National Gang Violence Prevention Week, 2018

Proclamation 9785 of September 14, 2018

National Gang Violence Prevention Week, 2018

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Too many of our Nation's communities are afflicted by
terrible and senseless acts of violence committed by
members of gangs and cartels. Horrendous, criminal acts
have become increasingly common in our cities and towns
where the notorious and savage MS-13 and other criminal
gangs operate. During National Gang Violence Prevention
Week, my Administration commits to continue its
steadfast efforts to identify and eradicate the gangs
that spread bloodshed, murder our youth, and lay siege
to neighborhoods across our country.

While my Administration has successfully indicted and
convicted countless gang members, gang violence still
destroys families and threatens our liberty. When
street gangs smuggle drugs into our communities,
violence, addiction, overdoses, and other criminal
activities follow. Extortion, sex trafficking, murder,
robbery, and witness intimidation are only some of the
evils that trail in the wake of gang activity.

Our brave law enforcement officers are fearlessly
confronting gang violence. They routinely and
courageously fight criminal organizations, even in the
face of increasingly brazen, hateful attacks. The
Department of Justice is partnering with State, local,
and tribal law enforcement--including our Nation's
3,081 sheriffs--to bolster efforts to combat criminal
gangs through comprehensive violent crime reduction
initiatives, such as Project Safe Neighborhoods.
Additionally, it is increasing the number of Federal
prosecutors focused on gang violence and is providing
enhanced training on gang investigations to State and
local law enforcement agencies. Because of these
efforts, we have already seen tremendous success in
prosecuting gang-based violent crime and reducing the
influence of criminal gangs.

I have also instructed my Administration to
aggressively address transnational criminal
organizations, especially MS-13. Organized and led from
Central America, MS-13 has entrenched its claws in
communities from the East Coast to the West Coast. Its
growing influence poses a serious risk to our country's
youth and community safety. Through increased
interagency efforts and the creation of collaborative
task forces that include both Federal agencies and
State and local law enforcement, we have made great
strides in protecting our Nation's most vulnerable
communities from MS-13's violence and greatly
diminished its ability to recruit new members. Earlier
this year, Operation Matador demonstrated the success
of these efforts, resulting in the indictment of dozens
of MS-13 gang members for Federal racketeering
offenses.

While this progress is promising, the scourge of MS-13
and other transnational criminal organizations will not
abate until our Nation's borders are fully secure and
those who seek to harm us are no longer able to exploit
loopholes in our broken immigration laws. In the past
year, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) has arrested more than 4,800 criminal gang
members, including nearly 796 arrests related to MS-13.
We are grateful for the often dangerous work ICE
conducts each day to enforce the law, secure our
border, and keep us safe. The Congress must take action
to protect public safety and national security by
providing

the necessary resources to secure our borders and close
the dangerous loopholes in our laws that leave our
borders open to dangerous exploitation.

This week, we rededicate ourselves to dismantling, and
ultimately eradicating, criminal gang organizations,
which threaten our way of life. Let us strengthen our
resolve to protect our communities from gang violence
and to ensure they are places where all Americans can
live, work, and raise their families. We also reaffirm
our duty to support members of law enforcement, who,
every day, place their lives on the line to protect and
save anyone in need--be it family members, friends,
neighbors, or strangers.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim the week of September
16 through September 22, 2018, as ``National Gang
Violence Prevention Week.'' I call upon the people of
the United States to observe this week with appropriate
ceremonies and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
third.