This is an emotional day for me as I see AG Sessions addressing the MS-13 gang violence crisis at the Federal Courthouse in Central Islip. So many connections and feelings wrapped up in this moment, and I'm enormously grateful for the national attention being focused on the suffering of the people of Brentwood and Islip.

For many years I've had to drive past twice a day the abandoned pyschiatric hospital in Brentwood which, it was recently discovered, was the burial ground of the MS-13 gang's victims. It's located next to an exit for the parkway and one must drive through the grounds down a rough, pothole-filled, unlit road to access the parkway. Many is the time I've clutched my rosary as I had to drive through on moonlit nights picking up my son from his college job. What's most egregious about the place is that there is a functioning mental hospital in the middle of decaying buildings and debris. I've complained to numerous authorities about this public disgrace, and the injustice this derelict institution is to the mental patients and surrounding community to no avail.

Rep. Peter King has been instrumental in bringing the federal government's attention to the out-of-control gang problem on Long Island. I was on his teleconference when a Brentwood mom tearfully begged him for his help to protect her from the gangs since she has been outspoken in her protest. I was so touched by her situation that I wrote and called the White House, asking them to come to Brentwood. Don't know if it helped, but maybe it did.

Last connection is that my son interned at the Federal courthouse where Jeff Sessions spoke today. It gives me great hope to know that my sons may someday be part of the legal process that returns law and order to our land so marauding crminals no longer feel free to "kill, rape, and control" (the official mantra of MS-13). No matter what other political issues exist, I think every American can breathe a sigh of relief that our POTUS and AG have delivered a death blow to this Satanic group.