that is public information that is out there. And people need to know
18:48who is perpetuating these crimes and we continue building cases then on who they're affiliated
18:54with. Is there further dangers? Our investigators are some of the best in the country that are out
18:59there making sure that not only is that person now incarcerated, but who were they affiliated with?
19:05It could be another danger that we need to continue to look at. So
19:08even if they haven't been officially charged? I would say we follow the exact same process every
19:14federal agency does, every state agency does for law enforcement. So we have not changed our
19:18methods or how we handle cases or how we even communicate about them than we have since the
19:23very beginning or how the Biden administration did or the Obama administration. We do it exactly
19:28the same. What I wish is you guys would talk about the victims more. How many people were shot in that
19:33mass shooting? How many people were victimized? How are their families doing? You all spend so much
19:39time talking about the poor justice for these criminals that are harming individuals every single
19:45day. And you don't even think twice to go talk to a mom who's now lived for a year and a half without
19:49her daughter. Go talk to somebody and see how they're doing, trying to get their kids to school,
19:53not sure if they're safe. So I would encourage you to remember that there's always victims in these
19:58situations. And many times you're focusing on the one who made them a victim. Thank you. You guys have a good day.
20:16You guys have time to get a chat and visit a little bit. Hold on.
Be the first to comment