Children with their parents or how long those kids will be waiting. Well ask the chairman of the Senate Homeland security committee, ron johnson, next. And shifting blame. President trump keeps hammering democrats for the immigration chaos. Democrats put Illegal Immigrants before american citizens. But democratic lawmakers say these kids are being kept in prisons. These children especially are traumatized. Congresswoman barbara lee and senator Bernie Sanders respond in moments. Plus, kicked out, Sarah Sanders forced to leave a restaurant because of her political views. With political allies warning a cruel policy could sink the party, might republicans be missing out on more than meals come november . Hello, im jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is still confused, and concerned as more than 2,000 undocumented Migrant Children remain in custody, separated from their parents. The u. S. Government is finally releasing some guidelines on reunifying the families that it pulled apart at the border. Days after the president signed an executive order ending the practice. Late saturday, the Trump Administration released a plan for fixing the mess it created saying they know the location of all children and are working to reunite them with their parents but under these guidelines, the children may remain in custody until the parents deportation proceedings are complete, a process which we know can take months. Its unclear how the children will be linked ban to their parents. As families wait to be put back together, President Trump is giving himself a pat on the back, speaking in nevada, the president said his administration is, quote, doing a very good job handling the situation on the border and the president embraced hard line immigration policies as a winning political issue for republicans this november. I dont think being weak on the border, pathetically weak on the border, is a good issue. I may be wrong. I think i got elected largely because we are strong on the border. Joining me now is the chairman of the Senate Homeland security committee, republican ron johnson of wisconsin. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. I just mentioned that new guidance of the Trump Administration released last night, are you satisfied with the solution, or do you want the children to be reunited with their parents even more quickly . Good morning, jake. Well, the most recent information we have from dhs is they have reunited about 21 of those children that, you know, were separated from their families under this new enforcement policy. But you said that this is a mess created by the Trump Administration. Jake, this mess goes back decades. And we really didnt have an ilLegal Immigration problem when we had the program in the 60s. We had sicircularity of immigrations. Farmer worker unions wanted that shut down. The flores decision, for example, really initiated in 1985, and so this is just a huge problem. We dont have the capacity to handle all unaccompanied children, all the family units now flooding our border, because of a host of judicial decisions, legal precedent and laws i think are wellintentioned but have negative unintended consequences that have created this these incentives for people to flood our borders. We dont have the capacity. This problem has been around for a long time. Absolutely, the problem of ilLegal Immigration has been around for decades and obviously President Trump inherited it. Im specifically referring to the policy of 100 family separation at the border taking the kids from the parents. Not the overall policy of ilLegal Immigration. Lets talk about the separation policy and the idea now that the Trump Administration wants to reunite the kids with their parents, a public defender involved in immigration hearings in el paso wrote in the Washington Post that one immigration judge was so upset about this process, he said in a hearing, quote, i cant understand this. If someone at the jail takes your wallet, they give you a receipt. They take your kids and you get nothing, not even a slip of paper, unquote. The Trump Administration said last night, they know where all the kids are, but theyre building out better databases to link parents and children. Can you tell our viewers this morning that the Trump Administration knows right now which kids belong with which parents . That is what theyre claiming. Again, they have reunited 21 . But jake, this is a mess. I want to show a chart. You know how much i like charts. Take a look at what might have caused this. Go back to 2008, 09, 10, 11. Prior to daca, president obama instituted childhood arrival. You can see the results. Since that point in time, over 200,000 unaccompanied children have come from Central America. In addition to that, you look at family units. We have more than 339,000 family units who have come in because of our laws, because of the way we treat them, it creates an incentive. If you total that up, its almost 900,000 individuals coming into this country illegally. 900 thousandths. We have Family Detention Centers with about 3,300 beds. We have adult i. C. E. Detention centers with about 23,000 beds. We dont have the capacity for hundreds of thousands of people trying to get into this country illegally. So we need to make that a legal process, but we have to fix our laws. We have to end those incentives, and what drives me nuts i come from the private sector. I manufacture i do problemsolving. We arent facing reality. Were not going back and really identifying the root cause. Nobody is admitting that laws of the past with good intentions are actually fueling this crisis. So until we actually are honest with ourselves and we really do address, end those legal loopholes, change the laws, secure our border, treat people with real humanity. What were trying to do is senator increase the number of immigration laws by 225 judges. Right now we have 350, 74 at the border. We need to increase that. The Trump Administration will come up with another 15,000 beds for family units. But none of this is easy. So i huhhear what youre say in terms of the overall problem. Now, you have relied your committee has relied on economist Michael Clemens at the center for Global Development for work. He says the main reason for the increase of undocumented immigrants crossing the border, including the undocumented the unaccompanied minors you referred to as the increase in violence in Central America, specifically guatemala, honduras, el salvador, not the daca policy. Is he wrong . Well, again, lets just take a look at the chart. You know, prior to that correlation is not causation, senator. Because of our insatiable demand for drugs, yes, they were destroyed prior to 2012. And in daca, we had 4,000 kids coming in from Central America. Now the average is 30,000. So i dont know, its a pretty strong correlation that might indicate causation, as well. So, again, there are many causes to this. Part of it is our insatiable demand for drugs. One of the reasons we have to secure our border is because drugs and heroin is flowing over the unsecured border. We have to secure our border. President trump is trying to grapple with that reality, unlike president obama, which basically instituted a catch and release program, fueling the price of families, as well. Can i just ask you, senator, are you confident that the Trump Administration has the data and will be able to reunite the remaining 80 of these 2,300 kids with their parents . Do you know that youre the chairman of the Homeland Security committee in the senate. You would know, theoretically, does the u. S. Government have the skills, do they have the information, to reunite these kids as First Lady Melania Trump says she wants to have happen . So they are saying they do. Well continue our oversight on that. The track record in the Prior Administration wasnt particularly good either. Weve held a hearing. Rob portman looked into the lack of coordination between dhs, with unaccompanied children, has to turn those unaccompanied children over to hhs within 72 hours. And they literally lost track of i think about youre talking about the Obama Administration. You keep talking about the Obama Administration. I know. This is within the Obama Administration, and then the Trump Administration trying to check on the sponsors and unaccompanied children that had been sent into hhs. So, again, jake, this is incredibly complex problem. Its primarily we have we dont have the capacity to handle this flood. So the goal of our policy, literally ought to be to reduce that flow, and theres we have history in terms of how to do this. Micha michael cherdoff, 31,000 brazilians, they called the operation texas hold em. They you know, they immediately apprehended the brazilians and sent them back home. The next year it was 1,500 brazilians, within three years less than a thousand. We learned from that. If you literally apprehend, quickly process and then return people, trying to get into this country illegally, it discourages. Thats not what we have been doing. We have been encouraging ilLegal Immigration. Is your Committee Going to hold hearings on the separation of 2,500 children from their parents . Is that something that you think that your committee should provide oversight over and try to find out more about . Well, right now were providing oversight by getting information from dhs and were on the case. Weve held over two dozen hearings on some aspect of our unsecured border. Im looking at producing peace legislation myself that might come through our jurisdiction as opposed to judiciary committee, as well. A bunch of us are working on this. This is a problem we all want to fix, but we have to do the root cause analysis. We cant rely on demagoguery, cant look at just, you know, all the rhetoric around this thing. We actually have to look at facts. We have to actually solve the problem, which we have not done. One of the things we have done in those hearings is i go back to 1986 and i listen to about six or seven laws passed to fix the problem. And then alongside those laws i list the number of people in this country illegally and it goes from 3. 5 million to 6 to 9 to 10 to 11 to 12 Million People in this country illegally. We have never fixed this problem since the mid 80s. We have to go back in history, what fueled this, what caused it and actually address those root causes which we dont do very well in congress. President trump tweeted friday morning, republicans should stop wasting their time on immigration until after we elect more congressmen and women in november. Dems are playing games and wont do anything to solve this problem. We can pass great legislation after the red wave, unquote. Do you agree with the president . You say you want comprehensive Immigration Reform. President trump just threw a grenade into the works there. Well, im going to keep working on it. Ill work in good faith with the members of my committee. We really have a pretty nonpartisan committee. We pass all kinds of peaceful legislation. Ill work with Ranking MemberClaire Mccaskill and heidi heitkamp, and hopefully individuals that want to solve the problem. Ive got a good track record doing that. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time this morning. President trump says victims of undocumented violence are permanently separated from their families and the democrats dont want to hear about that. Senator Bernie Sanders is here to respond, next. If you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months,. With reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. Otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Tell your doctor if these occur. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Now that im on my way do you still think im crazy standing here today i couldnt make you love me applebees 2 for 20, now with steak. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. A hilton getaway means you get more because. You get another day in paradise. Get a sunset on a sunday. Get more stories to share. Get more from your Summer Getaway with exclusive hilton offers. Book yours, only at hilton. Com at t gives you more for your thing. Your getting serious thing. That moving out of the friend zone, moving in together and getting two of everything thing. Those fur babies preparing you for real babies thing. That one for me, one for you, us together for the rest of everything. Buy one iphone 8 and get one iphone 8 on us. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Visit att dot com. Its the one thats true to you and your skin. Its perfect for me. True match goes beyond shade matching to skin matching. So blendable, its like you cant tell where your foundation ends, and your skin begins. 3 undertones. 45 shades. True match. From loreal paris. vo is ahhhmazing ful simple goodness meaty morsels. A tender texture. With real meat and a blend of peas and carrots i can see. A totally new kind of awesome going on here avo new beneful simple goodness. Tender, meaty morsels with real ingredients you can see. A book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today welcome back to state of the union, im jake tapper. President trump is trying to turn the conversation, saying democrats want to protect undocumented immigrants more than american citizens. He tweeted just a few minutes ago, quote, democrats, fix the laws. Dont resist. We are doing a far better job than bush and obama, but we need strength and security at the border. Cannot accept all of the people trying to break into our country. Strong borders, no crime. Joining me now to respond, independent senator Bernie Sanders of vermont who caucuses with the democrats. Senator, thank you so much for joining us. Youre in the minority in the in the, youre in the minority in the house. You dont hold the white house when it comes to immigration. What specifically are democrats willing to compromise on . Well, jake, the problem we have is we have a president who is not serious about policy. A president who lies every single day. A president who told us that he couldnt do anything about ripping children from the arms of their mothers and it had to be in congress and two days later passed an executive order. Thats the first problem we have. Clearly, anyone who looks at the record understands that the democrats in congress have been serious about comprehensive Immigration Reform. Thats what the American People want. And a path towards citizenship for people who are undocumented. Democrats are serious about dealing with the daca crisis in this country. 80 of the American People think we should provide legal status to the people in the daca program. These young people raised in the United States in school, working, are now fearful about being deported. So what we need is comprehensive Immigration Reform. We need obama, we need trump now to make it clear that the United States of america is not a nation which tears children from their parents. But senator then we need to get about dealing with comprehensive Immigration Reform. I didnt hear you say anything about there that youre willing to compromise on. For example, in exchange for or as part as a larger legislative package on Immigration Reform that includes the steps you just outlined, would you be willing to support a border wall, for example . Would you be willing to go to a merrittbased immigration system . Jake, i held my nose and very reluctantly voted for some money for a border wall. Thats what we voted for. We couldnt get even that legislation passed, because it protected the young people in daca, we had minimal amount of republican support. But let us be very clear. What the president is now trying to do is to divide the American People up, whether it is in this case immigration, whether it is the needs of africanamericans, whether it is the needs of minorities in general. What hes trying to do is divide us up and not focusing on the impact of American People. Immigration is a very important people. So is the rising cost of health care.