Let me tell you, we got some bad people that are doing bad things. But when you read that ig report about how she got away with what she got away with. Its a disgrace. Its a total disgrace. Now, you ought to see the hear holdings that are right now on television but that folkings are being, you know, theyre going on to the mainstream fake news media. They want to focus on immigration because they want to keep the cameras away from the hearings. Because those hearings are not good for them. In fact, theyre a disaster for them. The whole thing is a scam. Its a scam. And whats happened is a disgrace. So we have a house thats getting ready to finalize an immigration package that theyre going to brief me on later and that im going to make changes to. We have one chance to get it right. We might as well get it right or lets just keep it going. But lets do it right. We have a chance. We want to solve this problem. We want to solve family separation. I dont want children taken away from parents. And when you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away. Now, we dont have to prosecute them, but then were not prosecuting them for coming in illegally. Thats not good. We want to end the border crisis by finally giving us the legal authorities and the resources to detain and remove illegal immigrant families all together and bring them back to their country. We have to bring them back to their country. Now, think of all that aid that we give some of these countries. Hundreds of millions of dollars we give to some of these countries. And they send them up. Well, im going to go, very shortly, for authorization that when countries abuse us by sending their people up, not their best, were not going to give any more aid to those countries. Why the hell should we . Why should we . [ applause ] this is a responsibility common sense approach. Remember, we need the democrats. People say oh, you have the majority. Well, in the senate, we have one. But you need 60. So well be at if we get 100 , well be at 51. So we need nine votes. We need 10, 12, 13 votes. We have to have democrat support. Because we need to go not just the majority unfortunately. Which we could get. We need to go to 60. 60 out of 100. We need democrat support. They dont want to give it. Because democrats love the open borders. Let the whole world come in. Come in, we have open borders. They view that possibly intel ge intelligently but its destroying our country. Because they cant win on their policies. Which are horrible. They found that out in the last president ial election. In fact, their only policy was donald trump is a bad guy, hes a bad person, vote against trump. They said it hundreds of million also s of dollars of n ads. I used to go home, i started hating myself. I say th i said, man, am i that bad . They never talk about tax cuts. By the way, they want to take away your tax cuts and they want to substantially increase your taxes. They didnt talk about crime. All they talked about was trump. When people got to the booth, they said, were going to vote democrat. Then said, what do they stand for . What do they stand for . They just say trump. No, im going with trump. And thats what happened. We got tremendous democrat support. Its a beautiful thing. That was some night. That was some night. But you have to stand for something. And you have to stand for safety and security of our country. We cant let people pour in. Theyve got to go through the process. Maybe its politically correct, maybe its not. We have to step separation of the families. But politically correct or not, we have a country that needs security, that needs safety that has to be protected. So were here today to talk about Small Business and the incredible progress were making as a country. We really have made unbelievable progress. And were making with the help and support of our wonderful friends at the nfib. And youve heard these numbers. If i would have said these numbers during the campaign, the fake news would have said this is the most ridiculous i wouldnt have said these numbers. I would have said half. Who would have known. As an example, you saw the poll that was recently taken. The most optimistic in history. Good afternoon to you. Craig melvin here in mcallen, texas. Less than ten miles from the border with mexico. More than 1, 700 miles from washington, d. C. Where President Trump appears to be wrapping up. His defense of his administrations immigration policies. We were listening for the president for some time talk about democrats, seeing undocumented folks as perhaps potential voters. Also President Trump spending some time talking about judges. Saying he didnt want to see any more Immigration Judges. He would much rather just see a secure border. Spent some time talking about ports of entry as well. Were going to do our best to unpack just a smidge of what we heard from President Trump there in just a moment. But mccowen, texas, is home of this countrys largest Immigration Processing Center right now. Which we can only show you from government issued video. It is here where the process starts that ends in the separation of children from their families. Children crying for parents and relatives can be heard on recordings secretly made at one Detention Center run by customs and border protection. Whats happening here, that is creating outrage across this country as the Trump Administration appears to stand by its policy. Casting blame on country. Were covering all angles of this developing story. Jacob is here with me. Gabe gutierrez is in mexico. Garrett haake on capitol hill. Maria teresa kumar, president of voter latino. And immigration activist tonya chavez is with me as well. Kristen welker is standing by for us in washington. Kristen, let me start with you, if we can. Walk us through some of what we heard from President Trump. Again, this appears to be, again, the president unplugged. Second time here in six or seven days. He is digging in, craig. Theres no doubt about that. This is a mounting controversy engolfing his administration. But hes not backing down. That is the message from the president based on those remarks that we all just heard from him. And a couple of headlines. I would tick through. The fact that the president really harkens back to the very First Political speech he ever gave, launching his campaign when he said mexicos sending, his words, criminals, rapists. You heard him revert back to some of that language. Essentially saying theyre not sending their best people to us. Threatening to pull any type of aid to countries which are not helping the u. S. Deal with what he sees as the biggest crisis at the border. What i think is significant about that is it underscores the fact this is an issue that energizes the president s base. This is why he launched his campaign. This is one of his signature issues. Hes going back to the basics when it comes to that despite all of the political pressure that he has been getting. Take a listen to a little bit more of what he had to say. Child smugglers exploit the loopholes and they gain illegal entry into the United States, putting countless children in danger on the perilous trek to the United States. They come up through mexico. Mexico does nothing for us. You hear it here, they do nothing for us. They could stop it. They have very, very strong laws. Try staying in mexico for a couple of days, see how long that lasts. The president , again, calling for broader Immigration Reform to fix what he has said are some of the loopholes that are creating this problem. The bottom line, the fact you had attorney general Jeff Sessions announcing this zero tolerance policy in may. Effectively saying were going to prosecute everyone who enters the u. S. Illegally. And thereby, if you are being prosecuted, and you come here with a child, you will be separated from that child while you are held in prison, while youre moved through the legal system in that capacity. A couple of other points, craig, that i think are worth noting. You brought up another comment from the president. The fact he said he doesnt necessarily want more judges to process these cases more quickly. Well, thats at the heart of a piece of legislation that senator ted cruz is floating, emergency legislation that would deal with this issue. That would essentially, he says, get rid of this problem. So the president taking aim at the crux of one of these emergency bills that are potentially emerging. I just spoke with a Senior Administration official who said, look, the president is willing to consider some of these immediate fixes that are coming to the forefront. He hate these images. He does want it to be dealt with. A little bit of mixed messages there on that point, craig. Kristen welker for us there at the white house, thank you. Do standby for me, if you can. I want to come to my panel here. Again, it should be noted that the president , while he was saying some things there that we know not to be true, that even some republicans have acknowledged publicly are not true, he was getting thunderous applause in that room. The president was being applauded, presumably for saying, you know, we dont need any more judges. We can never get them out. The people were eating this up, maria teresa. Is this the motivation . I mean, so many people have been trying to figure out why would President Trump be doing Something Like this. Why would he be enacting a policy like this . The images of children being separated from their parents. Is that it . I think he has no other policy working for him so this is how hes pivoting. What i find challenging is hes in a room of Small Business owners who desperately depend on workers of immigrant, of the labor of immigrants so its really a counterposition of how do you then go into the workplace and actually have a conversation with your employees when youre must judge backdrop of the president basically trying to say that immigrant labor is not abuse to this country. Lets be clear, whats happening right now at the border is more of a refugee crisis. People that are literally traversing two, three country, leaving absolute poverty and desperate situations and violence to get here and the process, and the president basically changed the rules on them. When he says he has to bring the democrats to the table. He has to bring the republicans to the table because right now mcconnell and ryan, they both control the calendars and theres two pieces of legislation that can stop this today. Jacob, you were covering this story long before all the cameras showed up. And many of our colleagues started to care about this story. Youve been here from the beginning. One of the things we talked about yesterday, you and i, and early today as well, this idea that weve seen the young men between 10 and 17. We havent seen the girls. We a sum thssume that some of t girls are being taken from their parents as well. We havent seen toddlers. Where are they . The answer is we cannot see them because we cannot get access to them. Weve asked over and over again. I asked today if we can get some photos at least inside these shelters where these young girls are being held and the toddlers are being held from the department of health and human services. I was offered photos from 2016 inside the shelters. I said no thank you, well be ready to talk about this when we can get a tour today and we can get photos from today. What the president said today, he said this is all loopholes in the immigration system. Yesterday he said it was the democratic policies. Every day were out here, 1,100 kids in this building and in this sector have been separated from their parent because of a policy that he put into place. Thats the only reason any of us are standing here today. Weve flown in from all over the country to talk about whats going on. Whats happening inside this building, more than anywhere else on the southern border. Its not because of loopholes or democrats. Its because of donald trump. Garrett haake is standing by for us on the hill. Gabe, im going to come to you next there in mexico. Garrett, we know that President Trump is going to be on the hill this evening. 5 30, talking to republican lawmakers. We know senator cruz, republican, from texas, has indicated hes introducing some emergency legislation to try to fix this problem. What more do we know about a legislative fix about a timetable for legislative fix . What are lawmakers there in washington saying about all of this . Craig, if the president wants a legislative fix on this, hes doing almost everything he possibly could to make that process more difficult. In the speech you just showed, he completely dunked on the cruz plan here, which starts with doubling the number of federal Immigration Judges that would be hired. That entire extended commentary from the president about not wanting more judges, wanting a border, seemed almost exclusively directed at that cruz plan, so so much for that. Hes coming here to talk to the house of representatives who are currently looking at two different pieces of broader immigration legislation that the white house, through its spokespeop spokespeople, have said the president would support. But also in the speech you just showed, you heard the president say he might want to make changes to those pieces of legislation. So that sets aside three of the more popular republican options. The other legislative option is floated by dianne feinstein, the democrat from california that would enforce a restoration of previous policy. Thats got every single democratic senator signed on. Its impossible to imagine a Republicancontrolled Congress taking a piece of legislation from one of the countrys most prominent liberal senators and forcing it through as a rebuke to their president. Thats a long way of saying the president s desire for a lejs la legislative solution continues to get more difficult. Talking to republican senators over the last few days, theyre getting more frustrated the president himself wont end this mess he has gotten them into. Gabe, again, Gabe Gutierrez is in mexico for us. Gabe, one of the one of the ideas here that has been expressed over the past few days is that this policy, this child separation policy, will in effect deter families from migrating illegally through this country. I know that is something you were talking to folks there in mexico about. What are they telling you about this idea, that this policy is going to act as a deterrent . Hi there, good afternoon. What were hearing here, it might not act as much of a deterrent. Theyre fleeing violence from central america. Were here in mexico at the border crossing. Its very busy right there. Were actually right on top of the rio grande right here to my right, your left. You can see it, this is where were at. People have been gathering here, asking for asylum. Im speaking with a young woman right here, elsie [ speaking Foreign Language ] shes from honduras she says. [ speaking Foreign Language ] she says shes waited here for three days. We were speaking just a little bit before we got on camera. She says it was a very desperate trip she made over here. She says she was fleeing a Domestic Violence situation back in her home country. This is the second time shes tried to make it in the u. S. She says she was deported one other time. She has two Young Children with her. One of them is 5 years. [ speaking Foreign Language ] she was telling me earlier that her young daughter was 5 years old and has a fever right now. Were just talking to her a short time ago. Im going to walk over there and show you a little bit. [ speaking Foreign Language ] she says she plans to be here as long as she can. Again, shes one of those thats asking for asylum. Another one we spoke with, her name is jennifer, were about to see her right now. We can see actually this is her young daughter, 5 years old. Shes been clutching this teddy bear for the last few hours. Shes a little shy right now. But shes got a great smile, ill tell you, we were just talking to her a little bit ago. Its been a very difficult ordeal for her and her child. She says shes been here since sunday. Doesnt know how long shes going to be here. Ill talk now with jennifer. She got visibly distraught when i asked her about this idea that people going into the United States could be separated from their children. She says under no circumstances would she allow that to happen. But its a very difficult situation because she doesnt want to cross over illegally. Shes here waiting for asylum and has been told to wait. Jennifer [ speaking Foreign Language ] how long she plans to be here [ speaking Foreign Language ] she says she doesnt know how long shes going to be here. She hasnt gotten any information. Shes here with her young with her young child. She says hes 3 years old. She said she came over from honduras. Earli earlier, she said it was a horrific ordeal because she was trying to come up from her home country. She paid a coyote to bring her to mexico. And has been waiting here since sunday asking for asylum. She got visibly distraught, craig, when i asked her, you know, if she were to decide to take that extra desperate step and cross over illegally and be separated from her kids, she just couldnt bear that thought. She did say she hadnt really given much thought to that. This is something that she didnt think of. Her main concern was fleeing honduras. This is the first time she says shes done it. Again, shes right here with her 3yearold son. So, craig, this is something that, you know, right now just a handful of people here. Were told by other immigration activists theres more than a dozen or so. We were in an Immigration Court earlier today where there were 28 people that were brought before a judge over in brownsville, texas, right across the border. And many say many of them say the same thing. Theyre here trying to get to the u. S. That some of them chose to cross over illegally