WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – President Donald Trump's administration aims to clear a massive backlog of 1 million illegal aliens who continue to live in the United States, despite pending deportation orders, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.
“Today we only have 6,000 ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers to remove them,” Nielsen said, adding that “we cannot simply arrest our way out of this public safety crisis. MS13 is cancer that will continue to grow, feeding on our immigration loopholes and bureaucratic bloat.”
According to Nielsen, the US plans to hire an additional 10,000 immigration officers in the coming months.
The MS-13 gang has become a key target of the Trump administration as part of a larger crackdown on illegal immigration, especially against aliens who have been convicted of violent crimes. Last month, authorities arrested more than 200 members of the MS13 gang in a nationwide sweep.
Sessions explained that MS13 had more than 10,000 members across 40 states making the Central-American-based syndicate one of the most dangerous gangs in America.
As an example, Sessions cited the murder of 15-year-old Damaris Reyes Rivas, whose body was discovered in an industrial park in February after going missing in the suburban Washington, DC suburb of Gaithersburg.
Sessions said the victim had been stabbed 13 times with knives and a wooden stake and that killers had filmed the murder to show gang leaders in El Salvador. Ten members of MS13 have been charged with the teenager’s murder.
READ MORE: 'Not Compatible With Sovereignty': US Withdraws From Global Compact on Migration
Earlier this month, GOP Congressman Todd Rokita was expected to introduce a bill that could impose fines and prison terms on officials sheltering undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The bill coincided with the US decision to end its participation in the UN process to develop a Global Compact on Migration (GCM), the withdrawal being explained by Washington as the country's sovereign right to secure its borders.
