annual western conservative summit hosted by colorado christian university's centennial institute. while in denver the attorney general discussed religious freedom, crack down on violent crime, illegal immigration and the opioid epidemic. his remarks followed by actor kirk cameron. >> please welcome 710 knus radio show host. [ applause ] good afternoon. it's a great privilege to be able to introduce kirk cameron. i know that many of you are going to know him from a long time back. i suspect that if there was a single individual who embraces the theme of this conference it would be kirk cameron.

you know, the posts up there you can see the f word faith, family, freedom, future. i remember watching an interview with kirk cameron. he talked about his faith in no uncertain terms. one person responded that this was odd and extreme. but i'm wondering how many of you who believe in the loving god and that human beings are created in the image of god and that god has a plan for you and that faith and family and freedom and future matter. if it really does matter to you, i want you to give a warm, western conservative summit greeting to kirk cameron. [ cheers and applause ] please welcome kirk cameron,

actor and producer. ♪ good afternoon, everyone. boy, you look great. what an exciting event to be a part of. i'm so excited to be here. i'm honored to be here with you who have travelled from all over and already we have been listening to so many great, inspiring ideas. we have jeff sessions coming up soon. so i'm going to be quick so that we can make time to pause before he gets here. this is refreshing for me to come to the western conservative summit because i live in california. politically it is the land of loose nuts and bolts. so most of you came west to come to the western conservative summit. i don't think if you keep going west it gets more conservative. i had to travel east this morning to tighten up and i

learned some interesting things about california that i thought would be fun to share with you. it is fun to make jokes about california. there have been some really -- you are clapping for that. godly roots have gone deep into the soil of california. there was father sarah who established missions from san diego up to santa barbara. we have cities that are named after angels and saints. we have los angeles, sacramento is our capital. sacramento is after the sacraments of the lord's supper and baptism. three incredible ministries came out of california. they are the billy graham association. he launched his crusades out of california in the '50s. you have kennedy ministries and bill bright launching campus crusade for christ out of california. california is actually a place

where the seeds are planted deep for conservative values and the christian faith. i have hoped that there would be revivals springing out of california. i can see some of the fruit this morning as i was in los angeles airport. there was a man that just embodied kindness and conservative values. as he approached me coming the opposite direction i was walking feeling pretty swag in my crisp suit about to go to the summit. he stopped me as he was coming my way and said excuse me, sir, may i? i said yes. he said your fly is open. and said thank you. and i kept walking and i thought there is hope. there is at least one man in california who is committed to kindness, christian charity and conservative values. [ cheers and applause ] there is hope for california. and the flight here was just great. i sat next to two teenaged girls

who were coming back from hawaii on a red eye flight. i was able to share the gospel with them. i am sharing the gospel and there was perfectly timed turbulence just over the rockies as we were beginning to talk about eternal things. it was perfect. i was further humbled when they asked me what i did and i said i was an actor on a show called "growing pains" they had no idea what it was. i'm standing here before you today as a guy who i'm that guy walking around with his fly open and was not worth listening to until someone found out he had a famous sister. i'm excited to talk with you about freedom. i love the concept of freedom. i have friends who have taken time to pour into me.

i never grew up thinking much about political things. my family was not a political family. i made a documentary film when i was blown away by something i saw in plymouth, massachusetts and ended up making a documentary called "monumental." i wasn't into the political side of things as much as i was concerned for the future of my kids. chelsea and i, we met on the set of growing pains. we have been married for 27 years which is something like 270 in hollywood years, right? we have six children. i'm concerned for the world that they are growing up into. and i had so many people telling me that the world is continuing to get worse, the lord must be returning soon, the end is near. i'm thinking we have a lot of skin in the game. what do i tell my kids? is the world really going to hell? financially it seems to be getting worse and morally and spirtually and politically and what do we do?

i remember looking for answers and finding that the news just confused me because everyone was yelling and screaming and playing the blame game. the church blames hollywood and movies for all the problems in the world. i'm thinking who has the right answer? then i thought we live in a country where people come here illegally and risk their lives to come to the greatest nation on earth. maybe we just forgot what made us so good and great in the first place. we should go back and recapture some of these things that are worth saving. if only i could talk to the people who built this nation, our founding fathers and founding mothers and say if you were here now in our situation what would you do? what do we have to get back to? do you have a secret sauce recipe and can you relate to our struggles?

so i went with a friend of mine who is a historian. i began retracing the escape route of the pilgrims. and i learned about who they are. they were these are out of the box conservative faith-driven people who got ahold of the word of god and it transformed them. it was like rocket fuel in their veins and they weren't content to live in the system that they had which was anything but free and they escaped from under the rule of king james. he made a great bible but a terrible king. there was tyranny on steroids. he was head of the church and head of the state. they managed to escape and get to holland where they had 12 years with their pastor john robinson who they call the founding father of the forefathers and taught them the nation building principles and the principles of internal and external freedom that they

learned so well and brought with them on the may flower across the ocean to this north american continent. they went with two ships but it sprung a leak and had to go back and the rest left without their pastor on a little wineship that was only designed to go port to port in england and not go all the way across the atlantic. they end up arriving late, going through a storm and being blown way off course. they were ready to meet their maker. and they prayed and they had to somehow fix the broken beam that held up the mast to the ship and they made it all the way across and they met with every imaginable form of challenge and harsh winters and no food and they were with basically a socialist form of their government.

they made something called the may flower compact. they began to rely on individual self-government according to the word of god and began to change and create a form of government there that served as a blueprint for what later became our constitution. and they passed on principles that brought about freedom and prosperity and blessing and protection. and i was thinking where is william bradford today? and then my friend showed me something i have never heard of before. it was a monument, not just any monument but the largest free standing granite monument in america. it is called the monument to the forefathers. it is hidden behind a forest of trees in a residential neighborhood on a hill overlooking plymouth rock and nobody knows that it is there. most congressmen senators don't

know it is there. most of the press that i did for the film had never heard of the monument. i believe it is the most important one we have in the nation. it actually served as one of the inspirations for the statue of liberty. and it spells out a biblical world view for building and securing of a free society. and when i saw it my jaw dropped and i first felt so inspired and then i felt anger that no one had shown this to me before. i want to explain this monument to you because it is life changing. it has been for me and it is still sitting on that hill and still very few people have ever seen it. it's a monument made up of five status. the tallest statue, the largest is at the top and her name is faith. she is standing on a platform.

imagine this podium is a rock platform and the four corners of this column are four more status. so faith is standing tall and she is pointing to heaven, the one true god of heaven. our forefathers believed in god. she is holding a book which happens to be the bible and it's the geneva bible, the bible brought over by the pilgrims on the may flower. and the pages are being blown open by the wind of the holy spirit. they believed that faith was about loving god and trusting him with all of your heart but believing with him and reasoning with god's word and engaging your mind. she has her foot firmly planted on the rock representing plymouth rock. and that faith is then expressed first internally through that

first corner statue which is morality. morality is depicted as a woman sitting on a chair. her eyelids are closed because morality is an internal thing. she is holding a copy of the ten commandments in one hand and the scroll of revelation in the other hand. to her left is a relief. etched in the granite is evangelist because our forefathers believed that true faith would express itself first internally by transforming the heart through the gospel being preached and then on her right is another relief and it says prophet. once you have a heart change that wants to do the right thing you must have the standard by which to know what is the right thing. then they have that. and she is again sitting there

with a medallion around her neck and it represents the 12 tribes of israel. once you have morality anchored in the heart and you have the standard by which you know good from evil you then turn to the next statue which is law. and law is a judge sitting on his seat there at his bench. he is holding the book of law. and that book is directly under the book held by faith which is the word of god signifying that no law that man ever makes will be higher in authority than the word of god and the law of god. isn't that great? and the relief on his right is justice. and lady justice is there with scales showing equality and she is also holding a sword showing that the government and justice

does not bear the sword in vein. they are going to be just laws. on his left is the relief mercy. the judge as the ability to extend justice and mercy because he has wisdom. once you have laws that codify good morality now you have civility in your society and you can turn to the next statue which is education that is symbolized by a woman seated with a wreath of victory around her head. it is probably a mom. and she has books of knowledge in her hands. and to her right is the relief of a young child that she is teaching as he is copying down what she is imparting to him. and it says youth. on her leeft is wisdom depicted by an old man with a beard holding a bible and a globe because our forefathers believed that you train up a child when they are young and when they are

old they will not depart from that way. then that produces the fruit of liberty. and that is the final statue. and liberty man is a soldier who is seated on his chair and he is dressed in the full armor that produces that liberty. he has the breast plate of righteousness, helmet of salvation, his feet are covered in the sandals of peace and the chains on his wrists and ankles are broken symbolizing that his slavery, the tyranny it no longer holds him. he is the liberty man. and his sword is put back into its sheath because the lion of tyranny and the lion symbolize the nation of england was slain and the hide of that lion you

see draped across liberty man's back with his claw up on his shoulder and it has been defeated. the relief to his right is tyranny overthrown. there you see him with the foot on the chest of the lion and the sword at its throat. on the left is the relief peace who is his wife. and she is there holding a cornucopia that is overflowing with blessing for her family. and his eyes are wide open looking east across the ocean because he is vigilant and determined to protect and fight for his faith, for his morality, for his laws, the privilege of educating his children. the last thing he would have ever thought of was handing that over to the government from his background where he came from. that was a parental responsibility in whatever form they decided would be best and that produced his liberty. and it was something that needed

to be continually fought for. this statue is amazing. and it perfectly spells out the recipe for a free society, a good society that promotes faith and family and freedom for the future. you know, it is interesting if you wind that monyumt backwards it is how you unravel a free culture. if you start with education and you can take over the education process in school you begin to teach a different world view to kids through science and history and business and everything e e else. that's happening in our country. once you do that you are now giving a different set of values and priorities and you are rewriting history and laws begin to change. and we see that happening in our supreme court and at state courts and local courts.

and people's idea of morality begins to shift and good becomes evil and evil becomes good because the laws have said so because we learned that stuff when we were in school. certainly we see that morality changing within our country right now. by the way, where did that archaic morality so-called come from? it came from the book being held by faith, the holy bible. maybe that is the problem. let's get rid of that and then we replace it with the humanest manifesto or a socialist form of government or something else, maybe the quran or some other book that gives us direction. what happens is the morality begins to change radekally and then the laws begin to change again and a whole culture is built and planted into the hearts and minds of the next generation. when you get to the last part of the matrix there you don't end

up with liberty man on the chair. you have the lion of tyranny on the chair and liberty man's leg hanging out of the lion's mouth. history shows this over and over and over. and i believe that we have an opportunity here by joining together and brain storming and developing these think tanks and learning from what others are doing and putting this into practice to be able to reverse this and get back to the original recipe. and our forefathers had the foresight to know that we would get here and left us the trail back home. and i encourage you to go see it and put that on your bucket list. go to plymouth, massachusetts and see this incredible monument. if you are not going to do that you can check out the documentary. it is called "monumental." you can see it on netflix or wherever you would like to.

interesting little side story. i'm making a sequel to the film right now. it is one of the great things about living in california is that we can make movies and send messages out that are industry good messages as well. and part of what i want to do is i want to create a small replica of this monument because nobody's ever made one so that you could have it in your home school class or on your desk if you're an elected official or a principal of a school or a pastor at a church to understand how our forefathers integrated their faith into every aspect of their life to give us the freedom to keep our church doors open and our radio programs going. and a free economy and a politically free system. but after i made the prototype, i tried to get it duplicated and sent it to china and it was confiscated because it was deemed illegal religious

contraband. which is really ironic because we live in a country where our children in school are being taught that our nation was built on the premise of getting god out of government. but the chinese government found so much god in the forefather's monument they wouldn't make a little statue for me. and they're great at making little statues. but i had to go ultimately to new zealand and to the workshop, the guys who do the sculpting for the lord of the rings after atar to replicate this beautiful monument to give us the recipe home to freedom. let me ask you an important question. i'm going to ask two other questions first. will you spell for me the word shop. just go ahead. right there in your seat.

spell shop. what do you do when you come to the green light. did you say stop. you go when you come to the green light. one more question. one more chance. i know, it's -- you just amazed yourself. one more question. spell the word silk. what do cows drink? did you say milk? they drink water. those are silly questions. here's the important question. how do you secure freedom? the answer is it's an inside out strategy. going to the western conservative summit, no. electing the right president, no. those are good things, those are important things. that's why we're here. but it starts with faith. and a transformation on the inside of your heart so that you

want to do the right thing and long for the standard that lines up with the most loving and fair being in the universe. and then you work to bring that morality to bear in your society, to reward the good and punish the evil and you teach these things to your children, to the second and third generation. because we're not going to be here very much longer. and that produces liberty and we must continue to fight for it. god bless you. thank you very much. >> please welcome jeff hunt, the chairman of the western conservative summit. >> all right. was kirk cameron just wonderful? let's give him another round of applause. get set up here.

all right. friends, for eight years under president obama we watched an administration ignore the rule of law. president obama's department of justice oversaw the fast and furious program. which gave drug cartels -- drug cartels 2,000 weapons resulting in the death of a u.s. border control agent. obama's department of justice did not enforce federal drug laws. all while allowing the irs to target conservative groups and suing the state of arizona for enforcing immigration laws. that all changed, friends, in 2016. that's right. attorney general jeff sessions was the first u.s. senator to

endorse donald trump for president. attorney general jeff sessions has threatened to sue 23 sanctuary cities and has sued the state of california over their sanctuary city policies. rather than blaming the police for our problems, attorney general jeff sessions is hiring more police to make our communities safer and yes, they are going after those ms-13 animals. unlike some u.s. senators and representatives who have chosen to flood our communities with more drugs, attorney general jeff sessions is protecting our children and fighting back against a growing drug culture. finally, attorney general jeff sessions stood with jack

phillips the colorado baker in defending religious freedom. on illegal immigration, jeff sessions is fighting back. on illegal drugs, jeff sessions is fighting back. on ms-13, jeff sessions is fighting back. to protect religious freedom, jeff sessions is fighting back. attorney general jeff sessions has returned our country to a rule of law. ladies and gentlemen, colorado christian university, the centennial institute and the western conservative summit are proud to welcome the 84th attorney general of the united states, jeff sessions. >> please welcome the attorney general of the united states. the honorable jeff sessions. >> thank you. thank you all. thank you so much.

it is great to be with you and i know all these lights are bright, i have to tell you i got to see how big this crowd is. i'm thoroughly impressed. it's a nice increase i understand over last year and i think it reflects something serious about the strength of the conservative movement in america. it's healthy, it's strong. and we're going to continue to be heard in public policy in this country. i really want to thank jeff hunt for that introduction and it was exciting. it got me charged up a little bit in the late afternoon. i appreciate his leadership for the centennial institute. jeff worked at the senate republican conference back when i served in the senate and i remain grateful for his service throughout the years to the conservative movement. and thank you to the centennial institute for -- and to colorado

christian. i visited there i guess a year before last in the campaign and to our speakers, kelly shackelford and doug robinson and ryan bombberger and kirk cameron and gardner and tomorrow you will hear from ed meese. i'm glad i'm speaking first. i'd hate to follow ed meese. he's a tough act indeed. many of you have heard me say this already. but i think he's one of the greatest attorney generals ever to serve in our nation's history. and -- actually, i would go further too and say he's one of the greatest americans of my lifetime. this man is a real tribute, a giant. it's great to be here with my fellow conservatives. especially right now in the trump era when we are making a

lot of progress in a lot of different areas for this country on issue after issue. we are advancing i think good principles. some days it seems slow. some days it seems frustrating. but i think we're really taking step after step after step. that's my goal. that's what we have committed to do. a great thinker, the editor of the american spectator says conservatives -- conservatism is a cast of mind. it's a sense that we live in a blessed world. we understand that those of us that have been privileged to live in this country have given -- have been given something special. something that is not available around the world. and we should always study how we got here. be thankful for what values and principles we have adhered to over the years and be cautious as we go forward not to erode

those great values that are producing so much for us. i know you feel that way and i do. elections have consequences. president trump ran for office as a low and order candidate. he's governing as a law and order president. first of all, he's nominated some fabulous judges to the federal bench. these are judges that are faithful to the oath that judges take. that oath says they will serve under the constitution and laws of the united states. not above them. they're not entitled to redefine the meaning of words, to make it the law as it was written for one term and for one manner, to be transformed as a tool to advance some political agenda. never contemplated by the drafters of that law. that's an antidemocratic act

when activists do that kind of thing. we need judges who are faithful to the law. professor den allstein at william & mary said if you love the constitution, if you respect it, you will enforce it is written. the good and the bad parts even if you don't like it. if you really want to venerate, strengthen the constitution you'll enforce it as written and not twist it to mean things it doesn't mean and create a circumstance where the judge in the future could go even further to erode the constitutional protections that we have in this country. the senate -- the senate has confirmed 43 trump judges including 21 to the circuit bench. the most circuit judges at this stage of any presidential administration and you know how important this is and some more are being nominated it seems

every day. the department of justice is ending the lawlessness that often -- too often took place under the previous administration. late last night, we informed a texas court we would not be defending the constitutionality of the obama health care mandate. it's a -- it's a rash step, but one i felt was necessary when it comes to this law. a monumental law of historic governmental proportions that moved the american health care system and the entire economy of america and we'll be active in that litigation and upholding the constitution and protecting the rule of law is the foundation of everything we do in the department of justice. we have agreed to settlement terms with nearly 500 plaintiffs

who brought cases by groups who are targeted by the irs when they applied for tax exempt status. you remember that, those cases. these groups were subject to inappropriate criteria that disproportionately impacted too often conservative groups. so we settled 22 cases with 90 plaintiffs regarding the previous administration's wrongful contraception mandate. just last week a district court right here in colorado issued a permanent injunction in the case that the obama administration had litigated against the little sisters of the poor. their action against the little sisters of the poor was a violation of the important religious freedom restoration act. and now because of the

injunction in this case, the injunction is permanent. the government can never again violate the law in the way the previous administration did. our constitution doesn't just protect freedom of thought. or the freedom to worship in secret. it protects the open expression of religious belief in public. the first phrase in the first amendment even before free speech says protects the free exercise of religion. so that's why in october at really at president trump's direction the department of justice honoring his promise

during the campaign issued a legal guidance document that makes it clear that the federal government may not discriminate against people because of their religion. whether in rule making and rules are made in ways you can't imagine, or enforcement of a law or in an employment or grant making or contracting or in other areas. of course our solicitor general argued in december in support of jack phillips. a courageous colorado baker who would not back down. he stood for his beliefs. almost alone at times it seemed. and under great oppression. he did not back down. he was sued for refusing for

bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. he felt strongly about that. and earlier this week, one -- he won in the supreme court, 7-2 so we're proud of him. under this administration, religious americans are knot going to be treated as an afterthought, or deplorables or bitter clingers anymore. society and culture are important. they shape who we are. you can't have the kind of freedom, prosperity and safety that we have in this great country without a strong cultural basis. i have traveled the world. as a member of the armed services committee and the united states senate for 20 years it's heart breaking to see a group of people trying to put

together some of the countries that we have tried to help and just not be able to get it done. just not -- just often lose their lives in the process. our heritage goes beyond the thoughts, the concept of religious toleration. we really go beyond that. we reach toward an affirmation of each person's individual religious integrity. it's a religious integrity that people are entitled to and we consider that an endowed right as the american founders do. another great event was president trump's supporting my good friend former senate sam brownback. sam brownback is ambassador at large for religious freedom. i'm sure many of you know sam. i'm confident he's going to do a

great job in that new, important position. so many of the threats to religious freedom that we face are also threats to another first amendment right and that's the right to free speech. actually, they go together. actually if it's religious speech that's being constricted that's doubly bad. the constitution reflects religion and speech for sure. a lot of people don't seem to understand that. they think it's more appropriate that -- to constrict religious speech than honest speech. so much of the threats to religious freedom that we face are also threats to speech. and i think the american people are concerned about it. i think the american people were concerned about it during the past election. i think people felt that they were being restricted in their ability to express themselves. and i think the boldness of

president trump and his willingness to challenge correctness was a big part of his strength in the public support that he got. so we're going to protect that right too. it's an important part of the constitution. we have already gotten involved in free speech cases on college campuses. the last place you would think we would have to act. in california to georgia, that includes the case of a student who wanted to share his christian faith but was told he could only speak in a tiny free expression area as they said it and only at certain times. so we'll continue to protect our first amendment rights but the first civil right in america and we have to know is to be safe. in our communities. and that applies to poor people and minorities who are often

struggling financially. and they can't live behind any ungated communities. they're entitled to public safety too. that's why we're hammering the criminals and violent groups especially ms-13 that vicious gang. it's one of the most violent and inhumane groups in the world. their motto, get this, kill, rape and control. they live by that motto. every day. since the beginning of 2017, ms-13 members have been charged with drug trafficking, rape, sexual assault, murder, racketeering and violent extortion to name a few. they seek to dominate, they seek to control and in fact to exercise their sovereignty over neighborhoods and communities in the united states. around we can never -- and we

can never cede them sovereignty over any inch of the property of this country, i can tell you that. so some friends -- some of our friends on the left are worried that president trump may have hurt ms-13's feelings. but at this department, we're focused on the safety of the american people. not on gang safety. that's why we put our target on the back of any ms-13 member in the united states and around the world too. we have gotten support there. in 2017, working with countries like el salvador and others, we helped charge or arrest a total of more than 4,000 ms-13 members across the western hemisphere and in 2017 we brought more cases against more violent criminals in the united states

than in any year in the last quarter century. we charge the most federal firearms -- criminals with firearms in a decade. we convicted nearly 500 traffickers, 1,200 gang members and the trump administration we know whose side we are on. we are on the side of police, law and order and american people and we back the blue. not the criminals. thank you. in fact, the first executive order i got on the first day in office from president trump was back the men and women in blue. that's exactly what we were proud to hear.

in recent weeks, i sent in reinforcements by tightening our budget, saving money and creating savings that we're able to create people to come to colorado and other areas throughout this entire country to help be more effective in fighting crime. the 300 additional federal prosecutors that we were able to redistrict to the field throughout america, this countryside, is the biggest surge in prosecutors in decades. maybe ever. these efforts are especially important because when president trump took office the country had been reeling from a sudden increase in crime. after really 30 years of decline. the violent crime rate had been cut in half since really the beginning of the reagan administration. and those trends will begin to work in our favor.

the violent crime rate have been cut in half and the murder rate was cut in half. aggravated rape fell by half. but from 2013 to 2016, those trends reversed. it's very troubling to me. in the last two years of the obama administration, the violent crime rate overall went up by nearly 7%. robberies went up. assaults went up nearly 10%. rape went up by 11%. murder increased -- murder, homicide increased 20% in just two years after a long and steady decline. but under donald trump, we are stopping these trends. we are determined to do so. as he said during police week, quote, if we want to bring down

violent crime we must stand up for our police. and i truly believe that's so. make no mistake, our goal is to bring down crime, not see it go up. and in this trump era, the aclu isn't going to be making and setting our law enforcement policies. the professionals are. and we are -- we are seeing results. and in the first six months of last year the increase in murder rates slowed, almost flattened out. the violent crime rate went down overall. publicly available data for the rest of the year suggests further progress. and we want to see it go down significantly. preliminary data for 2018 looks even better. the major city police chiefs association has reported a 3.8%

increase -- decrease in violent crime and a 4.7% decline in murders based on 5 key reporting agencies. those are the preliminary numbers that are just coming out. the new cdc preliminary data show that last fall drug overdoses finally started to decline. maybe a little bit. we're not sure about that is but we have had 65,000 people die the year before last from drug overdoses. unbelievable numbers. we want to see those number goes down too. and opioid deaths are the big key to that as well. so we need this progress right now. not five years from now. because not only was crime increasing at the end of the previous administration, but drug deaths increased by more than a third in two years. this department is going after drug companies, doctors,

pharmacists and others who violate the law. since january of 2017 think about this, would you, we have charged more than 150 doctors in this country. another 150 medical personnel for opioid related crimes. 16 of those doctors prescribed more than 20.3 million pills illegally. those are stunning numbers. we have indicted more than 6,500 defendants on opioid related investigations. ceased more than $150 million from them. in the last three months alone, the drug department has seized fentanyl from detroit to boston. it's 50 times as powerful of heroin. a pinch of salt is powerful

enough to be deadly. depending on the purity, that amount of fentanyl can be enough to kill tens of millions of people. and the first three months of 2018, our officers worked with our state and local partners in arizona, seized 300 pounds of heroin, 80 pounds of fentanyl, tens of thousands of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl. and nobody knows how much is in these pills. often it's a deadly dose. together, we prosecuted 90 drug traffickers in just that one state of arizona. so all of us have to understand that the vast majority of fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine in this country today first came across the southern border. it's an absolute fact. tens of thousands of americans are being killed every year because we do not have a

security -- secure border. customs seized fentanyl at the border and in the first seven months of '18 fentanyl seizures at the mexico border skyrocketed by 750%. compared to the same period in 2017. and if we need to build that wall, i hear -- we absolutely do. and we're going to end the drug crisis we need to secure the border and if we're going to have a secure border then we've got to have a wall. build that wall. for decades the american people have been pleading, asking for a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interests. a system that we can be proud of. that is not too much to ask of

their government. the american people are right and just and moral and decent when they make this request of their government. they are right to want a safe and secure border and a government who knows who's in this country and who's not. and i reject the arguments of the left that the republicans hate the immigrants. that is absolutely false. donald trump ran for president on that idea. he was quite clear about it. i believe it's a big reason why he won. and he's on fire about this. i've got to tell you. the entire government knows how strongly he feels about it. and we're getting things done. under his leadership we're not going to let this country be overwhelmed. people are not going to caravan in here or otherwise stampede

our border. it cannot be allowed to happen. last month, the department of homeland security announced it will begin to refer as close to 100% of illegal southwest border crossers as possible to the department of justice for prosecution and we at the department of justice will do everything we can to prosecute all of them. i put in place a zero tolerance policy for illegal entry at the border. if you cross the southwest border unlawfully, then we're going to seek to prosecute you. it's that simple. it's unlawful to do that. and if they're part of a smuggling organization that smuggles people in to the country, then we'll prosecute them too. period. that's what we're going to do. so i have sent 35 prosecutors already to the southwest border.

moved 18 immigration judges so they can be tried right there in the detention centers. this is about a 50% increase in the number of immigration judges who have been handling these cases at the border. 11 people -- 11 million people are already here unlawfully that's more than the population of portugal or the state of georgia. we have already had -- i have to say we need to know this. we already have the most generous immigration laws in the world. we accept 1.1 million people every year to lawful permanent resident status. that's more than the population of montana. every year, into this country. they're on a short track to citizenship. every one of the 1.1 million. it's the highest numbers of any country in the world. and that's in addition to the

700,000 people who come here explicitly to take jobs and a half a million who come here to take spots in american colleges and universities. we're a generous nation. we simply want a lawful system that serves our interests. it cannot be that anybody seeking a better life anywhere in the world can walk into our country, contrary to the laws and then demand services and benefits. it makes no sense. there are limits. there are limits to what we can do and congress has already set them. it's an ina. immigration and nationality act. part of my job is to enforce that. and we intend to do so. that's why we are challenging so-called sanctuary jurisdictions who try to nullify

federal immigration law. sanctuary jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with immigration law enforcement officers, i.c.e. officers in many cases they have criminals sitting in their jails who are wanted by our federal officers for deportation because not only did they enter the country unlawfully. they entered unlawfully and committed additional crimes sufficient to be put in the penitentiary or the jailhouse of the local jurisdiction. they're subject to being deported. but they won't turn them over to us. they released them back on to the streets. causing our office in multiple numbers now to go out and arrest somebody out in the community somewhere. you have to have more than one or two officers. these are dangerous situations. had they been allowed to pick them up at the jail as we do with any other criminal offense in this country, had they been

able to pick them up here, they could pick them up safely, they know they're not armed and they can put them in the deportation process. this is a big issue. it goes beyond law and lawsuits. it's a big issue because we need to tell these politicians what is it that's in your minds. what do you think you're doing when you refuse to allow the deportation of a criminal in your city who's there unlawfully and who commits another crime. i can't understand it. i don't think the american people can. and if you want to deport somebody who came here and committed a crime, let me ask you, who will you deport? the answer is nobody. in effect, this is an open borders policy. and we see it throughout this country and i felt it in the

united states senate and i feel it today. anything that's out there that seems to be effective, you get opposition to. it cannot be that someone who illegally crosses the border on monday gets to denver or boulder or aurora on wednesday, is home free. never to be removed from this country? what kind of law would that be? what if they were bringing six ounces of cocaine with them? and they're arrested for that. still not being deportable? it makes no sense. this refusal of cooperation has serious consequences. according to the i.c.e. data, i.c.e. was able to re-arrest get this, only 6% of all illegal immigrants that were released after a refusal to hand them over. in other words, they asked the jail to release them to the i.c.e. officers for deportation proceedings. the local jurisdiction refused to do so. released them into the community

and they found about 6% of those that could be for deportation. because these criminals weren't turned over in the first place, they have to go out in dangerous circumstances. it's hard to find them. but the trump administration, we're not going to stand for this. we're going to keep fighting. in march the department of justice sued the state of california over their controversial unconstitutional we think sanctuary laws. i'm confident -- i feel good about the legal basis of our case. attacking a number of the incredible provisions in that act. we have also been supported by quite a number of jurisdictions now. well over a dozen in california that turned against their own state government. and we have been supported -- we have also have been supporting

texas who used its own state legislative powers to restrict and eliminate sanctuary cities throughout the state of texas. it's a big step. and colorado's got challenges. since i became attorney general we filed briefs in support of state and local law enforcement in defensive litigation in about 30 states. a number of courts in these cases have ruled in our favor. there's a lot more that we could talk about today. in the trump era we have already seen an historic string of victories for conservatives and the american people. but here's my message. we are going to keep up this pace. we are not slowing down. we are determined to keep winning and winning and winning. are you tired of it yet?

not yet. we're going to make this country safer, stronger, more prosperous. we'll protect religious liberty and i'm confident that with your help and support we're going to succeed. thank you all. it's an honor to be with you. may god bless this country and all of us together. thank you. up next here on c-span 3 efforts to combat crime and violence in el salvador as way to reduce illegal immigration to the u.s. then at 8:00, a look at jobs, training and wages in america. then at 9:00 eastern, the false information on social media. the former head of the fbi's chief of counterespionage

section peter strzok goes before the house. he led the fbi's investigation into then secretary of state hillary clinton's use of a private e-mail server. live coverage starts at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span 3, online at c-span.org and listen with the free c-span radio app. president trump will announce his nominee for the supreme court. filling the vacancy left by retiring justice anthony kennedy. watch the announcement live tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. the c-span bus is traveling across the country on the 50 capitals tour. the bus stopped in fairbanks, alaska, asking folks what's the

most important issue in alaska? >> well, the issue that's most important to me is the environment. dutch harbor is the number one fishing port in the nation in terms of volume and we rely heavily on the seafood industry and with environmental changes in my community that industry has the potential to be wiped out. >> i'm running for governor of alaska. i was born and raised in the state of alaska. i have three platform issues that we're needing to take care of in this state. one is abortion. one is the budget plan and one is protecting the permanent fund dividend and giving the money back to the people from the legislative action that took place two years ago and the one coming this year. i want to give it all back with interest. i think it's the right of the people to have and be able to keep the resources that belongs to the shareholders of this state. thank you very much. >> one of the things on my mind lately is the trauma of the children in the united states. people that come in for -- to

the borders, et cetera, i'm kind of upset with some of the attorneys general who have not taken mr. trump and others to task for creating this child abuse. that's essentially what it is. even the methodist church has called their own parishioner, mr. sessions, charged him with child abuse under their own rules so i would like to see the attorneys general slam some of these legislators for allowing this to happen. that's just one issue, but most of all i want to welcome people who'd like to visit alaska and we have a lot to offer here. beautiful scenery, really nice people. lots of kids who are having fun. and i'd be remiss if i didn't say this is santa claus and wishing you a very merry christmas. >> the big issue for me is the future of alaska. i'm concerned about it. and at the same time, i'm really

optimistic about it. i'm concerned because we have got the highest health care costs in the country. highest energy costs in the country. highest unemployment in the country. lowest educational attainment in the country. a rapidly changing environment. and disinvestment in higher education. i'm optimistic despite all that because our people strongly support higher education. there's big demand for it in our state. we lead the world in arctic research. and our university has a plan and we're committed to that plan and investing in that plan to build our people to strengthen our future so that we're more competitive nationally and internationally as we look to the next century. >> be sure to join us july 21 and 22 when we'll feature our visit to alaska. watch alaska weekend on c-span, c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app.

a discussion now on combatting crime and violence in el salvador. panelists at this event hosted by the inter-american dialogue and counterpart international include latin america scholars and legal and security experts. this is about 90 minutes. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> so welcome to the american dialogue. my name is michael camilleri, i direct the dialogues. and we are delighted today to welcome you all and to partner with counterpart international for a discussion on criminal violence and transitional justice in el salvador. in recent weeks this country has been consumed by images of undocumented immigrants