attempt to undermine the laws of this country and the sovereignty of the united states. keeping them honest, there is no attempt to undermine the laws of the country. these migrants are seeking asylum. now you can disagree whether or not they should be granted that asylum, there is nothing unlawful about asking. international laws requires countries to hear their request. these migrants from from honduras guatemala and el salvador. still, the law is clear they have a right to try. pence also said this today. thanks to the leadership of president donald trump, we are protecting the american people by securing our southern border. and we are building a wall on the southern border of the united states of america. and let me make you a promise. when it co when it comes to the border
men from el salvador honduras guatemala, earned legal status through programs targeting central americans, fleeing civil wars natural disasters, others acknowledge they remain in the country illegally. they don t give names. they re not going to give you names. they have to give us the names. i have to say this we believe so strongly. i hired a very big contractor. one of the most prestigious and best in the world to build the building. it s their responsibility to make sure. doesn t the buck stop with you though? yes it does. your s paying their salary. absolutely. we have gone out of our way to make sure that everybody in that building is legal. and we do have some that were that became legal. wait a minute. we have some many i think that became frankly, me you, everybody. ultimately we were all sort unfortunate in the group of immigrants. right, but we have done that to the absolute letter of the law. we re very very careful. the washington post can go there and talk t
found more non-mexicans were apprehended at the border than mexicans. 259,000 compared to 229,000 mexicans. the number of mexican crossing into the u.s. has been on a steady decline since the year 2000 when over 1.6 million were apprehended by authorities. the changes in immigration patterns are partly due to the surge this year of unaccompanied children migrants from central america mostly a problem immigration analysts say could continue as rampant crime and violence in honduras guatemala and el salvador carry on. we ve been looking back at some stories we re most proud of here. today s story is from last month when ronan traveled to the u.s./mexico border and found undocumented immigrants and the u.s. border patrol agents they encounter both deal with an unclear legal situation when they meet at the border. so they don t receive legal
austin. another child saying that the journey was frightening. unaccompanied children isn t new. what s different now though is that the numbers have dramatically increased and almost all of them are coming not from mexico, but honduras guatemala and el salvador. they know we re going to give them paperwork and they will be set free into the united states. reporter: but it s a bit more complicated. each child s family background is investigated before they can be set free. so what s being done is the hundreds and hundreds of children who have arrived are being transported to the border patrol station in arizona where they are temporarily living. this picture from a local radio station shows children sleeping with thermal blankets and them being transported to military facilities in california, texas and oklahoma while their family ties get examined. senior administration officials say they are working as efficiently as possible, but