taking a trip down memory lane. michael wrote "when i get better, i'm going to catch bad guys." that wish came true. here's trace in for shep. >> trace: president trump making a move to stop his administration from continuing to split children and parents. after days of blaming democrats, he says he's going to sign something to solve the problem. we expect action any minute now. lawmakers say they want to keep families together. now they're preparing two votes on two different options. we'll explain how they would work. the russia investigation, the president's lawyer, rudy guliani, making accusations about a frame-up. if he says if that's the case, he will be darned if he will cooperate with robert mueller's team. that's ahead in this hour of "shepard smith reporting."

i'm trace gallagher in for shepard smith. after blaming democrats calling on congress to take action and insisting he couldn't fix the problem, president trump says he's taking action to keep immigrant children with their parents. >> we're going to keep families together but we still have to maintain toughness or our country will be overrun by people, by crime, by all of the things that we don't stand for that we don't want. >> trace: president trump insists he couldn't stop family separations himself and it was up to congress to solve the problem. >> you agree with children being taken away from their parents? >> no, i hate it. i hate it. the democrats have to change their law. it's their law. we need ten votes. we can't -- >> how about executive order? >> trace: the president's turn around comes over days of outrage over the zero tolerance

policy. it prosecutes parents for crossing illegally and takes away their children. mike emanuel is on capitol hill with more, but first let's get to john roberts. he's live on the north lawn. john? >> trace, good afternoon. we don't know what the president is going to do, whether this is a temporary fix or more permanent or last as long as someone goes to court seeking an injunction against it. we know the president will sign an executive order in the next few minutes to address the crisis on the border and families being separated and children being put into detention. the president has been pushing congress the last week to come up with a fix. the political pressure getting very high on the president. he has asked congress for a fix to this parental children separation problem as well as

new measures for security, including a wall a fix for daca and end of chain migration. the implementation of a rit-based system. the president said he needed to apartment after the firestorm was hospital. >> the republicans want security and insist on security for our country. we'll have that at the same time we have compassion, we want to keep families together. it's very important. i'll be signing something in a little while that will do that. the people in this ream want to do that and working on various pieces of legislation to get it i'll be doing something that is preem preemptive but ultimately imagined by legislation. >> under the zero tolerance policy enacted in april, everybody that crosses the border is subject to criminal prosecution, which means that adults could be kept in detention for many weeks if not

months. a 2015 court ruling from california district judge states that children can only be held in detention for 20 days before they have to be released. they would have to be turned over to a family member, a guardian or some sort of licensed care facility being run by an organization, probably hhs or some other organization. the president wants to keep children together with their parents throughout the entire immigration adjudication process because he thinks that like the obama administration did, where they released a lot of families after 20 days, that shows weakness and that is not a good signal to send to the rest hoff the world. listen here. >> you'll have millions of people flowing up. just overtaking the country. we're not letting that happen. so we have to be very strong on the border. at the same time, we want to be compassionate. if you're weak, like some people like you to be, if you're really

pathetically weak, the country will be overrun with millions of people. if you are strong, then you don't have any heart. it's a tough dilemma. perhaps i'd rather be strong. >> the potential problem, trace, and we don't know what the executive order the president is about to sign says, if he tries to keep children in detention with their parents longer than 20 days, that could run afoul of the judge's 2015 ruling. there's many people in the administration that believe the president is going to invite an instant lawsuit the second he puts pen to paper on that executive order. the american civil liberties union say children don't belong in jail at all even with their parents under any set of circumstances. if the president thinks placing family in jail indefinitely as what people have been acting for, he's grossly mistaken. trace? >> john, talking about feedback, the president has been hearing

from a lot of people on this issue, including first lady. >> yeah. the first lady's office said the other day that she thinks that america has to enforce the law but needs to do it with heart. she was imploring both sides of congress to come together on some sort of solution. according to an administration official, the first lady has been sharing her opinion with her husband for several day feeling it's important to do all he can to keep families together, whether through legislative action or something on his own. we see the president doing something on his own sometime this afternoon before he's supposed to leave for minnesota, which was supposed to be more than a half an hour ago. but again, somebody may go to court and seek and immediate injunction. we'll see how this unfolds. trace? >> the pool has been called to the white house. we expect for some reason, could be the executive signing of this order. we'll find out and bring that to

you as soon as it happens. president trump says he hopes congress will match his executive order with legislation. speaker ryan says the house plans to vote tomorrow. team fox coverage continues with the chief congressional correspondent, mike emanuel. he's live on capitol hill. mike? >> trace, good afternoon. the push is on to get at least 218 yes votes to consider both of the immigration bills that lawmakers will consider tomorrow night. so you have attorney general jeffessions and homeland security secretary kirstjen neilsen trying to win over republicans that may be on the fence or leaning for voting for these immigration plans. michael mccall from texas telling lawmakers the attorney general came and talked to lawmakers and said he supports both bills, the mccall goodlatte one. it's a strong station from the administration when the president came up and the attorney general came today. democrats are hammering away at the narrower issue about family

separation with a civil rights icon saying he's willing to be arrested again on this issue. >> the attorney general call and talked to us and says he supports both bills, both mccall goodlatte 1 and 2. so it's a strong statement from the administration when the president came yesterday and the attorney general came today. >> so that was chairman mccall on the other side you have john lewis saying he's willing to be arrested a again until he finds this issue very emotional. >> some of these young children may never ever see their mother on or their fathers again. it's not right. it's not fair. it's not just. >> there's intense pressure on house republican leadership to see if they can deliver 218 yes votes on one or more of these two bills they'll consider tomorrow night, trace. >> trace: and then there's the senate side of this, mike. >> that's right.

the senate is looking at more narrower proposals to address the issues of the family being separated at the border. california democrat dianne feinstein has offered a bill that all the democrats are on board with. senator john cornyn says congress must act. >> i would say that none of this reflects well on congress or the administration in terms of our inability to solve the problem. so we need to step up and do our job. but i also think what the democrats have proposed, which let's not enforce our immigration laws, let's just wave people through at the border, is not an answer either. >> and to the issue, the executive order is not enough. >> we don't have a process to reunite children with their parents. parents are being deported and who have kids that are not getting in. the congressional order,

executive action by republicans. the president needs to say i'm going to stop it. >> trace? >> yes, there's no pathway to legislation, mike emanuel, on capitol hill. there's no pathway to legislation. the president is planning on this stop gap measure, which is the executive order to keep the zero tolerance policy in effect but keep families together. the white house pool has been called to the white house.we have not confirmed it's for the signing of this executive order. we assume that's it and as soon as we get that, we have breaking news. the president has just signed this. the executive order just passed or just was signed by the president. we knew he was about to do this. we're now waiting tape playback of that signing. keep in mind, the deal here is the president has been getting pressure from all sides. we're talking about the pope,

international leaders, his wife to make this thing go away, to make sure that these kids are treated properly and their parents stay with them. so we're in the process now of trying to figure out how to keep parents and children together at the border. we're talking about tens of thousands of people over many, many months who are trying to get asylum. the way it works, you can still keep the zero tolerance policy in effect meaning that you would still charge them with a crime, the parents, and then you would put them into areas, into shelters where they're still together with their children. still with their children. the question becomes how long can they stay there? the law says 20 days. and then there's thousands behind them that also want to get into these shelters and there may not be room. as soon as we get this play back, we will show it to you. not even babies and toddlers are spared from the trump administration's zero tolerance

immigration policy. according to the associated press, officials keep the youngest kids in so-called tender age shelters. federal officials tell the a.p. staffers are trained to deal with young children. witnesses described rooms of crying kids in crisis. one of these facilities in combs texas, near the border. steve? >> the a.p. identified three tender age shelters in texas for children under 13 years of age. this is one of them here behind me. it's a ordinary two-story building with a playground, volleyball net, soccer nets. it's been raining heavily today. we weren't allowed in. we spoke to a physician that toured it. she made two points. on the one hand, she said it's not a jail. it has enough beds, cribs, toys, books and a caring staff. on the other hand, she said --

this is a pediatrician of 30 years experience -- that she had never seen anything like it. in her view, the kids were separated from their parents. you had about 15 toddlers in a room age 1-3. they weren't making a sound. she said it was very disturbing and hard not to rush in and help and comfort the children, trace. >> trace: steve, what can parents do to try to reunite with their kids? >> that's really been the whole goal of this. to keep the parents who are going through the legal system right now and the children at least in generally the same area to try to reunite them. they have dedicated hot lines and e-mails to try to do that keep in mind the obstacles, you have language barriers and illiteracy and a federal bureaucracy that is taxed to the limit. there's some reports of parents cribling names and addresses on children's clothing. the first lawsuit by a woman's 7-year-old was taken out of

state has already been filed. trace? >> steve, quickly, do you know the capacity of the building behind you? how many people can actually stay inside there? >> it's a two-story building. looks like 50 -- i'd be guessing at 50. as far as the toddlers, we're interested in the youngest. we have report there's 15 age 1 to 3 inside there despite murky records that children under 5 were not be separated at all. according to the physician here, at least 15 age 1 to 3 inside, trace. >> trace: steve harrigan live in combs, texas. we're about to get the play back of the president signing the executive order that will keep the zero tolerance policy in effect. it plays very good with his base. they love this. they love the fact that the president has promised to do this since he was on the call pain trail and following through.

as far as the p.r. battle, the white house lost it and when it comes to these pictures out of the places where steve harrigan is, it's very difficult to deal with. so the president is trying to placate both sides with this executive order but it's just a stop gap. we don't know the fallout and we don't know the solution and how this will happen. so the president, we'll show you signing. afterwards we'll talk about how you implement this with a limited number of beds in these facilities. here's the president. watch. >> thank you very much. we're signing an executive order. i consider it to be a very important executive order. it's about keeping families together while at the same time being sure that we have a very powerful, strong border and border security will be equal if not greater than previously. so we're going to have strong, very strong borders. we're going to keep the families

together. i didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated. it's a problems that gone on for many years through many administrations. we're working very hard on immigration. it's left out in the cold. people haven't dealt with it and we're dealing with it. so step by step, just like we don't with north korea, we dealt with iran, we dealt with an economy that was heading in the wrong direction, a lot of different problems, this is one that has been gone on for many decades. we're keeping families together and this will solve that problem. at the same time, we're keeping a very powerful border. it continues to be a zero tolerance. we have zero tolerance for people that enter our country illegally. with that, i'd ask mike pence, vice president, if he would like to say anything.

>> thank you, mr. president. i think what the president has made clear, we believe it's a choice between whether we're a country with law and order and a country with borders and demonstrates the compassion and the heart of the american people. by taking this action, the president will make it possible for us to continue to engage in edge forcing the law against individuals that violate our law, come in our country illegally. we will keep families together moving forward. we're calling on congress to change the laws in this regard and a broad range of areas that will security our borders and give us strength and confidence that we're once again going to take the steps necessary to end the crisis of illegal immigration. >> the word compassion comes into it but still equally as tough if not tougher. secretary nielsen? >> thanks for your leadership,

sir. we look forward and expect the house to act this beak. we ask them to do their jobs, this is a problem that president after president has dealt with for decades, this one is willing to stand up and fix it. we ask congress to do their part. thanks for your leadership. >> thank you. >> going to have a lot of happy people. >> this has been going on for 60 years. nobody has taken care of it. nobody has had the political courage to take care of it. we're going to. the border is just as tough. we do want to keep families together, this is a problem. if you look at some of those

horrible scenes from a few years ago, to me that were horrible scenes. just terrible. that was during the obama administration. other administrations have had the same thing. we're keeping the family together. so this is it. and also, there may be some litigation. we're want to go through congress. we will be going through congress. we're working on a much more comprehensive bill. a lot of good things are happening toward immigration and proper immigration. we want to see it done right. it will be done right. what we have done today is we are keeping families together. the borders are just as tough, just as strong. they can come in through ports of entry if they want. that's a different story. that's coming in through a process. the process is what we want. so i want to thank you very much.

thank you very much, everybody. >> [question inaudible] >> no, ivanka feels very about it. my wife feels strongly i feel strongly about it. anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it. we don't like to see families separated. at the same time, we don't want people coming into our country illegally, this takes care of the problem. thanks very much. >> trace: so there you have it. the executive order has been signed. the president saying he got pressure from his wife, got pressure from his daughter. the pope weighed in on this, international leaders. he's signed this. the executive order will keep these families together. it also keeps the zero tolerance policy in effect. they will still be criminally charging the adults that cross this border illegally, but the

hope is now to keep them all together in the various shelters. the president is right when he says it's been going on for decades. i began my career on the arizona border working on these cases. one of the stories back then is children being separated from families. i want to go back to john roberts. in theory, signing this thing, john, very easy and they think it's magical, but i've been done at the border 100 plus times. there's no room down there for these families in the interim. you say you're going to keep them together. one, they don't have the shelters to put them in and two, the legalities of this are steep. >> i'm at a loss to give any context or perspective to, this i have no clue what the order says. the president sits down, puts pen to paper saying this is going to keep families together but we're going to continue to pursue a zero tolerance policy. doing this executive order say

the children will be detained along with their parents for an indefinite period of time? does this take us back to obama administration policies, which i doubt it does, where people are held with their children for 20 days and then released to the general population in the united states along with an order to appear in court at a future date? does it say something else? if it does say the former, which is that children can be held indefinitely in detention with their parents, you can beat in a heartbeat the american civil liberties union that the californian district, in the ninth circuit court of appeals to say this runs afoul of a ruling that you issued in july of 2015 where you stated that children could only be held at dhs facilities with their parents for a period of 20 days.

so it may be very soon there's a court blessed injunction of the impositi o this order. wouldn't be the first time that that has happened. if it's the latter where the president is going to abide by the judge's order of 2015 and hold these children with their parents and dhs detention for 20 days and release them, that will prompt the cry from his base. so i'm sorry to say that i'm a little clueless as to exactly what the president has said he's going to do. because we do not yet have the text of this executive order. sothis point, trace, we're only guessing. no and to piggyback on the point, if he goes back to the bomb -- obama era policy where they were released to the general public and the statistics of the homeland security, more than 90% never come back, that would infuriate

the president's base. the question becomes, in the meantime what happens today? nobody knows. we don't know what the executive order said one and we don't know what happens on the ground. we don't know if kirstjen nielsen says start rounding these people up and put them together and the question is where. most of these are private facilities, nonprofits and that's where you come to a problem with where do you put these people and we are we going to get the answers to where they go? >> secretary of defense james mattis said that military facilities may be offered up to house these people if the president asks for it. there's so many unknowns in this. to your point, the reason why the president implemented and the attorney general implemented this zero tolerance policy is -- i talked to the secretary of homeland security, kirstjen nielsen about this, a couple months ago. i said the people given these orders to appear in court a a

future date, how many of them show up for their court date? she said the statistics show about 3%. that means that 97% of people that are released after being detained as family units disappeared into the american landscape. so that's what the presidents trying to avoid. yesterday he said that some 500,000 family units have disappeared in the united states after entering this country illegally. he is trying to put pressure on congress to come up with a legislative fix. congress is going to take up a couple bills today. we don't even know if they'll pass the house, trace, let alone getting through the senate. secretary of homeland security suggested to the president, if the bills don't pass, maybe you have to do a stand-alone loop hole bill to address this family situation. the president was asked about that earlier today. he said we'll see. so a lot of things under consideration right now. i will tell you, if this executive order directs dhs to keep holding these families

together for a period of longer than 20 days, the president will find himself in court within minutes no question about that. >> trace: they're already screaming john roberts. thanks for your perspective. i want to bring in jerry from our corporate cousin, the "wall street journal." the aclu is already lining up. already going to file lawsuits. they won't be happy with this. this will do things that one, can you imagine the optics of loading a bunch of these families in military bases and keeping them in perpetuity? >> the opticses of this are terrible. maybe disastrous would be a better word. this is not the ultimate fix. it's more likely than not congress will have to do something. they're going to try tomorrow to do a comprehensive immigration bill in the house. one of two bills in the house. chances are good they won't get

either of them through because conservatives like one and not the other. then they will try to pass a stop gap measure. maybe that will put into effect a legal way what the president's order can't do. that doesn't answer the practical problems. how do you do this? so i think we're at the beginning of a long road here. >> i just want to point out, the president is about to go to minnesota, jump on air force one and go for a rally that he's holding there. he just signed this executive order and going back to your point, jerry, talking about what will happen on the ground and what will happen in congress. if you're a democrat right now and you see the children that looks very uncomfortable and in some cases crying, this is one of those things that you want, this is a victory for them, this is one of those things where they're coming out and really helping them, you know, to get what they want in these

immigration bills. why would they come to the table in? why compromise when they appear to be winning? >> i'm not sure this is what anybody wants. that is what we have learned. i don't think that's the case. this is an element of the immigration issue that is generating intsity at the base of both parties. the trump administration to some extent, some of the president's supporters think the discussion is about immigration, it's good for them even if it's a controversy because generates support where they want to president to take on this issue. democrats realize unless there's a comprehensive bill that solves the problem of the dreamers, there's excitement in their business. the closer you get to a mid-term, the harder it is to find the compromise. >> trace: i didn't mean by any stretch that we want the kids to be in the shelters. i mean that the democrats know

that this will have to back to the obama era policies where the people are given court summons and told here's the deal. we can only keep you 20 days. we don't have the room. so here's your court date. come back on this date. as john roberts said, 97% of them won't. so essence, the democrats are saying that's what we want. >> perhaps. perhaps the families will be kept in detention for whatever period of time it takes. you raise the question, how do you do that? nobody has ever figured it out. nobody has tried that. so you know, i think we have here kind of a problem that is just emerged on the national scene and going to be the subject of national debate for some time to come, i think. >> yeah, really does. talks about the pictures. we covered how many hurricanes that people need shelter, places to go. the government is not good at that. they don't handle that stuff very well. now you're talking about thousands that need shelter, being together in families.

not just shelter, you need care, you need food. you need other things that the government as a rule has president historically done a good job of providing. >> that's true. it's worth noting here, one of the things that popped up in the last 24 to 48 hours is a push back from the business community, where you had the chamber of commerce and the business roundtable thing, let's not do this. airlines saying we're not going to carry undocumented children in our airlines anymore. don't ask us to. >> yeah. gerry, thanks very much. we talked about the top of this before john roberts got on that he couldn't add a lot of context and perspective because he didn't know what was in the executive order. well now john roberts has gotten a little more insight into what is in this executive order. john, take it away. >> good afternoon again, trace. we have the text of the executive order. my initial speculation is pretty

accurate. here's the two key points here. temporary detention policy for families entering this country illegally. the secretary of homeland security shall to the extend permitted by law and subject to appropriations maintain custody of alien families during the pendency of any criminal improper entry or immigration proceedings involving their members. in other words, the president wants children health together with their parents during the duration of the immigration adjudication process regardless of how long that is. now, that would run afoul as we talked earlier of judge dolly gee's 2015 court order saying you can hold them 20 days. this relates to the flores v. reno case, which was a dissent decree. however, the president is going

to appeal the judge's opinion. they want the modified settlement agreement in a matter that would let the secretary to detain alien families together throughout the pendency of criminal proceedings. the president is giving dhs authorization to hold families together in detention for as long as necessary and at the same time going the district judge in california to say can you please modify this particular provision in the 1997 consent decree to allow this to happen. judge gee may say, what are you kidding me? forget it. if she doesn't, then the aclu and other folks might step in and say, you know, you can't do this. this runs afoul of the law. the other provision here that we should point out, the president is also directing the secretary

of defense, james mattis to make available u.s. military facilities to house these people. that's how it's all going to work together. the president giving dhs the authorization to hold family units together as long as is necessary, go to the district court in california asking for permission to do it and directing the secretary of defense to make available enough facilities to house these people. again, it all hinges on whether judge gee does modify that concert decree. if she doesn't, this is off. trace? >> trace: let's assume for the sake of argument that she did sides, okay, fine. we'll play it your wear. as general mattis said, we're going to put these people in military bases. can you imagine the optics of that? the outcry if you have children in the immigration detention centers. what is the outcry going to be when you send them to u.s. military bases in perpetuity?

>> clearly opponents of this policy will make hay out of that. general mattis pointed out that facilities have been used in the past to house refugees, victims from natural disasters. that sort of thing. anybody that is in the military knows the facilities are not the four seasons, you know, they're comfortable as well. so i don't think there's going to be a problem with the quality of car. you'll have opponents that have raised a cry about it. as to whether or not any of this can happen really hinges on that paragraph that i read you about jeff sessions, the attorney general going to the judge and say please modify this consent decrease. if she agrees to it. groups will be going to the ninth circuit court of appeals seeking an injunction against it. the president is just hoping in the time all of this takes to work its way through, congress

does something about it. pulls this thing out of the fire and everybody moving on with their lives. we'll see. >> trace: i don't want you to put your chief congressional correspondent hat on here. can you gauge it for us? it doesn't appear there's an easy pathway for legislation on this any time soon. is that a fair assessment? >> yeah, i don't think there's an easy pathway to much legislation on capitol hill, particularly in an election year. we don't know if this will path muster with house republicans let an lone the senate. that's we kirstjen nielsen is also urging the president to say, you know, if these bills fail, then we have to consider this idea of stand-alone legislation that could attract bipartisan support to fix this family separation deal. the president may have to end up eating it. i'm not sure at this point this is still a very fluid situation.

if the president doesn't get everything he's looking for from the house bills, which includes family separation issue, daca, money for the wall, border security, chain migration, he may be left with very little on his plate to be able to agree to. >> a fair assessment. john roberts live on the north lawn. stand by if you want.

a and the administration finally says, okay, let them all out and let's hope -- >> you're right. that's where we're heading into a voyage of unknown. what john said a minute ago, which is ultimately this is going to come down to a question of whether congress can pass legislation in the next week or two that basically puts a legal stamp from lawmakers, not from judges or from executive branch officials on the process that ought to be followed here. i don't know if that can happen. that may be the only way to get passed the legal questions that will arise almost immediately. can that happen? maybe in the house.

but the senate? it's tough. >> trace: thanks, gerry. this is joint base andrews. the president is on his way to minneapolis for a rally. he lost minnesota to hillary clinton, but it was close. they're hoping maybe now they can swing it. i want to bring in chad pergram. he can give us insight whether or not there is a pathway to legislation in the near future that could put this whole executive order thing to rest. chad pergram, what is your take what's going on in capitol hill? >> there's two bills on the house floor tomorrow. there's a conservative bill authored by bob goodlatte and then there's the leadership bill, the so-called compromise bill. in the next couple minutes, kirstjen nielsen, the secretary of homeland security is going to meet with a group of two dozen republicans in the base of the

capitol. she was called here by steve scalise. i asked steve when he returns from the white house, they bussed some members down to the white house to cajole them to vote for this bowl. i said apparently the president didn't close the deal. that's the problem. steve scalise says they need to work through some of the issues. one member of congress i spoke with, a republican that is supportive of the president described his arguing for the bill on a 6 of 1-10. keep in mind what is in this bill. there's full funding for the border wall. this is an appropriation. real money. $25 billion. i talked with one senior republican leadership aide that said that is all the president cares about. those were the direct words. if those numbers of congress on the republican side can't vote for that, what can they support? i would argue what we're seeing in the next couple minutes with kirstjen nielsen, that she's

trying to make the case saying the president signed the order, we're addressing the separation issue, cooling it so it doesn't hit you guys. can you help us pass this bill tomorrow? another senior house republican source describes the whipping on the bill has been uphill, trace. >> yeah, uphill to say the least. you've heard mike emanuel is playing some sound from the democratic house members saying yeah, we don't like this bill. we're not going to vote for it. this is in the president's lap he needs to handle this. the question is, chad, can they pass a loop hole provision? can they do something temporary so it doesn't rest on this executive order? >> they could. mitch mcconnell, the majority leader, alluded to doing a narrow bill. we haven't heard that conversation in the house of representatives. when is the last time the house of representatives passed a major legislation bill?

the senate moved it with a vote a few years ago. immigration have a tough bill unless you have both sides on board. and what that bill would look like, that will be very challenging especially to get bipartisan support. we haven't addressed the senate here. whatever piece of legislation will need 60 votes in the united states senate. chuck schumer said the president could fix this problem with a separation of families on the border with his words the fleck of a pen. guess who flecked his pen? the president with the executive order. >> trace: will it be enough? chad pergram live on capitol hill. now the question is it enough? he signed the executive order. this action is going to happen. we're going to try to keep the families together. the question is how. the detention facilities for immigrant children have gotten a whole bunch of attention. among them, a center in texas, southeast of el paso. that's where jeff paul is.

jeff, give us an idea what you're seeing there. >> trace, this is as close as we could get to the tent facilities beyond the stretch of road here. we just got off the phone with health and human services. they said the only kids being bussed here are boys ages 12 to 17. as you take a look at these photos from inside the facility, these are provided by the government. they aren't leading any media inside to view or photograph the facility. that's why some have concerns about what is going on inside. a group of superintendents from the local school district just showed up a little while ago adding to the number of people and groups of host of what has been going on. >> most of us have a good moral compass. we react to things that seem to be detrimental or may adversely impact our children. this is a policy and a practice

that would do that. that's just something that you can't sit by and allow it to happen without at least trying to give voice to it. >> the high out here in the desert, 104 degrees. that person we spoke with at hhs insists that those boys inside the tends have ac. he says it's really cold. trace? >> we saw the pictures. i hear you mention the a.c. what else do we know about the conditions inside these areas, jeff? >> well, trace, this is a very important point that we want to make. we have not been allowed to go inside and view this with our own eyes. our cameras haven't been allowed in. so any of this information is coming from someone within the government. they're telling us that the boys are getting three meals, snacks, a chance to watch tv. they're watching the world cup. they're getting time to play outside. we have not been allowed to go

inside yet. we've asked every day we've been out here. hoping that this could happen in the next few days and we get a chance to see it. >> trace: protesters planning more demonstrations tomorrow. >> yeah. there's been demonstrations and in fact as we mentioned awhile ago, some superintendents in the local school district showed up. tomorrow we're expecting ten mayors from the country like miami, los angeles. the video here from el paso where a bunch of people got together, marched to a detention center chanting "release our kids." hhs said they have 11,000 kids at 101 shelters throughout the country, not just he at the border. trace? >> trace: jeff paul live for us. thank you. i can tell you first half, i've been in some of these facilities. i hate to take the government's

word, but the kids are treated well, a lot of food and games. some companionship. we're going to talk to a lawyer because the big issue appears to be the legalities. is this executive order legal? we'll find out more. real cheese people are experiencing side effects thanks to new sargento blend slices. these may include cartwheels. karma smiles. intense jubilation. and burgers flipping their lid. because with 5 cheese italian your stomachs gonna say "grazie, that's good." new sargento blends. in four unique varieties. you turned a family recipeher, into a brewing empire before prohibition took it all away. i promised our family i'd find your lost recipe. by tracing our history on ancestry, i found the one person who still had it. now, i'm brewing our legacy back to life.

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>> trace: president trump has signed an executive order which will keep these families together in detention settlers in the southeast and around the united states. the question is it legal? the courts have said you have 20 days to hold these families and that's it. so we thought we would bring in ron, a former assistant chief deputy from the civil division. the question is, can you do it? the first question, they have 20 days. they'll go to the judge and ask her can you give us leeway here. >> right. the executive order says we know we're not complying with the law. we're going to ask the judge to make the law. somebody is at the pleasure of

judge gee's company, she's going to say no, this isn't my problem. this is your problem, this is the government's problem. this administration has a zero tolerance policy, this congress, this senate hasn't passed any meaningful legislation. this is your problem. you fix it. you're not going to killed -- hold kids more than 20 days. >> trace: so this goes back to the courts. let's say they get shut down. you have very few places to put the kids and a lot are applying for asylum what then? >> the pathway is not small. it's appears listening to everybody speaking here that comes forward to talk about their position on the immigration bill or proposed bills, what the next step would be then is somebody has to take the next stem deciding what is more unpalatable to us. to deal with the fact of the

kids in detention or whether adjudicate them. >> trace: there's a bunch of them. >> but we can do it. america has proven, when there's the will, there's the resources. when we've had problems we put resources behind it to source problems. >> trace: you mean judges, courts, facilities. we're getting hurricane problem. you move the things done and let's get it through. >> you'd be surprised what an incentive could do. i think this executive order was a stall tactic. supposed to last a week or two. i don't think it will make it to the weekend. before they get before the judge, it's over. >> it's amazing. >> trace: thank you, ron. one more question. if in fact this does and the judge says no, can they appeal very quickly to somebody else?

>> you can appeal. there could be a stay. what they're doing is -- the executive order is not what they're appealing. they're saying based on your prior decision, we would like you to reconsider that and give you more time with the kids and the families. so i don't know if you can appeal that. the statute has run for that appellate team. >> thanks. after peter fonda causing a stir after tweeting about the first family. what he wrote in that. we'll have more after the break as well as more information about the president's executive order and what it means for these families who are now separate. breaking news continues.

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>> peter fonda causing controversy with a tweet asking a social media mob to rip baron

trump from melania's arms and give him to the dhs. peter wanted to make sure that he communicated to the president the dire circumstances of separating mothers and young children. secret service reports that it's aware of the tweet but it's not making any other comments. meantime, just in to fox news, the ink may not even be dry on the executive order and the american civil liberties union is responding to the president's order. they're tweeting in spanish and in a translation reads, and executive order at the last minute does not fix the damage caused to thousands of children and their parents. trump's order replaces one crisis with another. children should never be incarcerated, period.

if you missed it, the executive order was signed just a short time ago live on this show. the question be, what happens now. the executive order keeps in place the zero tolerance policy meaning that people that couple across the border illegally will still be arrested and criminally prosecuted. in this case, they will stay together with their children. right now we don't know where they will stay with their children and we don't know how long because the courts have already ruled you can only hold these people for 20 days. no more. the administration may try to appeal that. we had a lawyer say likely not going to happen. i'm trace gallagher in for shepard smith. "your world" with neil cavuto is next.

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