WASHINGTON _ Jeff Sessions was sworn in as U.S. attorney general at the White House on Thursday and promised to aggressively tackle violent crime, terrorism and illegal immigration.
A day after Sessions narrowly won a bitter and racially tinged Senate confirmation battle, the 70-year-old former senator from Alabama was greeted by applause from employees when he entered the Justice Department building.
Earlier, during his swearing-in ceremony, Sessions said he was concerned that growing crime posed a "permanent" risk to Americans.
"I wish the rise we are seeing in crime in America were some sort of aberration or a blip," Sessions said as he stood next to President Donald Trump. "My best judgment, having been involved in criminal law enforcement for many years, is that this is a dangerous, permanent trend that places the health and safety of Americans at risk."
Trump has repeatedly said the nation's murder rate is the worst in at least four decades, although statistics show that is not true.
Across the country, murder and violent crime rates are far below the record levels of the 1980s and 1990s. The nation's homicide rate in 2015, the last year for which statistics are available, was 4.9 per 100,000 people _ lower than every year between 1996 and 2009.
Homicides, however, have spiked in some cities, including Baltimore and Chicago. Killings rose in Los Angeles by about 5 percent in 2016.
Trump issued three executive orders Thursday that will direct resources to fight criminal organizations, establish a task force to study ways to reduce violent crime and direct the Justice Department to prevent violence against law enforcement officers.
Sessions was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump and became a close adviser during the campaign. On Thursday, Trump called Sessions uniquely qualified to be the nation's top law enforcement officer.
"Jeff understands that the job of attorney general is to serve and protect the people of the United States," Trump said. "And that is exactly what he will do and do better than anybody else can."
Sessions takes over after a particularly bruising confirmation battle for a sitting U.S. senator. It ended in a 52-47 vote, with only one Democrat crossing party lines to support him.
Democrats and civil rights advocates are particularly concerned with how Sessions, who was one of the Senate's most conservative members, will address civil liberties, immigration and environmental matters.
