department of homeland security and the department of justice are doing to eradicate criminal organizations like ms-13. mr. herr will speak to the justice department's work first and then mr. homan will discuss the i.c.e. component and tom will stay and answer your questions. as always, i'd like to put out a friendly reminder for you guys to stay on topic and after that, i'll come back up to take your questions. thanks, guys. >> thank you, sarah. good afternoon. my name is robert herr. about five weeks ago i was sworn in as the principal associate deputy attorney general at the department of justice. in that role, i serve as the principal adviser to the deputy attorney general. i appreciate the chance to talk to you about the justice department's aggressive efforts to achieve this administration's goal of dismantling the trans-national gang, ms-13. as you all know, the president is traveling to long island tomorrow to talk about our fight to eradicate the violent threat of ms-13 and as we speak, the