DHS Secretary Kristi Noem: Agreement With Chile Is 'Extremely Important To Track Criminals, Terrorists'

Forbes Breaking News

DHS Sec. Kristi Noem signs a data sharing agreement with Chile's Public Safety Minister Luis Cordero Vega in Santiago, Chile.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, thank you all for being here.

00:28My name is Kristi Noem, I'm the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

00:32And I want to say thank you to Minister Cordero for taking the time to meet with me.

00:36He and his team were extremely gracious to visit with us about background information,

00:41criminal activity, and sign an agreement of a letter of intent on the bitmap program,

00:46which has been very important to building networks of data sharing between countries

00:51that the United States has facilitated.

00:53Data sharing benefits everyone except those criminals and bad actors that may be producing

00:59or planning nefarious activities against our citizens.

01:03Today we moved much closer here with the beautiful country of Chile into signing a Biometric Identification

01:10Transnational Migration Alert Program.

01:13It's a memorandum of understanding that will help us build a process to where we express

01:17our mutual desire to continue our partnership.

01:20One day we will sign a full memo of understanding and this arrangement is going to serve as a

01:26bridge to help Chile and the United States work towards bringing criminals to justice and

01:31knowing who is in our countries perpetuating crimes.

01:35This increased cooperation between our countries is extremely important to track criminals, terrorists,

01:41and dangerous individuals who try to harm our citizens each and every day.

01:45America, Chile, and the entire Western Hemisphere will be safer because of these efforts and

01:50this builds on our work to protect our people each and every day from crimes committed by

01:54illegal aliens and nations across the Western Hemisphere.

01:58Now perhaps it's fitting that Minister Cordero was once named the best undergraduate professor

02:03at the University of the Chile Law School.

02:06He knows that knowledge is power.

02:08And with this program we'll bring more knowledge as to who is in his country, in the United

02:13States as well, and help us make sure we're protecting the law-abiding citizens that live

02:17there.

02:18Biometric data is crucial for vetting, tracking, and holding accountable the worst of the worst

02:23criminals who pose threats to nations and public safety.

02:27Now they'll be able to identify potentially dangerous individuals among illegal third-country aliens.

02:33And they'll use this capability in Chilean prisons as well.

02:38Chile's continued partnership with our visa waiver program is invaluable to our country, and we

02:45appreciate your partnership in that.

02:46Chile has made efforts to ensure compliance with the visa waiver program, and we're looking

02:51forward to enhancing that into the future as well.

02:54It also has helped us crack down on those individuals that are members of South American theft gangs, which we've

03:00heard so many stories and seen such an impact from.

03:04These criminal networks travel across South America to the U.S. to rob American citizens.

03:09In fact, one of these groups was caught in February in the United States.

03:13They flew to our country and broke into six different professional athletes' homes on their

03:18crime tourism spree.

03:20They're now facing charges in Florida.

03:22Many of them aren't even from Chile, but come through your country on their way to the United

03:27States.

03:28To help stop that, Chile has implemented pre-departure screening for U.S.-bound travelers.

03:34They've put in place enhanced information sharing through the Enhanced Biometric Security Partnership,

03:40dismantled some criminal networks.

03:41They've also collaborated on electronic vetting to prevent such groups and the theft that they

03:47would perpetuate from coming into the United States in the first place.

03:51Laws are only as strong as those who are willing to enforce them, and we appreciate the partnerships

03:56that we have built here in Chile.

03:58Thank you for the Minister for his time today, and I also want to thank you for enrolling in

04:03the Electronic Nationality Verification Program and our Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement

04:09Program.

04:10That information will be incredibly important as we go after these criminal activities.

04:16Today's meeting is much appreciated, and thank you for all of your time.

04:19God bless.

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