Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks with Virginia first lady Suzanne Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares at the third annual human trafficking event, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (Fox News Digital)
"We were able to unpick [MS-13 gangs] from their phones," Youngkin said. "What we found was an immense network being run out of incarcerated criminals, and once the FBI tools and the Homeland Security tools and the state police tools could all be unleashed, in the FBI regional headquarters here in Northern Virginia, a map went up on the wall of the organization, and it's just like any other work chart."
Miyares said in an interview with Fox News Digital he made requests to the Biden administration for an interagency task force to address MS-13, Tren de Aragua and other gangs but that the requests were made "on deaf ears." He said that, by contrast, the Trump administration has acted quickly.
"It's not just drug trafficking. Human trafficking is a huge component of it.… Within 30 days, [the Trump administration] had both approved it and given us interagency space at the FBI field office in Manassas, a huge space where we had both federal, state and local law enforcement working together," Miyares said.
In March, the U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia announced the task force had made 342 arrests, "many of them with illegal status," and that 81 had "gang or transnational crime affiliation."
VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS CHOOSE NOMINEE TO CHALLENGE GOP ATTORNEY GENERAL JASON MIYARES
Attorney General Jason Miyares joins President Donald Trump during a rally at Greenbrier Farms on June 28, 2024, in Chesapeake, Virginia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey told Fox News Digital in an interview after the event that trafficking cases "all look so very different" but that foster children in his state were particularly susceptible. He said he hopes to harness artificial intelligence to use data across agencies to get a firmer grasp on the issue.
"I think the biggest next step is building these communication bridges between agencies.… Because once a kid is found, [police] need to know everything immediately, and it needs to all be in one centralized place so that a correct decision can be made very, very quickly," McCuskey said. "Because these things happen fast, and a kid's life can be ruined in a day and a half because an adult made the wrong decision based on bad intervention."
Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/youngkin-credits-trump-administration-with-bolstering-anti-trafficking-efforts