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8 ADDRESS TO "A SUMMIT ON CRIME - COMING
9 TOGETHER FOR UTAH'S FUTURE"
10 U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO
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16 Salt Palace Ballroom
17 Salt Lake City, Utah
18 June 30, 1997
19 9:30 a.m.
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1 June 30, 1997 9:30 a.m.
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3 JANET RENO: Thank you, Senator Hatch, and
4 Senator Bennett, Congressman Hansen, Governor
5 Leavitt, Attorney General Jan Graham, and Mayor
6 Corradini, Chief Ortega. To all of you who are
7 here, I've had a chance to meet some of you, and I
8 am so impressed at the great cross-section of
9 people from different disciplines from all over
10 Utah's small towns and large cities. I'm excited
11 about this opportunity today and I just appreciate
12 your spending time with us. I'm particularly
13 appreciative of the presence of just citizens who
14 care and who spend their time trying to improve
15 circumstances for their fellow human beings. I
16 thank you all for making me feel so welcome in
17 these last 24 hours.
18 This is my third trip to Utah. Each of
19 them has been too short. I've gotten to know this
20 beautiful valley just a little bit and a lot of its
21 history now, but I look forward to coming back
22 sometime with time to spare and time to go into the
23 mountains and see the great beauty of this
24 magnificent state.
25 Senator Hatch, I thank you so much for this
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1 invitation and for all that you and your staff have
2 done to create this wonderful opportunity of this
3 summit. I know there is considerable work that
4 goes into it and just I appreciate it.
5 Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity
6 to attend with Senator and Mrs. Hatch the Freedom
7 Festival's Patriotic Service, and when you speak of
8 freedom, it was spoken yesterday afternoon in the
9 most glorious in most eloquent music and words and
10 it was just a privilege to attend.
11 But as you have made me feel welcome in
12 this very beautiful valley, you also made me feel
13 welcome in Washington in February of 1993 when I
14 arrived at your doorstep rather unexpectedly for my
15 first courtesy visit pending confirmation. At that
16 time and since then you have always made me feel
17 welcome at your office. You have been so
18 thoughtful and caring in your support and in your
19 disagreements sometimes. It has been to me a
20 classic example of how government should be
21 conducted in a bipartisan thoughtful, caring,
22 respectful way, and I just will always be
23 personally indebted to you.
24 I thank you for your leadership of the
25 Judiciary Committee. The oversight of the
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1 Department of Justice is not a very small task. It
2 is a big department with vast responsibilities, and
3 you know that department, and your leadership has
4 been so magnificent in that effort, and I just
5 appreciate that. And other on other issues as
6 well, such as the Quest for Religious Freedom,
7 you've been a leader, and I thank you.
8 Governor, I know exactly how you feel.
9 Back in 1980 I was a prosecutor in Miami and the
10 feds came to town. Now, I hope the feds came to
11 town different than they -- than they do today,
12 because they came telling us what to do. And I
13 looked at them and I thought, "Well, I understand
14 Dade County's resources and its needs better than
15 the feds do, what are they doing here telling me
16 what to do? Why don't they ask me?" And so I came
17 to Washington committed to trying to do everything
18 I could to build a partnership between the federal
19 government and state and local law enforcement, to
20 recognize what I knew full well from my own
21 experience, the fact that local law enforcement is
22 on the frontline in protecting America, that they
23 are there on the streets day and night doing so
24 much for so many across this land. I came, then,
25 to deciding to build a partnership, and I reached
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1 out to state and local law enforcement. Tom
2 Constantine, Eddie Gonzales both come from that
3 world, they both understand how important it is,
4 and I'm just so pleased that they are here today
5 with me.
6 One of my first visits was in June of 1993
7 when I came to see the Weed and Seed program, and
8 she -- you and the Mayor took me out, showed me
9 what was there. I asked you then, "Let me know how
10 we can be a better partner." And it was very
11 gratifying to me to hear from Chief Ortega that
12 we -- that he hasn't seen such a good working
13 relationship in I guess a very long time, and we
14 want to make sure that that continues. What we
15 would like is, as the governor and the senator has
16 said, to build on that partnership and to find out
17 today and to hear from you all today what we can do
18 to be more effective, to be more supportive, to be
19 a better partner, to address the issues of -- that
20 we are all concerned with.
21 I have now had the opportunity to visit a
22 number of communities across this nation, and when
23 we form these partnerships we can see direct
24 results. There's been a tendency over the last 10
25 years for some Americans to ring their hands and
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1 say, "The problem is too big, we can't do anything
2 about it." But we are seeing the results
3 nationally and we can see the results here in Utah
4 if we build and work together. And I am hear to
5 listen to you today to determine what we can do to
6 be more effective in this effort.
7 But I don't want to just listen. I go
8 to -- back to Washington with a get-back list. And
9 everyone groans when I arrive in Washington with my
10 get-back list, but I've already started my Utah
11 get-back list to make sure we follow up. And I've
12 asked Scott Matheson the U.S. Attorney and the
13 other key federal officials here in Utah to reach
14 out to state and local law enforcement on a
15 continuing and on-going basis, to convene, if
16 appropriate, but to be a partner, not in the sense
17 of us telling you what to do but how we can work
18 together to address and to combat drug and violent
19 crime, especially that involving criminal aliens.
20 To make sure we follow up with action, I,
21 in talking with Senator Hatch, urged that we
22 increase the number of federal criminal prosecutors
23 here in Utah by more than ten percent, and we will
24 be detailing lawyers from main justice in
25 Washington to work on this initiative. FBI
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1 Director Louis Freeh has agreed to assign five
2 additional special agents in Utah who will work on
3 drug cases, and DEA Administrator Constantine will
4 assign a third supervisor to the DEA office here so
5 that we can deploy an additional enforcement group
6 that I think can have a real impact.
7 Now, I think you've seen the METS team in
8 action before here in Utah. And that means, for
9 those that don't understand all this -- these
10 Washington terms and initials; I'm still learning
11 -- that -- that's the Mobile Enforcement Team.
12 It's a team that comes in to support local law
13 enforcement, not to get the credit, not to claim
14 the turf, but to provide information, to share
15 information, to work with state and local law
16 enforcement in an effective way. They've been here
17 before, they are ready to come back, and I think
18 they will be very supportive in this increasing
19 partnership.
20 I know that this new initiative will place
21 some demands on state and local police. That
22 doesn't come free, and we've identified
23 approximately $35,000 in funding to cover part of
24 the overtime, but we will work with you in every
25 way we can in this effort.
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1 I know that drugs oftentimes come from
2 methamphetamine organizations with their roots in
3 Mexico, and as they cross their border to our
4 border and as they work their way through this
5 country they're coming up your interstate
6 highways. We will shortly conclude a Memorandum of
7 Understanding with Utah -- Utah Highway Patrol
8 whereby 39 officers will be cross-designated so
9 they can enforce federal drug laws and have access
10 to important federal databases such at the El Paso
11 Information Center which is known as EPIC.
12 We have provided substantial funding to
13 Utah, as Senator Hatch has pointed out, over these
14 last several years, but I want to make sure that
15 we're working with you to use our efforts to
16 support your use of those funds in the wisest way
17 possible.
18 Since 1994 we tripled grants from our
19 office of Justice programs from $5 million a year
20 to over $15 million. In addition, as Senator Hatch
21 has pointed out, and through his leadership and
22 Senator Bennett's and so many people who've been
23 involved in this effort, there has been significant
24 funding through Violence Against Women grants,
25 grants necessary to improve criminal history
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1 records. We want to work with you to try to design
2 these programs so that they meet your needs.
3 In addition, we've awarded over $27.5
4 million to Utah under the Community Oriented
5 Police -- Policing Services, or COPS program,
6 enough money to hire or deploy 438 officers. That
7 includes almost $1 million in specialized funding
8 for Domestic Violence and Problem Solving grants.
9 Now, Governor, the same thing happened
10 in 1980, only it was a lot worse in Miami than it
11 is here, in terms of the problems of illegal
12 immigration and mass migrations, and it is
13 important that we work together. Doris Meissner
14 has done a wonderful job in trying to build an
15 agency that meets extraordinary demands. It had
16 very little to start with and it has faced
17 increasing challenges in these last four years. As
18 you point out, we have more than doubled our INS
19 presence here from nine to 23 in this past year,
20 and three more agents will arrive in September.
21 But how can we work together to make sure
22 that federal officials cooperate amongst themselves
23 to use these resources as wisely as possible, and
24 then how can we work with state and local law
25 enforcement to ensure that we endorse our
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1 emigration laws the right way, with proper respect
2 for legal immigration and with due process and
3 respect for human dignity in our enforcement of
4 illegal immigration? To that end I will authorize
5 federal deputization for state, county, and local
6 officers working on cases generated by our new
7 initiative, and for the first time we're going to
8 establish a pilot project here in Utah to authorize
9 state, county, and local law enforcement to enforce
10 the immigration laws. Accomplishing this means
11 issuing regulations, and the law gives the public
12 the chance to comment on proposed regulations.
13 I've discovered, Mayor, it takes longer to
14 get things done in Washington than it does to get
15 things done sometimes in Salt Lake City, but we're
16 going to make sure we get these regulations out as
17 fast as possible, consistent with your
18 opportunities to comments upon them.
19 But then the big question is -- and the
20 same thing happened in Miami -- where do we put
21 these people if this initiative works as well as we
22 all contemplate that it will work? Today I'm very
23 pleased to make four announcements: First, I'm
24 well aware of there is a detention space problem
25 here in Utah. We need space to hold both federal
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1 criminals and illegal aliens who are awaiting
2 deportation. Without that space there's a serious
3 limit to the amount of enforcement activity which
4 we can accomplish. We are going to increase by 56
5 percent the number of federal jail beds here in
6 Utah. Moreover, I also want to make sure that
7 we're not just relying on your goodwill. I want to
8 make sure that we're guaranteeing that there are
9 always some beds available to us. I will work with
10 Senators Hatch and Bennett to secure congressional
11 funding for at least a 200 percent increase of the
12 number of jail beds here in Utah, where the federal
13 government guarantees payment for the space whether
14 it's used or not.
15 The west needs more prison space for
16 sentenced federal prisoners. We know that we need
17 the money to build a penitentiary for maximum
18 security prisoners. Senators Hatch and Bennett, I
19 want to work with you in every way that's right and
20 proper to study possible sites for that
21 penitentiary and to explore those possibilities.
22 One of the things that I discover as
23 Attorney General -- the same was true in Miami --
24 you sometimes had services and you sometimes had
25 programs, but getting people to those services or
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1 programs was difficult because of transportation
2 issues. We need to address the issue of
3 transportation so that we can increase the number
4 of illegal aliens removed from this area, and I
5 have directed and I think Commissioner Meissner is
6 in the process of implementing some additional vans
7 that will provide for the removal of inmates so
8 that we can have additional spaces. I've asked
9 U.S. Marshall Service Director Gonzalez to increase
10 from one flight every two weeks to one flight every
11 week the marshal's air service out of Salt Lake
12 City for aliens ready to be repatriated to Mexico.
13 This will virtually double the effective bed space
14 because we'll be moving people out at twice the
15 speed.
16 And I look forward to hearing from you
17 today as to what we can do to be more effective
18 with the resources we have. I constantly learn
19 when I come to communities.
20 But, Governor, you've touched on something
21 dear to my heart. The first time I met Lieutenant
22 Governor Walker was in the Everglades, and I didn't
23 expect to see the Lieutenant Governor from Utah in
24 the Florida Everglades, but there she was, to learn
25 what the Department of Interior was doing with the
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1 office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
2 Prevention to develop an effective effort for young
3 serious delinquents. And it is so rewarding to
4 have the chance to talk with her today.
5 But what you touch upon is the need to
6 recognize that our children are wonderful,
7 wonderful little beings. If given half a chance
8 they can grow in strong, constructive, positive
9 ways. We have worked with you through the Weed and
10 Seed program and through the Comprehensive
11 Communities Program, and it was so rewarding this
12 morning to hear people comment on how successful
13 that program has been, not to tell you what to do
14 but to see how this government -- the federal
15 government can work with local government to fill
16 in places to meet needs, to do it the right way
17 according to what you need in your communities. We
18 want to work with you in building on that effort,
19 and I look forward to hearing from today from the
20 educators that I've had a chance to meet, the
21 clergy and local officials, as to how we can be a
22 better partner in giving our young people a chance
23 to grow in a strong and positive way.
24 As the prosecutor in Miami I'd pick up a
25 presentence investigation, look at three places
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1 along the line where we could have intervened to
2 have made a difference in that child's life. With
3 the feeling and the commitment in this room, with
4 your remarks, Governor, with everything coming
5 together in just such an effective summit, I think
6 we can hear ways that the government can respond
7 even more effectively in supporting your efforts to
8 give our children a future.
9 This is exciting. I worried when I came to
10 Washington that I would lose my sense of community,
11 that I would get enveloped by the beltway and never
12 get out. But from that meeting in June of 1993
13 when I came out to Salt Lake City and saw what you
14 were doing in terms of community and now from so
15 many other opportunities I have had, and this one
16 being one of the most special, I know I will never
17 lose my sense of community but I will just gain a
18 greater appreciation for the Salt Lake City's -- or
19 your newest city, I guess, Taylorsville, and I
20 guess other cities across this country and states
21 and rural areas that are making a difference
22 because people care.
23 Thank you for caring. (Applause)
24 ORRIN HATCH: Well, I can't tell you how
25 much your speach has meant to us today, yours and
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1 the governors, and I -- it was -- it is truly
2 wonderful to have you in that position responsive
3 to our needs and -- and responding to our needs as
4 much as you can today. But it's only the
5 beginning. We are going to make sure we do even
6 more.
7 I want to, again, express our appreciation
8 as Utahns to Janet Reno for her responsiveness to
9 these needs. We will explore these enhancements
10 that she's mentioned today in greater detail during
11 the -- during the federal perspective that we'll be
12 discussing here.
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