Trump hosts roundtable on efforts to thwart cartels, human trafficking operations: Inherited a 'disgrace'

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President Donald Trump held a roundtable with law enforcement and administration officials Thursday to discuss the successes of the Homeland Security Task Forces, which the president established on his first day in office to snuff out threats from criminal cartels in the U.S.

"We're here today to discuss a sweeping, unprecedented, and historically successful operation that my administration has carried out in recent weeks to arrest, prosecute and permanently remove members of foreign drug cartels from American soil," Trump said as he addressed the group Thursday. "And the people gathered around this table are the ones that are doing it," 

Trump established the creation of Homeland Security Task Forces Jan. 20 — his first day back in office — via executive order, "Protecting the American People from Invasion." The executive order directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to establish such task forces in each state as part of the administration's efforts to thwart cartels and human trafficking networks operating on U.S. soil. 

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President Donald Trump is slated to hold a roundtable with administration officials to discuss updates on the Homeland Security Task Forces. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The executive order specifically directed the task forces to "end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations throughout the United States, dismantle cross-border human smuggling and trafficking networks, end the scourge of human smuggling and trafficking, with a particular focus on such offenses involving children, and ensure the use of all available law enforcement tools to faithfully execute the immigration laws of the United States."

"It should now be clear to the entire world that the cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere," Trump said Thursday. "In addition to their monstrous violence, such as cutting off heads, burning their enemies alive, and burning innocent people alive, too, by the way. They maintain vast arsenals of weapons and soldiers, and they use extortion, murder, kidnaping to exercise political and economic control. Thank you very much, Joe Biden, for allowing that to happen. Biden surrendered the … I mean, he just surrendered our country to the cartels. Don't worry. We'll take it gets better. We're taking it back." 

"What we inherited was just a disgrace," he added. 

Administration officials and law enforcement joined Trump to provide updates on the task forces' efforts. 

The roundtable was joined by Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, Noem, Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

The task forces are led by the FBI and ICE, and include members from the Department of Justice, the Department of War, the Department of Homeland Security, the intelligence community, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals, and state and local law enforcement agencies.

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A January executive order directed Attorney General Pam Bondi, here, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to establish such task forces in each state as part of the administration's efforts to thwart cartels and human trafficking networks operating on U.S. soil.  (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital, which first reported details of the roundtable, learned that the task forces nationwide became fully operational at the end of August and have yielded thousands of arrests, and the removal of dangerous drugs and illegal firearms from U.S. streets. 

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More than 3,000 foreign terrorists and cartel members were arrested as part of the task forces' operations, including members of notoriously dangerous gangs such as the Sinaloa cartel, MS-13 and Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Genaracion, Fox News Digital learned. 

"The President’s Homeland Security Task Forces are a landmark achievement that highlight what the federal government can achieve with a leader like President Trump who is willing to slash red tape, increase coordination and put the safety of the American people first," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital of the event. 

"In a short period of time, the Trump Administration has removed lethal drugs, illegal weapons, dangerous foreign terrorists and cartel members from American communities," she added. "The American people are safer today because of the HSTFs — and they’re just getting started." 

President Donald Trump hosted a roundtable at the White House Oct. 23, 2025, with law enforcement and administration officials, like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. (Mark Schiefelbein/The Associated Press)

The task forces also have recovered 2 million fentanyl pills and nearly 70 tons of other deadly narcotics, seized $3 million in currency and removed more than 1,000 illegal guns from U.S. communities. 

"In a matter of weeks, the task force has made the largest number of arrests of cartel leaders, operatives and gang members in American history. More than 3000 and counting. …  These are in addition to the massive numbers of dangerous criminals my administration arrested nationwide since January 20th, numbering over 120,000 to record and 120,000 criminal arrests. Thank you very much," Trump said during the roundtable. 

Trump thanked task force members throughout his remarks, adding that "we're going to not stop until the threat has been fully and completely eradicated."

Trump campaigned, in part, on removing violent illegal immigrants and crime from U.S. communities, spotlighting the efforts in his address before Congress back in March 2025. 

"The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control. They have total control over a whole nation. posing a grave threat to our national security," Trump said at the time. "The cartels are waging war in America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels."

The roundtable came as the U.S. military carries out strikes on suspected drug cartel vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. The strikes began in September and are part of Trump’s broader effort to dismantle transnational cartels by force.

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Trump held a similar roundtable at the White House earlier in October, inviting independent journalists who have experienced Antifa's violence firsthand to speak about their experiences as the administration targets the left-wing group's protests outside immigration facilities and recently designating it a "domestic terrorist organization."