Continuing his tour of the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Department of Justice has hired dozens of new immigration judges to get through a backlog of illegal alien cases left over by the Obama administration.

"We have now streamlined the immigration judge hiring process and to deal with the large backlog of immigration cases from the prior Administration, we will be bringing an additional 50 immigration judges online this year and 75 more next year – we will attack this backlog and see these cases adjudicated," Sessions said. "We will maintain our borders, we will enforce Congress’ duly enacted laws, and we will protect our communities from the scourge of cartels and gangs. These are not merely aspirational words, but these are bedrock principals of sovereignty."

Sessions is in El Paso with Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, who bolstered the Trump administration's border and national security goals in a speech earlier this week.

"We are under attack from criminals who think their greed justifies raping young girls at knifepoint, dealing poison to our youth, or killing just for fun. We are under attack from people who hate us, hate our freedoms, hate our laws, hate our values, hate the way we simply live our lives. We are under attack from failed states, cyber-terrorists, vicious smugglers, and sadistic radicals. And we are under attack every single day. The threats are relentless," Kelly said. "We will never apologize for enforcing and upholding the law. We will never apologize for carrying out our mission. We will never apologize for making our country more secure. We ask for nothing more than respect and your support. We don’t do this for the thank yous—we do this keep America strong, secure, and free."