LIVE: Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi hold a press conference

We are here today to protect our state and our country. This facility is designed to hold the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. I would like to begin by thanking Secretary Noem, General Bondi, Deputy Director Sheehan for being with us today and for their strong partnership in helping make America and Louisiana safe again. I also want to thank Secretary Gary Westcott of Department of Corrections and his team, Warren Vannoy, and everyone who worked day and night to get this facility ready for today. When I became Governor, the 57th Governor of Louisiana, and President Trump became the 47th President of the United States, we both inherited a mess. Louisiana had three of the top 10 most dangerous cities in America. Part of the problem across America was the open border policies of former President Barack Obama and Joe Biden, which left America in shambles. While it is true that America is a country of immigrants, it is also a country of laws, not of men getting to pick and choose which laws they feel like executing. The Democrats' open border policies have allowed for the illegal entry of violent criminals, rapists, child predators, human traffickers, and drug dealers who have left the path of destruction and death throughout America. Just the opioid epidemic alone has cost America a hundred thousand innocent souls a year. Let me repeat that. A hundred thousand Americans die each year strictly because we allow poisonous material over these open border policies to pour through a porous border. Until the election of President Trump, no one at the federal level had the courage to stand up to the violence that had gripped this nation, and I repeat, no one. What we are announcing today is not the panacea to our crime problem, but it is part and parcel of the solution. This facility is fulfilling the President's promise of making America safe again. How? By giving ICE a facility to consolidate the most violent offenders into a single deportation and holding facility. This camp was originally built here at Angola to house the most disruptive of prisoners. It was called Camp J. Over the years, it was neglected and fell into disrepair. We decided to repair it and put it back into service to help fulfill the mission of removing criminal illegal aliens that have been causing havoc in our communities. Now let me say this again. To those who want to gaslight the public, that this facility is designed to hold criminal illegal aliens, the worst of the worst. If you don't think that they belong in somewhere like this, you got a problem. Angola is the largest maximum security prison in the country, with 18,000 acres boarded by the Mississippi River, swamps filled with alligators, and forests filled with bears. Nobody really wants to leave the place. The idea is to consolidate the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. Gang members, rapists, drug dealers, human smugglers that have no place in this country. For those of you who don't know, I'm a former law enforcement officer. I actually work in a jail. The idea is to prevent those worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from continuing their criminal activities inside a criminal civil population. By congregating here, them here, we actually secure America. This camp will hold 208 criminal illegal aliens by mid-September, 51 of whom are today, and we will have the capacity to hold over 400 in the next few months. Now I know you all in the media will attempt to have a field day with this facility, and you will try to find everything wrong with our operation in an effort to make those who broke the law in some of the violent ways victims. I want you to know that that path only continues to lead us to the hugger-thug policies that handcuff our police instead of the criminals and have led to the violence across this country. However, I would ask the media, I would plead with you all, why don't you focus on the real victims like the young boys who were molested in Kenna, Louisiana by an illegal from Honduras, or the 13-year-old little girl who was kidnapped and raped last year, or how about Mark Dean, a 48-year-old WGNO-TV producer who was killed due to the reckless driving of another illegal, or the young Nichols female student who was randomly attacked with a hammer outside of St. Thomas's Church. These are just a few of the stories that highlight what is playing out all across America. Because of the Democrats' open border policies, when we allow our country to be overrun by those who have no respect for our laws or way of life, American families suffer, and our communities crumble. I've said countless times that I don't know anyone who has a house without a front door, and so you don't have a country without borders. It's so refreshing to have a president and a cabinet, like the lady standing behind me, who empower law enforcement to do their jobs to provide American families the safety they have long wanted, and finally puts America and her people first. That is why today I'm proud to stand alongside Secretary Noem, General Bondi, Deputy Director Sheehan, as we announce the opening of the Louisiana Lockup, which will house the worst of the worst illegal criminal aliens. And now I would like to turn it over to my great friend, former governor, and now the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. Good afternoon. Today we're here at this legendary Angola prison to announce an agreement between the United States of America and the great state of Louisiana. There has never been an agreement like this one before, and it is here today at this place because President Trump has selected and built relationships with leaders across this country that don't complain about things, they fix them. And when we called up Governor Landry and told him about our need for detention space and our need to have a place where we can house some of the violent, criminal, illegal aliens that are out there perpetuating horrific activities against the families in this country, he offered us a solution. He offered us a space that we could house these dangerous criminals and make sure that they were never able to harm another child or family member in this country ever again. I want to thank Governor Landry for hosting us. I also want to thank our great Attorney General Pam Bondi for her willingness to consistently work tirelessly to make sure she's defending our laws and she's out there fighting for people that they have an opportunity to live the American dream. She's been strong, she's been hardworking, and she's been fair. She recognizes that the scales of justice apply equally to everyone and that criminal illegal aliens have no place in this country. I also want to thank our Deputy Director Madison Sheehan for all of her leadership as well at ICE. She has been fantastic in helping us come up with solutions like the one you see in front of you today to ensure that these criminals are never let go in the United States of America again. And then we also have other leaders that we're grateful for, the warden, the Department of Corrections, and public safety leaders here in this state have been absolutely wonderful in what they've done to put together this opportunity to open up today the Louisiana lockup. Our one cell block here, as Governor Landry referenced before, called Camp J, has been now repurposed into an ICE detention facility, but not just a typical ICE detention facility that you may see in another state somewhere else in this country. Instead, this facility will hold the most dangerous of criminals that have been out there harming individuals in this country. It will be high-risk alien individuals and criminals, and here are a few of the examples of those individuals that are being moved or are already here today. Omar Martinez Garcia, a 39-year-old citizen of Mexico, his criminal history includes a conviction for homicide, second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. We have Rafael Ojea Acosta, a 70-year-old Cuban man who was convicted of rape with a weapon and forcible sodomy. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison, and he will be living here from now on. We also have Humberto Vargas Lopez, a 55-year-old illegal alien from Cuba who's been convicted of aggravated rape, aggravated burglary, possession of marijuana and cocaine, obstruction of a public officer, and battery with a deadly weapon with serious bodily harm. Altogether, he was sentenced to 29 years in prison. We also have Julio Lavera Avila, a 30-year-old illegal alien from Mexico. He was convicted of battery family violence and cruelty to children in the third degree. He was sentenced to 19 years. And Olven Rodriguez Instarova, a 22-year-old illegal alien from Honduras, was arrested in March on outstanding warrants of 394 counts of pornography involving juveniles, as well as two counts of sexual abuse of an animal. President Trump and I are committed. We're committed to making America safe again, and that means arresting many criminal illegal aliens as possible and then making sure we're getting them off of our streets. We're bringing them to justice and we're making our communities safer. President Trump's one big beautiful bill has provided the funding for tens of thousands of new detention facilities and beds across this country. That bill also funds the 287G program that helps us build law enforcement agreements with local communities and state leaderships. With the rate of arrests and deportations as high as it's been, we need all the help that we can get to increase our detention space. Louisiana is one of several states that is stepping up to help solve these problems, but they're doing it in an unprecedented way. We now have about 200 criminal illegal aliens who are scheduled to be detained here at this facility. The capacity will be up to 400, as Governor Landry specified earlier, and since Angola Prison is located on the grounds of the highest security prison in Louisiana, the citizens here have no need to worry about their safety. They will remain in this facility and people will be protected from these criminals. So I want to thank you and all of you who care about this country and understand that this president is working every single day to address the crime, address the violence in our cities and our communities, and is bringing people to justice and deporting people out of this country who shouldn't be here. I want to thank Governor Landry for his leadership. He declared an emergency back in July in order to start forming partnerships with us to solve these problems. And I'd also like to thank Governor Landry for his leadership in signing Operation GO, a historic 287G collaboration with Louisiana and our federal agency to arrest and to deport the worst of these criminals. And thank you also to Madison for all of her hard work for helping us get to this announcement today and the operations that are conducted by ICE officers across this country to make sure we're keeping our country safe. Madison knows Louisiana very well. She did great work for Governor Landry when she was here and she is doing great work in the United States of America and Washington, D.C. as well. I also want to thank Gary Westcott, the Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections here in Louisiana, for all of his partnership and leadership of his agency. And Scott Ladwig, Acting Field Office Director for ICE, ERO, that's in New Orleans. And special thanks to Warden Daryl Vinoy, who returned to serve as warden here at Angola last year after he had already served as warden once before. He knows this facility well. In fact, he probably knows it better than anyone else. May God bless all of our law enforcement officers, all the men and women who work up and get up every day and work to protect our public safety. And may God continue to bless the United States of America. Now I'd like to introduce to you and have you welcome with me our great United States Attorney General Pam Bondi. Thank you, Secretary Noem, for your tireless work keeping our country safe, making our country safe. And Governor Landry, thank you for your partnership with the Trump administration to make Louisiana safe and in turn make America safe. We're working to secure our borders, remove dangerous illegal aliens, stop drug and human smuggling, and lock up these criminals as long as we can in our prisons. Thanks to Secretary Noem, Homeland Security, all of our agencies working together to apprehend these illegal aliens. And Governor Landry, for your use of this incredible facility, locking them up and keeping them here where they will be prosecuted by our great U.S. attorneys here in Louisiana and they won't go anywhere. Look behind us. Louisiana, you're going to be an example for the rest of this country. Thank you. We've been working together on Operation Viper, a joint effort between Louisiana law enforcement and the Justice Department's FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Marshals to disrupt the illegal criminal drug organizations here in Louisiana. Over a three-week span, we got 140 violent criminals arrested, more than 100 firearms seized, a quarter of a million dollars in cash, fentanyl, meth, cocaine taken off the streets as a result of everyone working together. The Middle District of Louisiana, 52 federal indictments, 68 defendants. Eastern District of Louisiana, dozens of kilos of fentanyl seized and other deadly drugs linked to CJNG and Sinaloa cartels. They have been seized. Our U.S. attorneys have charged nearly 100 defendants with illegal immigration offenses and now we have a place to house them all. One example, Miguel Dominguez, who came here illegally from Honduras. In June, he entered our country. He entered a plea in June with four counts, one including a firearms charge and illegally distributing cocaine throughout Louisiana. He entered a plea. He will be sentenced and he will serve his sentence in our country in an American prison because he was committing crimes against Americans. As part of Louisiana's Operation GO, it is a national model for states seeking to protect their citizens. We're going after gang members, human traffickers, drug dealers, and other violent illegal aliens, all working hand in hand. And Secretary Noem, again, thank you for everything you're doing and Madison to take all of these illegal criminals off the streets and we will do everything in our power to prosecute them. And Governor Landry, thank you for working hand in hand with all of our federal agencies because it takes all of us working together and that's what Donald Trump has always said, to make America safe again. Thank you all. Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here. I'd like to start by thanking Secretary Noem and General Bondi. I think what this shows is the continued support that the men and women of ICE have from not only President Trump but also his entire cabinet and our leadership to go out and do unprecedented things. Coming in in January, we were tasked by Secretary Noem to make unprecedented partnerships and historic partnerships throughout the country, allowing us to expand our 287G program in a way that it's never done before. Through our task force model, through detention space, and other opportunities that we have to use state and local law enforcement as a force multiplier throughout the country to effectuate change in American cities and to put the American people first for the first time in four years. And we are proud to be able to stand here and partner with Governor Landry. Governor Landry's a dear friend of mine and when he called and asked to be able to be a part of the mission that ICE was on, we were able to work together to construct Operation GO, a historic agreement to expand the 287G program using the Louisiana State Police and the other Louisiana law enforcement agencies, as well as do we expand into detention space and other opportunities that we have as the men and women of ICE. This is just one prime example of the success that we've been able to have. Just yesterday we worked with the Louisiana State Police and the Louisiana National Guard to move 51 of the worst of the worst alien criminals that we have arrested throughout the country into the facility behind me, including nine of which who were removed from facilities in the state of Louisiana that have wreaked havoc on the people of Louisiana and the American people. I'm proud to be able to stand here today and have the support from Secretary Nome and General Bondi and Governor Landry to be able to put together an historic opportunity to put the American people first, to allow the handcuffs to come off of ICE officers and put the handcuffs on the criminals. And you've seen us do this time and time again in cities all over this country and we will continue to do that in the state of Louisiana and we'll be able to bring them right here to Angola to secure them so that way they can then be repatriated to the country that they came from and no longer cause harm to the American people. Governor, thank you for doing this today. Secretary Nome and Attorney General Bondi, we are grateful for your leadership with President Trump to be able to make the Louisiana lockup happen. Thank you. In closing, I want to thank the President for appointing such unbelievable women warrior leaders like those standing behind me who have compassion for American families whose communities have continued to crumble under the violence that has plagued this nation over the past decade or so. I also would like to thank the people of Louisiana for giving me an opportunity to make Louisiana a safe place, a prosperous place where you want to come and raise a family because I always said in Louisiana that hospitality may have been born in the south but it was perfected in Louisiana and we want people to come to Louisiana and know that it's a safe place. Thank you. With that, we'll take any questions. We'll go from left to right. Good afternoon to all of you. I'm Cesar Munoz from Jambalaya News Hispanic Radio. When you say the worst of the worst, are those the ones that are incarcerated here now or are you going to bring them from other places? We will take whatever ICE sends us as they go through their roster of some of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. Look, here's what I'll tell you. This camp was renovated and will be operated at a fraction of the cost of other camps around the nation. That was the instructions by the President. Well, y'all know me. I wouldn't talk about any operational elements that we have going on as we combat crime from New Orleans all the way to Shreveport. I will tell you this. Both General Bondi and Secretary Nome have been here since January of this year. Remember, both of them visited New Orleans during that awful terrorist attack on New Year's Day. We don't talk about operations that are ongoing. We only deliver the results after. Thank you. Now I'll tell you that Warden Vannoy and his group here and our staff over at the governor's office worked day and night probably for over 30 or 45 days putting this thing together because we needed a place like this as fast as we could. The country needs a place where we can consolidate these violent, illegal, criminal aliens. We're going to ramp this place up to about over 400 in the next few months and then we will wait and see what ICE may have for us later. Well, what would you expect of those who commit some of the worst of the worst their daylight to be? What is that, what is the day life of the victims, of their victims? At least think about that. I can promise you this, that their day here is better than the day in walking in the footsteps of some of their victims, many of whom are no longer on this earth. NBC on behalf of the pool, what are the detention standards at this facility? I know bouncing off of that is to say an ICE facility, a state facility, if it's not going to be an ICE facility, will these inmates have access to attorneys? All of the procedures that we've been following here will be based upon ICE's procedures. So this facility will meet all of ICE's standards, including our standards to have attorneys available and we have hearing rooms to be able to meet with your attorney as well as see an immigration judge, with Department of Justice. We also have the law library in this facility, just like every other ICE facility. This is a model for the country of what ICE is expecting from our partners and that's exactly what we have here. You can walk into any ICE facility right now and you're going to see the same exact standards and they're going to be met throughout the country just as Governor Landry did. Governor, any concerns about mixing the populations here with the normal population of Angola or they're just going to be completely separate? Oh no, there's no mixing over here. All of the camps are completely isolated from one another and so this camp will completely be isolated from the criminal civil population. What is the cost that the state is incurring for the renovations and the operations of this facility and will any of it be reimbursed by the federal government? I can promise you this facility will operate in the black at a fraction of the cost that others have done. That was the instructions I got from the White House. Who will be running the day-to-day operations of the facility and is it still set up for solitary confinement? The contract is between ICE and the Department of Corrections and GOSEP and we will have ICE contractors that will help us run the day-to-day activities. What is the choice? Every headline about this Angola calls it notorious. Was the decision to choose such a prison with such a reputation deliberate to make people want to self-deport? Absolutely. There's consequences for breaking the law in this country now. The law will be applied and that's what President Trump is doing that's so refreshing and so different from the Biden administration. The Biden administration prioritized illegal criminals ahead of American citizens and that's not going to happen anymore. The most powerful thing that has convinced people to self-deport was our showing on commercials and on videos of the consequences of breaking the law in this country now. How criminals that come in here and rape people, murder people, that they will face justice and that they will face consequences and they will have to leave the United States and they'll never walk free in our streets again. So absolutely, this is a facility that's notorious. It's a facility. Angola prison is legendary but that's a message that these individuals that are going to be here that are illegal criminals need to understand is that if you come into this country and you victimize someone, if you take away their child forever, if you traffic drugs and kill our next generation of Americans and if you traffic our children and men and women, absolutely there's consequences. You're going to end up here. You're going to end up here because we're going to throw the book at you and everything else that we have until you're out of this country and you no longer have the right to be free and no longer have the right to be in the United States of America. Yes, sir. Hey, so Governor, is this going to be a place for men and women? How is that going to go? No, there will only be males here. Oh, that's a great idea. After this press conference, I'll talk about that with Secretary Noem and Deputy Director Sheehan. Great idea. Governor, climate reform is down the door. Look, here's what I'll tell you. President Trump is focused on getting control of our cities but not doing it the way past presidents and other administrations have done, where it's temporary. What he wants to see is permanent safety for Americans. He wants our families to be able to grow up in neighborhoods under which they can allow their children to go about their business on the sidewalks and enjoy the playgrounds and not worry about bullets flying around in neighborhoods. No, that facility is an expansion. Look, the men and women of ICE are arresting people at historic numbers and so we work with the Department of Justice and the General's team every day to make sure that we have adequate space to allow all the criminals that we're arresting to go through the proper immigration hearing process, to receive their due process, and then eventually be repatriated to their home country and in places we have to expand. We're working beside Louisiana State Police. We've seen historic numbers arrest through 287G program and it's time to expand a lot of our facilities and at the direction of the Secretary and with the help of the DOJ, we will continue to do that. Yes, after an alien has been arrested and they start immigration proceedings and I think the thing everyone should remember is oftentimes the folks that we are targeting are people with executable final orders and so most of them already have been issued an order by an immigration judge to leave this country. If they are a criminal alien and they have not gone through that process, they will go through the immigration hearing process and then ultimately be repatriated to their country and be as removed as quickly as possible. The folks that are in this facility have committed heinous crimes. They're going through the immigration hearing process and then ultimately will be removed pending the judge's decision. We know the previous administration allowed millions of people to invade this country that are illegals, illegal criminals, and people that need to go home. Listen, if people wait until we detain them and have to remove them ourselves, they will never come back to United States of America. That's why we're encouraging people who are in this country illegally to leave now. Leave now on your own, we'll buy you a plane ticket, go home, and you may have the chance to come back to the United States of America. In the meantime, we're going to continue to make sure we're taking care of the taxpayers. The people in this country that are running this government expect more out of this government are the people at home working jobs and paying their taxes and we're going to find an affordable, efficient, sustainable way to continue to deport people. It's going to take us a while to deport the 10 million plus people that Joe Biden let into this country illegally, but we're not going to stop till we're done. We're going to keep going, keep working, and if we need to figure out a way to get more flights in the air so it can happen quicker, I'm all about figuring that out. Let me add something to that, back to be clear. If you commit a violent crime in this country, if you rape a child, if you commit a murder, if you commit a horrible heinous crime, we are going to prosecute you here and we are going to keep you here for the rest of your life. Again, I want to thank General Bondi and Secretary Newman. I will tell you this, if you... Okay, I'm so sorry. The line's long. Yes, ma'am. Well, I'll say a few things and then I'll let Deputy Director Sheehan answer as well, but this specific facility is going to host the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens in the country. So we are moving individuals from other facilities to this place because it is so secure, because they have a reputation for making sure that when people come here, they don't get out and they aren't able to impact the civilian population outside of these fences and outside of these walls. So yes, those individuals are being moved from other facilities around the country to be here so that they are co-located and that this security here that is so excellent can continue to overwatch on them. I would say that we move people to other detention facilities for logistics based on what country they're being repatriated home to, where flights are going, what we need to do to build efficiencies, and we will continue to do that as we need to, to deport people out of the country and to take them back home. Anymore? One more? Last question. This has been on track. We've been working with the governor of Louisiana here for a long time talking about this and seeing what we could do to put a presence here in Louisiana beyond what we already had. It's a different facility than Alligator Alcatraz, and listen, we're going to comply with judges' orders, but we're going to continue to appeal those decisions because we believe that was an activist judge who made a wrong decision, and we're going to continue to partnerships with states and with local law enforcement because we find that the standards that are being met, our federal detention standards, are excellent. These states are making decisions that are good run facilities that are also more accountable, lower cost, and are responsive. They can be shorter-term contracts, and they can be very, you know, moved place to place based on where the need is as far as where we're returning people home to. Again, I want to thank the president. I want to thank Secretary Nome. I want to thank General Bonnie, and as she said, regardless of whether you're in the country conducting criminal illegal activity or you are an American conducting violent criminal activity, if you do it in Louisiana, they are going to be working with me to put you in a jail just like this. Thank you so very much.