Attorney General Jeff Sessions is assigning three more prosecutors to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland, part of a broader reallocation the Justice Department announced Friday to confront violent crime, the Baltimore Sun reports. The announcement comes after Sessions held a press conference in Baltimore to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and international gangs. During the visit, Sessions mentioned the city’s homicides, which have reached over 300 for the third straight year.
Along with the northern district of Illinois, which includes Chicago, Maryland’s allocation of three new assistant U.S. attorneys represents the largest increase in the U.S. Sessions said 40 prosecutors would be deployed to 27 crime “hotbeds” nationwide, including in Islip, N.Y.; Detroit and Oakland. “These additional assistant United States Attorneys can make an immediate impact. I know, I have seen it firsthand,” said Sessions, who himself is a former U.S. Attorney in Alabama. “A committed [federal prosecutor] can supervise multiple investigations, which in turn can apprehend and dismantle multiple criminal organizations simultaneously,” he said. “That means fewer violent criminals on the streets and more concentration of resources on the bad actors who are left. That is how you reduce crime.” The Maryland district had 87 assistant U.S. attorneys before Friday’s announcement, according to the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys.