elected officials. the 00 p.m. eastern, hear story of a civil war told in 56 adelman of the american battlefield trust and sunday at 6:00 p.m., american to the ts takes you virginia museum of history and culture for an exhibit on history from an reconstruction through civil rights. tv special from fort monroe, point comfort, virginia, this weekend on history tv on c-span 3. joining us on the phone to xplain the proposal from the washington examiner, she covers homeland security issues for the publication. to you.ning >> good morning. >> good morning. could you explain this proposal trump administration and how it changes from the current policy. -- could you explain this proposal and how it changes from the current policy? 2015, a judge of the

central district of california ruled in a settlement that children in i.c.e. custody and any person with that child could not be held in custody more than 20 days. this is under the obama administration and at the time, you have families going through dockets seeking asylum being held 45 days, sometimes 90 days. the issue at hand was you cannot just indefinitely detain a family. now what we have is any family weather they present at a port and does not have documents or illegally crosses and says i have a credible fear of returning will be taken into custody and border patrol will process them, supposedly in 72 hours and hand them over to

i.c.e. who will decide this person gets deported or we will hold onto them. i.c.e. can only hold that family 20 days and they only have so much room to house families. the issue we have today is tens of thousands of families coming over the border every month. with i.c.e. unable to hold people 20 days, they are releasing people. i wrote a story last month saying since december, i.c.e. has released 218,000 people into the u.s. who arrived at the border with a family member. host: the headlines all use the word "indefinitely." if this proposal comes about, what is a realistic number to that term? guest: that is the thing we don't know yet, how long can people actually be held. is the trump administration going to surge immigration

judges and asylum officers and other necessary officials down to the border, uscis, immigration services can get through all of these cases? you have 900,000 cases waiting to be decided. anyone coming over today and claiming asylum is at the bottom of that list. we also don't know where people are going to be held. remember, these ice facilities are completely overwhelmed. they do not keep single adults in the same place they will keep me and my child, obviously. typically they would hold someone when they could, more than 20 days. they are not like border patrol stations, they have amenities. they are meant for longer-term -- i don't want to say detention, but it is the

tension. these are the questions we don't know yet and the interesting thing is dooley and castro had said -- julian castro said we should be searching them down to the portal -- border. you could see how there might be away way for democrats and republicans to work together on this. what is scaring them is the word indefinitely. how long is this actually going to take? i am sure there will be cases and exceptions where you see someone was held a very long period of time because you see patrol.n with border the trump administration is doing this so people don't feel like they can come in, apply for asylum, and take years to hear their case and wether they show up to court or not, remain in the u.s. indefinitely after

that. host: the trump administration put this proposal out -- one of the ideas was to keep families together in reaction to criticism they received over the treatment of some children. guest: exactly. that has been there point, it is going to keep children safe and families together. you remember during the zero-tolerance policy last spring, families came over together even seeking asylum, the parent would be referred for prosecution, therefore separating the two. right now, any family released from ice custody is together, so it is a very technical thing the administration is trying to play the high road on. it is saying if somebody wants to apply for asylum, they should keep the parent in custody or someone together, it is a very technical thing.

at the end of the day, they are right, families will stay together. it is a better way as opposed to they would not stay together. and be held in custody. host: walk us through the timeline. when does this proposal become policy? guest: they announced it yesterday and they have had about four years, the government in general, the obama and trump administration to put forward a final rule and that is what we have been working on. dhs has been working on this policy and the reason they have gone about it this way is congress has not gone about a legislative fix. you have heard plenty of lawmakers say congress needs to deal with this legislatively. to putve the authority

this regulation out there because the judge ordered it in 2015. the timeline is still blurry. we are not totally sure yet. certainly, it will start having a very quick effect. it looks like it will be rolled out soon. giaritelli covers homeland security, telling us about this proposal from the trump administration when it comes to the >> seth moulton announcing an end to his 2020 presidential campaign. at 10:00, and newsmakers with stephen law talking about efforts to keep the republican senate majority in 2020.

♪ >> c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, party claire, professor and author, was a soviet mole. the twisted life of david carr. he will hear to be talk about the russia influence on american politics. cassandra to be alexander discusses the history of the first africans arriving in in 6019.400 years ago be sure to watch c-span's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern sunday morning. join the discussion. >> next, oral argument from the u.s. court ofbe sure to watch 's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern sunday morning. appeals for the second circuit in a case concerning subpoenas from two house committees trying to obtain the financial records of president trump and his children. a lower court has already ruled in favor of the committee.