Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on the CPAC stage Wednesday with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and journalist Ben Ferguson for their "Verdict" podcast. Cruz said to the audience, "It is great to be back with CPAC. I have to tell you, CPAC this year, there is energy, there is excitement. It turns out winning doesn't suck!"
After introducing Bondi, Cruz said to her:
Well Pam, I'll tell you there is some good karma to being on this podcast at CPAC. Because the last guest we had at CPAC was someone named JD Vance, and he's done all right for himself!
Bondi was sworn in 15 days ago, and told Cruz, "It feels like 15 years." But in response to Cruz asking if there were any among the rank and file of the department who were relieved and grateful that the Department of Justice was coming back to its roots, Bondi responded, "A lot of 'em."
Cruz continued:
I believe you. Look, I spent four years hearing from AUSAs, assistant U.S. attorneys, hearing from FBI agents, hearing from men and women who believe in the rule of law and were horrified at the politicization of the FBI and the DOJ. So, I know for a lot of good, honorable, men and women who devoted their careers to defending the constitution, there is a lot of gratitude that they can get back to doing their job.
Bondi responded:
Their core function. And thanks to Donald J. Trump getting back in office. He gave us a clear directive: Make America Safe, and that is what we're gonna to do. To start with law enforcement agency, talking about [FBI Director] Kash [Patel]. These men and women didn't go to Quantico, they're not risking their lives to waste their time on all this politicization, and raiding Mar-a-Lago. Really?! Stopping. All of that is stopping. And we are returning them to their core function: fighting violent crime. And that's what the great majority of men and women in law enforcement: DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshalls, FBI as well as the incredible legal team at the justice department, that is what they want to do.
Bondi's directive to return to the core function is already reaping dividends. Bondi revived Joint Task Force Alpha, a coordination between DOJ, FBI, and DHS to target the illegal criminals and transnational crime facilitated by the open border policies of the past administration. Bondi announced a recent victory with the task force operation.
Joint Task Force Alpha, that we elevated once we came in office. It's with the Department of Justice and the FBI, and we work hand-in-hand with Homeland Security, [DHS Secretary] Kristi Noem is awesome, we all work so well together. Joint Task Force Alpha just made a huge arrest in Juarez, Mexico. They were headed to Texas, to El Paso: human smuggling. Yeah... huge. That's why we do what we do every day. That's why these agents risk their lives every single day. It's human smuggling, and a lot of children. A lot of children they're saying are safer because of this.
The action had just occurred on Wednesday, and Bondi announced it on the CPAC stage ahead of the press release. The release on the operation was issued on Thursday.
Last night, extensive bilateral cooperation between the United States and Mexico resulted in the Mexico Attorney General’s Office “Fiscalía General de la República” (FGR) conducting a significant enforcement operation to dismantle a prolific transnational alien smuggling organization operating in Juarez, Chihuahua, along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The targeted alien smuggling organization, a group based in Juarez, Mexico, utilizes smuggling corridors centered in the Anapra, Chihuahua/Santa Teresa, New Mexico area, employs Mexican nationals, many of whom are current and former members of various Mexico-based cartels, and is alleged to be responsible for illegally smuggling large numbers of individuals, including children, from Central America into El Paso, Texas. The criminal organization is also alleged to have kidnapped aliens seeking to enter the United States illegally and extorted their families for money before completing their smuggling journey. The enforcement operation included the execution of two arrest warrants in Mexico for alleged alien smugglers Brian Alan Torres Gonzalez and Soledad Morales Nava. Torres and Morales are Mexican citizens and will be prosecuted in Mexico in part with evidence provided by the United States.
Bondi said on Day One of her swearing-in, she issued 14 executive orders. Along with ending the weaponization, Bondi ordered that the full weight of law enforcement redirect and refocus on combatting illegal immigration and its requisite criminal elements.
“On her first day in office, the Attorney General directed the Department of Justice to prioritize efforts to achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and empowered Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA) to increase their contributions to this fight,” said Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s action by Mexican authorities is the latest example of how JTFA provides critical contributions to marshal the investigative and prosecutorial resources of the Department, and its law enforcement partners, to target human smugglers and enhance coordination in transnational law enforcement efforts to better combat these criminal organizations.”
Bondi talked more about the state of the southern border under Biden. She visited the border at Yuma, AZ in September of 2024 and described the horrors. "I saw firsthand there is nothing humanitarian that was happening at that border."
Bondi described rape trees, discarded passports, and single fighting-aged men who kept trafficking the same boys and girls in order to get across. Cruz asked Bondi about the risk that among the 12 million that have invaded our homeland, how many could be part of Hamas, Hezbollah, or of Palestinian or Islamic Jihad?
Bondi responded:
It's a huge risk, and we all know how bad it is now. And that's what Donald Trump is committed to do, is to take these people out of our country, to prosecute them, to deport them, to get them off our street. And that's what all of these law enforcement agencies are doing.