Attorney General Jeff Sessions traveled to Winston-Salem, North Carolina Thursday.
He spoke to more than 500 local and federal law enforcement officials at the Gangs Across the Carolinas Training Symposium.
Sessions cited the small North Carolina town of Hamlet, which cancelled its Fourth of July celebration last month because of fears of gang violence. He says the nation won't be held hostage by gangs, and that the federal government would work with state and local law enforcement to eradicate them.
“And I don't think this is a blip,” he says. “In my best judgment, from my time in law enforcement and watching it from the Senate Judiciary Committee, I'm afraid this is a trend. The starting of a trend that we do not want to see happen.”
Sessions says the U.S. Justice Department convicted more than 1,200 gang members since early this year. He says local police departments from across the country helped with those efforts.
According to Sessions, in recent years, North Carolina has been one of the many parts of the country that has experienced increasing violent crime and homicide.
“Nationally, the murder rate surged by nearly 11 percent just in one year—the biggest increase since 1968. The homicide rate is up in 27 out of the 35 biggest cities in the United States.”
During his visit, he also talked about another growing problem several communities are facing: drug-related overdoses.
“And as the homicide rate has gone up, the fatal overdose rate has gone up even faster,” says Sessions. “More Americans are dying of drug overdoses today than ever before. Based on preliminary data, nearly 60,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses last year. That's about the population of Chapel Hill.”
Sessions spoke for around 20 minutes and ended his speech by talking about immigration. He says it's a priority for him and the Trump administration.
“We believe in a lawful system of immigration, one that serves the national interest, one that we can be proud of and we've already had great success in that. At our border we've had probably at least a 50 percent reduction in illegal attempts to enter this country. People don't have a right to come into our country without lawful admission.”
Sessions also briefly discussed sanctuary cities. He said municipalities that shield people in the U.S. illegally are contributing to problems caused by violent gangs like MS-13.
“We certainly don't need to have sanctuary cities undermining the lawful immigration system of America protecting criminals who are also illegally in the country. The law says they should be deported and that's what we intend to do.”
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