Attorney General Pam Bondi takes questions from reporters after announcing the arrest of an MS-13 leader.
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NewsTranscript
00:00is how long was this individual living in the United States
00:04illegally and operating as a leader of MS-13?
00:07And then, two, MS-13 has been a huge problem in Virginia
00:10for several years now.
00:12How many members of that gang do you
00:14believe are currently operating in the state?
00:21The bottom line is for far too long.
00:25And because of operational security,
00:26we won't get into too many of the details
00:28about this individual.
00:29But if you're here for a minute, a day, a month, or a year,
00:32you've been here far too long.
00:34And General Bondi has made it a priority at this FBI
00:38that we manhunt every single person committing
00:40an act of violent crime.
00:42And it should speak volumes that the leader
00:45for the entire East Coast was living right here in Virginia,
00:49right among us.
00:51Question?
00:53Oh, did you want to add something?
00:54The governor wants to add something.
00:56I just want to reiterate that, first of all,
00:59President Trump's executive order declaring the drug
01:03gangs and cartels international terrorists
01:06is critical underpinning to the work today.
01:09Second of all, the collaboration now
01:11that's available because we have a 287G memorandum in place
01:16is critical.
01:17And it allows us, then, to bring the intelligence together
01:21to go pursue and arrest someone like this.
01:25And I just want to reiterate again, this is new.
01:28And the capabilities that are being displayed right now
01:31are capabilities that are now available not just to Virginia
01:35but to the rest of the country because
01:37of the administration's forward-leaning vision
01:40on how to use state and federal resources in collaboration
01:44in a way that has not been done.
01:46I have to say, Terry Cole has been leading our efforts
01:49in the Commonwealth brilliantly.
01:52But until we were able to bring in the federal resources
01:55in this way, bringing down somebody like this
01:58would not really have been possible.
02:01And Governor Yunkin and I, once again,
02:02are going to offer this to every governor in our country.
02:06Let's see who takes us up on this to keep their state safe.
02:10Questions?
02:12Hi.
02:12Hi.
02:13There's hundreds of these arrests happening so quickly.
02:17Have these individuals been identified
02:19under the Biden administration?
02:20I mean, was there a paper trail of these people?
02:22Were they all identified and targeted
02:25with the Trump administration in place?
02:27And then I also wanted to hear from the governor, too,
02:29on Fairfax County.
02:30We have heard in recent years issues
02:32about the sanctuary policies there, people
02:34who are dangerous, illegal, aliens, suspected,
02:38being set free in the communities
02:40and then committing other crimes.
02:41So I'm curious what we do from there.
02:44So first, many had been identified.
02:47They had been living here.
02:48Many had been identified living here.
02:50They were let freely into our country,
02:53all of these illegal aliens.
02:54I had gone to that border in September.
02:56Nothing humane was happening at that border.
02:59Passports stacked everywhere, everywhere,
03:02from every country you can imagine,
03:04people freely walking across our borders,
03:07fighting-age men coming into our country.
03:10And this is the result of Joe Biden's open border policy.
03:14What our country has been plagued with.
03:17But from the second Donald Trump took office,
03:19he said he is going to make America safe.
03:21He shut down our borders.
03:23And now it's our job to get these people out of our country
03:27as fast as we can.
03:29And this coordinated group effort,
03:31this task force that has been put together,
03:33is making a difference here.
03:35And it will make a difference around the country.
03:38That's why you're seeing so many arrests so fast.
03:40Because we will not have another Lake and Riley.
03:43We are going to catch them.
03:44We are going to apprehend them.
03:46And they are not going to like where they are going.
03:49Governor Youngkin, did you want to answer the second part?
03:51Thank you very much.
03:53First and foremost, this task force
03:56was designed in the White House with this team
04:00around the table.
04:02What do we need to do in order to go after the gangs,
04:06the cartels, and, of course, the drugs in a community
04:09like Northern Virginia, like Fairfax County,
04:12that has seen county leadership not pursue the necessary steps
04:18in order to fight this crime?
04:20And this task force was architected
04:24in a very quick period of time and stood up immediately.
04:28And, in fact, when Director Patel was confirmed,
04:31within a day, he authorized this facility
04:34and these capabilities.
04:36General Bondi immediately came to lead it.
04:40And we found ourselves with truly one-of-a-kind resources
04:44going to work.
04:45And I just want to emphasize the pace and the focus.
04:48And so, no, these were not lists that
04:51were available in the previous administration
04:53because they wouldn't do that.
04:55And the minute that we had partners
04:57that would do this with us, then lists of five, six,
05:00700 targets could be put together in collaboration
05:03with state police and federal authorities
05:06and our Department of Corrections.
05:08Critically important, and I cannot emphasize enough,
05:11the collaboration and support and leadership out
05:14of the new administration that is so different than what
05:17we saw in at least the previous three
05:18years of my administration.
05:21Finally, with regards to counties
05:23that are demonstrating resistance
05:26to cooperate with federal authorities
05:29and particularly with ICE, this is
05:31why I have put in a budget amendment in our budget
05:34that if they're not going to cooperate with ICE,
05:36then we will withhold funding.
05:39Now, I need a General Assembly to vote for this.
05:42And I need a bunch of Democrats to step up
05:44and say, hey, we believe in public safety,
05:47and we're going to hold jurisdictions accountable.
05:50And with this budget amendment, we
05:51can then hold Fairfax County accountable.
05:54But I'm also asking for help from our federal partners
05:57to make sure that jurisdictions that are not cooperating
06:01with ICE, we can, in fact, step in.
06:03And that's why the 287G memorandum
06:06that we have signed with the federal government
06:08is so important.
06:09It allows me to deputize our state
06:12police and our Department of Corrections folks,
06:15and we can then step in and make sure
06:17that we're taking custody of these folks
06:18and handing them over to ICE to be deported.
06:21This is critically important.
06:22We're not backing off.
06:24And I do believe there's an invitation here.
06:26There's an invitation for everyone
06:28to come together and recognize that criminals, literally,
06:32that one of the top operatives in MS-13
06:35is in a community that would have never
06:37thought they were there.
06:38And if we continue to have sanctuary city philosophies,
06:42that's where they're going to go.
06:44And I don't believe any community in Virginia
06:46wants someone like this living in their community.
06:48And that's why it's so important that we come together, put down
06:52all the politics, and work together in order
06:56to make America safe again.