Trump Addresses National Association of Attorneys General

President Trump addressed the National Association of Attorneys General winter meeting at the White House Monday, shortly after 16 Attorney Generals sued his administration over his national emergency declaration along the southern border.

“Today, we join together to reaffirm and strengthen the vital partnership among state, local, and federal law enforcement,” Trump said. “Only by working together can we ensure security for every community and deliver justice for every citizen.

Trump added, “Last year, we passed historic legislation to combat the devastating opioid and drug crisis. This legislation expands lifesaving treatment and authorizes funding for local law enforcement to help those badly addicted get the treatment they need. Our State Attorneys General are launching bold initiatives to fight this epidemic. But to defeat this deadly epidemic, America’s southern border must be urgently and very strongly secured. We fight wars 6,000 miles away, we spend billions and billions of dollars, but we don’t control our own border.”

Last month, a coalition of attorney general from 16 states sued the Trump administration over the president’s declaration of national emergency to fund border security. The lawsuit, spearheaded by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, also comes as the Senate appears to have enough Republican votes to rebuke Mr. Trump’s declaration. Calling the White House’s unprecedented move “unlawful and unconstitutional, Becerra said the lawsuit is important to make sure future presidents “must abide by the law” and “no one is above the law in this country.”

The multi-states suing Mr. Trump include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Virginia.

Trump declared a national emergency at the border in February after being dissatisfied with the funding Congress is providing him for barriers at the southern border. Trump signed the emergency declaration to divert $2.5 billion from counternarcotics initiatives and $601 million from a Treasury Department forfeiture fund.

“Drug trafficking and human traffickers exploit our porous border to finance their ruthless operations across our hemisphere,” Trump said. “One in three migrant women is sexually assaulted on the very dangerous journey north. Criminal cartels terrorize innocent people on both sides of the border. Thousands of our citizens are killed by lethal narcotics — 88,000 people, just with certain types of drugs — most of which come through the southern border. Eighty-eight thousand people die and that’s just a small portion of it. Hardworking people of every background pay the price for a lack of border control and security.”

The president went on noting the arrest ICE officers have made on the border that include charges of assault, sex crimes, and murders.

“In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records, including those charged or convicted of approximately 100,000 assaults — and these are new numbers, hard to believe — 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 murders,” Trump said. “Every day, our brave ICE officers are on the front lines protecting our communities. We must always support the heroes of law enforcement, and we all support law enforcement in every way.”

Newly-confirmed Attorney General Bill Barr laid out in stark terms the negative effects of a “porous border,” makes every state open to drugs and human trafficking.

“Having a porous southern border makes every state more vulnerable to these drugs,” Barr said, warning that “the problem with the porous border is not limited to drugs,” and that “it creates opportunities for human trafficking, one of the most heinous criminal acts there is.”

“The DEA has stated publicly that the Mexican trans national criminal organizations are the greatest criminal drug threat to the United States,” Barr declared. “The DEA tells us that the majority of the heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl in this country got here across our southern border.”

1 Comment

Grampa Mullan
September 13, 2020

We must continue to enforce our laws. we cant have a set of standards that differ because if the color of one’s skin. yet this is what some members of the black community want. their reasons include the murdering of blacks by whites, white cops in general. we have no one with the balls to stand and speak of the real facts and data that it is blacks that continue to murder blacks in record number. it is blacks that murder cops. Who coviences these people that removing law enforcement will solve their problems? it seems their logic is and has been the same for many decades. if we look closely we see that all the murders are committed within the “gun free” zones that remove guns from people that use them only to protect themselves and others. it becomes only people that violate these bans to save fellow citizens from death only to find themselves charged with defending themselves family and friends. now to shoulder costs for lawyers and courts that take savings needed and saved for family schools and business intended to make themselves prosperous for careers or retirement. make it illegal for honest citizens but having no effect upon the corrupt and criminal who rarely faces charges and is given free lawyers as required by our constitution. time and again we see our prosecutors bargain away real charges for something that makes their jobs easy and assured showing to the people what heroes they are getting a conviction. these people walk free while our citizens bury our fathers and Mothers sisters and brothers to watch the people who cause such pain to go out and commit new atrocities. We see many of these same people whining about such evil and unfair treatment given to them while within the system.Then these same people use these whiners as example should one die in the struggle for their freedoms. deaths that should have been avoided if they complied. now they have excuse to riot and destroy. GBA. Grampa