if billing which comes out the way the structure is told to me, i with support this, but i want to make sure that i read the language and make sure we are giving the president the down payment he needs while he still has the tools to finish the job through, because the democrats will not allow it to go all the way. thank you very much. announcer: tonight on c-span, we theed to molly o'toole negotiations over border security funding. then a hearing on venezuela. and the president meets with the duque.an president, ivan

host: this is molly o'toole. good morning. can you tell us where we are at currently when it comes to the negotiations over border security? guest: monday night, we had a preliminary deal that emerged. some details of her the last couple days. ones, $1.35 the big billion for 55 miles of wall. there had been a major impasse over detention beds. in the end, it seems democrats dropped their proposed cap on the number of people that immigration agencies can detain. that cap was dropped. a lot of posturing in the last one he four hours or so. dropped.was a lot of posturing in the last one he four hours or so. liberal democrats and the president's republican allies saying they cannot stomach this bill. once the language is hammered

out, that's when we see the tensions emerge. host: what is the policy? guest: generally, when we are talking about detention beds, it's how immigration agencies measure the space they have for people to hold. debate emerged -- what it comes down to is democrats who think the immigration agencies should be focusing limited resources on the most dangerous offenders,iolent focus on them first for deportation, whereas republicans criticized the obama administration for this so-called catch and release, not enforcing the law. discretion and tended to focus on the immigrants with criminal records .

that's really the tension. democrats in the funding negotiation were trying to place a hard cap on the number of people that immigration agencies could detain. they were initially going for 35,000. they have settled at about 40,000, which is where the funding levels were before. guest: how do these numbers -- host: how do these numbers get developed? guest: they are supposed to be informed by the agencies themselves. they've done modeling based on immigration levels, the detention space they know they have. detention space has been an issue for some time now. the levels that they were funded at before was that 40,500 number. ice is currently holding around 48,000-49,000. they've been routinely exceeding the funding provided to them thatgh congress, treating

number as a bottom rather than a ceiling. the democrats were trying to turn that funding number into a hard cap. agenciesration shouldn't be exceeding the funding that congress has given them, but that's what's been happening. host: that number would go from 35,520.o guest: they argued they would to really focus their efforts on the hardened criminals. republicans argue this would force them to release hardened criminals onto the streets. we had a lot of rhetoric going back and forth on this. in the end, they seem to have settled around this 40,000

number they mentioned before. over howimpasse was many ice specifically can detain in the interior of the country. we are talking about these workplace raids, people who've been in the country for a long time, interior enforcement, they were looking to put a hard cap on that at 16,500. that proposal appears to have been dropped. host: republicans were looking for an increase in the number of beds to 52,000. guest: the white house has requested around 52,000. that's what we've had ice officials saying they needed to do their job. right now, they are holding around 40,000-49,000 overall. host: a discussion about

detention beds with molly o'toole of the los angeles times. republicans.for 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8002. once someone gets a detention bed, how long can they stay there? guest: we have different populations. when we are talking about immigration detention, we are not talking about undocumented youth. there are restrictions on how they can be held. they are moved into shelters that are specific for youth. families is another one. there are court cases that dictate children can only be held for a certain amount of time. family detention is something different. thate talking about adults

can be held for a long period of time. there are currently hunger strikes going on among some people being held in ice detention who are asylum-seekers. there are options generally where they can be term called paroled where they can be released awaiting their proceedings. there's a backlog in the united states. the trump administration has discouraged people being released while awaiting their proceedings. some of these asylum-seekers have broken no laws and are trying to claim refuge in the united states. these are the different populations we have to be careful about who we are referring to. host: john from pennsylvania, republican line. our first call for molly o'toole of "the los angeles times." caller: california spends over $20 billion to take care of illegals.

texas bends over $10 billion to take care of illegals. and you people, the democrats and liberals, are worried about $5.7 billion for a wall? that doesn't make sense. host: if someone gets a detention bed, what services are they entitled to? guest: there are laws in the united states about obligations you have to humanely detain someone. whichare some cases in there is overcrowding in federal detention facilities that are geared more towards immigration. takete contractors will detainees -- immigrants who are detained when there are limits. there could be many conversations that occur about government spending. when we talk about the wall and the $5.7 million for the wall, it should be noted that for

fiscal 2019, the trump administration only requested about $1.6 billion for the wall. that was to go to 66 miles of wall in texas. where these funding negotiations seem to have ended up, slightly less than that number for 10 miles fewer. this was the white house's initial request. then we had this dramatic jump up to $5.7 billion. people were questioning whether that $5.7 million is really necessary. -- $5.6 billion is really necessary. on bordere spend security is a valid question. you can see that dramatic jump that happened that led to the government shutdown and valid questions over which amount is necessary to ensure border security. host: when it comes to the itself, how much does this cost? guest: it is expensive.

that would be true whether you're talking about an immigrant population or prison population, it is expensive to detain people. democrats arguing that these people should not be detained if they don't have a criminal record. if you limit the amount of detention bed space, you are focusing resources on this population you might want to consider for deportation. isher than this dragnet that more expensive because you are detaining a larger number of people. host: ohio. democrats line. caller: how are you, pedro and molly? host: you are on. go ahead. caller: i would like to put together the green deal and this wall and immigration.

why can't we make it like ellis island, make the wall a housing can teach these asylum-seekers to speak english like we would like them to and check them out so that we know that their health is good. i could think of a few other things. the green deal -- guest: asylum-seekers have to go through an extremely stringent process. it is not an easy process by any means. asylum laws has you have to ,resent yourself at the border has a credible fear test -- twoum law says you have

present yourself at the border -- you have to present yourself at the border and pass a credible fear test. pasties fear screenings -- 10-20% pass these fear screenings. there's many legal proceedings. these central american migrants -- eleeing poverty salvador, honduras -- if you were in that situation, think of what that kin kind of documentan you would be bringing with you if you feed for your life. -- feared for your life. there is a pretty strict process

already for asylum-seekers. within a year, they have to apply for legal status, that would give them permission to work. there have been many studies that show that asylum-seekers in really benefit a lot and really contribute resources in many ways. they want to work, they want to torn english, they want adopt the united states as their home. twitter, this question -- guest: it depends on which population you are referring to. that is a little more complicated to answer. circumstances, it is not provided by the government, but they have access to -- they

can obtain their own legal counsel. they do have the right to do that. depending on population, it is not necessarily provided by the government. asylumances of getting are astronomically higher if you are able to obtain a lawyer and legal counsel. without it, there's very little chance that you can get asylum. particularly if your central american. -- if you are central american. host: from annapolis, democrats ryan -- minneapolis, democrats line, this is ryan. caller: i want to ask about that price tag for the wall. people tell me that is just a drop in the bucket. it doesn't seem like any border state district can come up with reason, any positive thing that can come from the wall.

most of the land is privately owned. there's some sensitive environmental reasons like the rio grande valley where certain endangered species would be affected. issues?u speak to these guest: definitely. i was just looking at this last night. see interesting to it all laid out. miles of border -- all of that will be in new mexico arizona, and west of el paso in texas. that lines up perfectly when you see the amount of federal lands versus private land along the border. state is texas. that's primarily because of these issues you mentioned. a lot of it is private land.

it's more difficult for the government to come in and ask people to sell their land. border, there's a lot of and by mental issues. -- a lot of environmental issues. some environmental groups have brought suit against the trump administration for border and for sector projects -- border infrastructure projects, arguing it could violate these in my mental laws and public thesecation laws -- environmental laws and public notification laws. the homeland security secretary can waive any environmental law if it is for the purpose of a border construction project. the trump administration has used that authority more than

any other president. times.ne it six from virginia, republican line, susan, go ahead. caller: good morning. hope everyone is doing well. ladyistening to this young -- the magnitude of the money, the numbers, the detentions, the people going on hunger strikes just take a- faraway look at the whole picture and it's a racket. the u.n. is pushing all of these people to the united states to crash our economy and to crash the united states.

it is a you employ dust u.n. ploy -- it is a u.n. ploy. guest: i have no evidence that the united nations is pushing migrants to the u.s. border. a are in the midst of historic refugee crisis worldwide. displacedmore people on the planet right now than at any other point in history. ii, which world war was the previous largest. generally speaking, the united states has been that has not seen any effects of that. we've seen the european crisis in 2015. the united states has been somewhat removed from that. there are record levels of violence, particularly outside of a war zone, in central

america, which is the primary country of origin for most of the migrants coming to the united states. a lot of improvements have been made in terms of violence. homicidesking about no one would be familiar with. poverty, conflicts, corruption, gang violence pushing people north. pushinge other factors people north. based on the way our laws are written, if someone presents themselves at the border and claims asylum, they are given a chance for those claims to be heard. the united nations is not pushing people north. there are a wide array of push factors resulting in people coming. the united states has a strong economy. there's some debate over whether

the way u.s. immigration laws are written, people understand that due to the backlog in immigration cases, if they present themselves at the border, they will be allowed to stay for some time, essentially until their cases are heard, or allowed to stay even longer. people in 2018 had who wereconvictions detainees. how does that compare to the total amount of immigrants detained? guest: it is difficult but important. we've heard the president talking about detention beds, we will have violent criminals released into american communities, the trump administration saying democrats

wanting murderers released into communities. when you look at the detained population, there are 54,000 criminal convictions. crossing the border is now treated as an administrative violation, as a criminal violation, a criminal act. some of those people will have things on the records. number, 54,000, some of those are immigration violations , a traffic stop. the most significant number within those criminal convictions are duis. trafficher drug immigration violations. when we have the president talking about murderers being it wasd on the streets, about 1600 convictions for

homicide. , ite that is a high number is a small fraction of the total that we are talking about. there are many studies that have consistently shown that immigrants commit crimes at a lesser rate than u.s. citizens. that is true for undocumented and documented immigrants. ratet crimes at a lesser and the border cities are among the safest in the entire united states. there's a lot of misinformation that fuels the political debate, but it's really important to understand that we are not talking about violent, serious criminals to a larger extent. host: this is molly o'toole with "the los angeles times." this is casey from maryland. independent line. caller: thank you, molly, for

what you just said. it's really wonderful what you just said. about not really talking -- to complete the wall donald trump wants to build would cost closer to $130 billion. the $5 billion as a down payment. -- is a down payment. it comes nowhere near the cost of the whole thing. border crossings have gone down consistently over the years. even before the trump administration. walls lead to more people staying in the country, which means the cost of taking care of immigrants or immigrant up.es

the wall actually increases the cost of dealing with issues related to border security. guest: a lot of really good points he made there. ifs important to note, lawmakers are in the middle of negotiations over a spending agreement to avert another shutdown, it's important to note the measurensions, most people use for illegal migrantson, how many order authorities are apprehending -- border authorities are apprehending, they have gone way down to historic lows. routinely more than one million every year. , it was around

500,000. we are about half of where we were. congress, new leaders. >> "washington journal" continues. host: this is molly o'toole. good morning. can you tell us where we are at currently when it comes to the negotiations over border security? aest: monday night, we had per luminary deal that emerge -- preliminary deal that emerged. $1.5 million for 55 miles of wall. there had been a major impasse over detention beds. democrats, it seems dropped their proposed cap on the number of people that immigration agencies can detain. dropped.was a lot of posturing in the last one he four hours or so. liberal democrats and the president's republican allies

saying they cannot stomach this bill. once the language is hammered out, that's when we see the tensions emerge. host: what is the policy? guest: generally, when we are talking about detention beds, it's how immigration agencies measure the space they have for people to hold. debate emerged -- what it comes down to is democrats who think the immigration agencies should be focusing limited resources on the most dangerous offenders,iolent focus on them first for deportation, whereas republicans criticized the obama administration for this so-called catch and release, not enforcing the law. discretion and

tended to focus on the immigrants with criminal records . that's really the tension. democrats in the funding negotiation were trying to place a hard cap on the number of people that immigration agencies could detain. they were initially going for 35,000. they have settled at about 40,000, which is where the funding levels were before. guest: how do these numbers -- host: how do these numbers get developed? guest: they are supposed to be informed by the agencies themselves. they've done modeling based on immigration levels, the detention space they know they have. detention space has been an issue for some time now. the levels that they were funded at before was that 40,500 number. ice is currently holding around 48,000-49,000.

they've been routinely exceeding the funding provided to them thatgh congress, treating number as a bottom rather than a ceiling. the democrats were trying to turn that funding number into a hard cap. agenciesration shouldn't be exceeding the funding that congress has given them, but that's what's been happening. host: that number would go from 35,520.o guest: they argued they would to really focus their efforts on the hardened criminals. republicans argue this would force them to release hardened criminals onto the streets. we had a lot of rhetoric going

back and forth on this. in the end, they seem to have settled around this 40,000 number they mentioned before. over howimpasse was many ice specifically can detain in the interior of the country. we are talking about these workplace raids, people who've been in the country for a long time, interior enforcement, they were looking to put a hard cap on that at 16,500. that proposal appears to have been dropped. host: republicans were looking for an increase in the number of beds to 52,000. guest: the white house has requested around 52,000. that's what we've had ice officials saying they needed to do their job. right now, they are holding

around 40,000-49,000 overall. host: a discussion about detention beds with molly o'toole of the los angeles times. republicans.for 202-748-8000 for democrats. announcer: we are going to break away from this and bring you the president from earlier today. [applause] president trump: i have a lot of friends in this room, thank you. a lot of powerful people sitting around that table. thank view everybody, thank you share of judge for your out --