>> all right. following developments at the border right now. we've got some live shots and some other images earlier this week that showed the surge is on right now to get to this country if you are coming from points south because things could be in your favor just about four days on the 21st. title 42 ends, that's the allowance here that means that the cases where you're caught at the border, you're sent back south of the border. your case is adjudicated on the

southern side of the border. the mexican border in this case, and not in the u.s. all that is reversed, presumably on the 21st unless it's extended and a circuit court appeals yesterday stopped an effort on the part of 15 g.o.p.-led states to extend thatwe're told that they're goi to try a last pass to the supreme court. no indications that is likely to even be heard by the court about you we'll keep on top of it for you. to bill melugin and he gets embarrassed that i compliment him ands' the only guy that is following this and he would love company and a fellow journalist follow what he's been following. as yet few and far between. with images you're seeing are courtesy of bill and his crew and of course, our drones and show this is a real crisis, a growing number of democrats had said that. we'll be talking to virginia democrat senator caine, what he

wants to see and if not for bill, probably no one would be seeing this at eagle pass. what's the latest. >> good morning, you're kind, i appreciate that. eagle pass is expected to be one of the hot spots once title 42 drops next week because of the consistency here. every single morning, multiple times a morning sometimes, we get large groups that cross here, that happened this morning, case in point, take a look at the video just in from our drone team and after sunrise, one of the many groups that came across, as you can see almost all of them single adults. we are seeing very few children or families out here any more, it's single adults from cuba, nicaragua, and dominican republic and almost never see haitians anymore compared to last year. this wasn't the only group a second piece of video in eagle pass on the other side of town. this was a part of a group of

280 that came here before the sun came up. this sector, the del rio sector had more than 115,000 illegal crossings since october 1st. up 50% over the same time last year and last year was the highest number ever recorded in the sector with 470,000 illegal crossings. then we'll take you out to arizona and talk about drugs. take a look at this, another major fentanyl bust made by cp agents at nogales. meth and pounds of cocaine in three separate incidents there just since last thursday, that single port of entry has seized nearly two million fentanyl pills. we'll keep you in arizona and take you out to yuma. border patrol agents patrolling east and found abandoned backpacks leaded up with 90 pounds of meth, a street value

of more than $150,000. and, neil, back out here live, the white house said last night that if title 42 does end up dropping next week, it does not mean that the border will be open. they say anybody who claims that the border is open is doing the job of smugglers and is peddling misinformation. back to you. neil: bill, you see yourself, that three million and to say nothing of the potentially tens, hundreds of thousands of got-aways. it's open for them. >> it's not closed, i'll tell you that much. and the video has shown that for more than a year and a half now. neil: all right. well put. bill, thank you for all you do. bill melugin in the middle of that. john the national patrol, and kind enough to join us, we know that the administration is not toying with extending title 42.

we heard their idea possibly hiring a thousand patrol processors. do you know what that means? >> i do. they help deal with the processing, primarily the theory, they would be indoors processing and they would let the agents go to the border and patrol. and because we've been so busy, the agents have been inside alongside the processors. neil: supposedly there's talk of processors from other ates. let's say there's more manpower for you, would that make a difference up to 15,000 now surging at the border to get through. >> i don't see how it makes a significant difference. at this point we have a lot of people and volunteers coming in to help and they have an important job, but still, that

doesn't mean that agents are suddenly able to be back in the field. as the numbers keep going up every single day, it doesn't make a difference. we still need more hands in the processing centers and our agents can't be outdoors patrolling the borders. >> you need more holding facility. part of this is an undisclosed sum to beef up border patrol and holding facilities. you'd need a hell of a lot of them. >> at this point if all we're doing is cutting everybody loose to the streets, i don't know the point of the holding facilities. if we were actually going to detain everybody who was requesting asylum. absolutely, we could use all the holding facilities could get to deter people from crossing. they don't want to stay in custody for as long as it takes for a hearing. right now, it's logistics, we need a place to hold people to input into a computer and out

the door. neil: and the second thing that white house is looking at, haitians, cubans, nick ago -- nica nicaraguans and they would be flown or going up north and how do you decide what are legitimate asylum cases. >> that's the issue. they're trying, as i understand it, to prevent people from crowding at the border, so now they want to basically hand pick people to process at a port of entry or even at an airport. these are ideas that come from desperate people when they're having to scramble at the last second to figure out what to do because they haven't been making plans this whole time. if we've been here before where title 42 was about to go away and then it didn't so there should be all the plans in the works to help us process asylum

seekers, but still allow border patrol to do its job and go after the people that are getting away every single day. instead they come up with ideas like this that are simply just about processing more people faster along the border, completely sacrificing border security. neil: the administration says the border is not open, end of story. what do you say? >> you say that to any border patrol agent and we laugh. i don't know how they couldn't call it open. d love to see wha border. at this point everybody's allowed to cross. whether they're showing up to request asylum or just enter, and if agents are finding people out in between the ports of entry in the middle of nowhere we happened to be lucky enough to be there in that moment and basically tripping over people and the way we'll find the ones getting away. come next week i don't know that we'll have people to accidentally find the people

that get away. to call it not open, that's not serious talk. >> are you personally dreading the 21st? >> we all are. the numbers that we've been seeing this month, we're seeing days with over 8,000 encounters per day on average and we saw those numbers last year when that haitian migrant camp formed here in del rio. we've already seen what it looks like when we see numbers like that on a daily basis. now our infrastructure is a little better to deal with larger amounts, but that's 8,000, these are unprecedented numbers so we have no idea what to expect next week or how we're going to deal with it. neil: i wish you well, john. i appreciate your smarts and your frankness. i think people need to hear that. national border patrol council president and as he indicated not looking forward to what's going down on the 21st, anything is possible and everything is feared. in the meantime, switching to

the great debate over twitter and twitter files coming out. we had another document dump the 6th presumably the last for a while, but this confirms a coziness, if you will, between federal authorities, particularly fbi, and twitter that goes back for quite some time. alexandra joins us from washingtons. >> and the latest installment matt taibbi shows twitter acting like a subsidiary of the fbi and looking at accounts. and how it grew. the federal bureau of investigation task force ftif created in the wake of the 2016 election swelled to 80 agents and corresponded with twitter to identify alleged foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds and taibbi highlighted one part of an internal twitter documents where a legal executive writes that the fbi had agreed to exchange classified information without i mpedimpediments.

>> and it scores the one big happy family vibe. what other firm would the f blythely agree to note impediments. the feb fbi wrote, there's specifically for foreign malign actors, subversive or criminal activities and private entities independently make what if any actions they take on their platforms after the fbi has notified them. while this is happening, elon musk has been defending his position on free speech after suspending a handful of journalists who he says violated a new rule about sharing individual's relocations and he moved to reinstate the accounts after polling the majority of users who were in favor.

neil: thank you for that, but not all accounts are reinstated. for example, susan lee at fox business. susan, what's going on? >> that's right. so, some of these accounts have been reinstated except for mine. i'll tell you what i did and why right after the short break, neil. sweating this text since there's zero overdraft fees if she overdraws by $50 or less. and, kyle, well, he's keeping calm with another day to adjust his balance if he overdraws by more than $50. overdraft assist from chase. make more of what's yours. where can you get great appliances this holiday... backed by our price promise every day? lowe's, actually. the final days of winterfest are here. save now before they're gone.

vehicles come in all different sizes. yet ordinary windshield phone holders are one size fits all. does that make sense? no. but this does. the adjustable windshieldfone from weathertech. it extends and retracts for a perfect fit in any vehicle.

plus, a quick release tab for easy one handed in and out. and for kids, use it in the back seat too. comes with short, medium and telescopic arms, to fit any vehicle. order the american made windshieldfone at weathertech.com. even makes a nice holiday gift.

>> all right. elon musk might have lifted some of journalist twitter accounts that were suspended, but not all, including fox business's susan lee. what's the latest with you? >> so, i'll explain what happened yesterday in the course of my reporting covering the suspended twitter accounts. all of them either tweeted or retweeted links to the elon account. and i wanted to do my due diligence and track the sources and elongation to elon jet account used to track the jet. a lot of write-ups, bloomberg,

nbc news said they used the absb exchange. and they're now on a majority of planes after the accident of the malaysian airliner off shore. so i went on the absb exchange and typed in and googled the tail number of elon musk's private jet and ease toy figure it out and it's publicly available information and we got in touch with the f.a.a. and asked them is there a way to mitigate information on private jet. they told us pretty much no. because of the freedom of information act and pointed to numerous websites that do have this publicly available information to track private jet, not just elon musk, but bill gates and mark zuckerberg's plane as well and he checked the twitter policy on doxing. if you share publicly available information that's elsewhere

that that that's not doxing, after that i found myself permanently banned and it's not been lifted. neil: could there have been anything else that might have motivated it? >> you mean my personality? what are you hinting at. neil: you're a straight shooter and a great reporter, susan. and you know, call it as you see it and as your reporting is discovering it, you've also been critical of the way that elon musk, from what your reporting has handled some of this. but you also have been complimentary about some of the things that he's taken over and had to deal with. >> of course. neil: i'm wondering if that and this idea that you were just being a straight shooter or maybe more critical than he would like might have played a role here? >> well, you know, working in financial business news, we call balls and strikes, right? and there's no doubt that elon musk is one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs on the planet, maybe in the past

generation and he's bent the arc of history twice whether it's with tesla or spacex. things that people say could not be done, which is starting electric car company and sending rockets to space. but then also, you know, he's done some things over the last few years, whether it's the pedo accusations during the thai cave rescues or some of the tweeting that was done that the sec actually fined him on and by the way, tesla investors, i can tell you right now when they're staring down 50% losses on holdings and two-year lows on their stock and spending all of this time on twitter, pretty much all of his time, instead of focusing on, i guess, building up demand once again since there is a demand issue, they're offering incentives for those electric cars and they're wondering themselves, whether or not he can find somebody else to take over twitter quickly as ceo and maybe focus his attention on a car company that's worth $500 billion and dipped below that mark for the first time this

week. neil: a very good point. lets us know when you're unsuspended. i have a feeling that it will be sooner than you think. >> with your help. neil: yeah, and she's doing a good job, balls and strikes, we're not here to make and cur i favor with people on left or right, no matter who they are. and sometimes that can earn more wrath than you figured was on the way. some developments in the idaho murder case now more than five weeks old. some surveillance video, something that had nothing to do with the murder itself, but accidentally discovered as well as a particular vehicle. we're on top of all after this.

>> you know, it's been more than five weeks now since the brutal murders of four students in idaho and still no progress, at least that we're told. but some curious developments in moscow, idaho on the developments. hey, matt. >> good morning, neil. well, today really marks the end of a chapter in this ongoing investigation because finals wrapped up yesterday so the semester is officially over and the horrific murders that happened within that semester is now over and kaylee gonsalves was supposed to walk the stage and didn't do that. and this place is dying down and now moscow police, that presents a challenge for them.

they lose the ability to physically question people or perhaps people left who otherwise decided to give a tip or present some evidence, but police insist they have agents all over the u.s. who can question someone anywhere and they say that losing people who might decide to provide a tip is not going to impede their investigation. on the ground in idaho and online as you may have seen, there's speculation and concern that the case is growing cold. we spoke one-on-one with the moscow police about this frust frustration. >> information is a powerful tool when it comes to finding out who did this and making a ray rest. arrest. we do not want to jeopardize that. even if we have frustrated people in the community and frustrated families, we have to stay true to that course because that's what will get justice in the end. >> and neil, really, the only tidbit that police have given us for the public is they're

asking people to look out for the 2011 through 2013 white hyundai elantra. they need to talk to whom ever was inside of that car. it's critical in that hour. that driver and that car has not surfaced. neil. >> matt finn in moscow, idaho. and a police officer good at following crime and including those that might have gone cold. would you describe this, randy, as a case that's gone and getting more difficult by the day to get some answers? >> i'm not going to call this case cold at all. this is a very, very active investigation. when it case goes cold, that means that a lot of time has gone past and leads have dried up. so this is still being very, very actively investigated. now, i want to bring you back in time for a moment. you'll remember-- you'll remember the son of sam

killings that terrorized the city of new york. neil: right. >> remember that that case was solved because of very, very teeniest of police work finding a parking ticket on a car. so, i'm likening these two cases in a way in that police work has to-- is sometimes tedious and what they're doing in idaho by going, you know, to the surrounding communities and collecting all of that video that is out there, this is very, very tedious stuff, but that shows that these investigators are leaving no stone unturned. >> they go back to the time of the crime, you know, late on november 12th to the wee hours of november 13th, there were four students and here is where i could use your help and just to sort out the timeline on this, randy. if they were killed between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m., about an

hour or two after two of them had returned from separate nights out. so two go to a corner club bar, were seen at a food truck and there's actually an image of that and the other two had attended a flat party at a house 200 yards away. were they all mutually targeted? in other words, a sense that they were all, you know, being targeted by whomever did this? >> that would require a lot of thought, a lot of planning, i mean, these are -- i'm not going to call this a random killing. it doesn't smell right to me to call this a random killing. i believe that this there was at least one person that was targeted in that, but, and i'm not saying that there's one killer either because, neil, you know, the-- having to kill four human beings with a knife is a very, very dramatic thing, it requires a great amount of

force, it requires, i mean, there's going to be noise made, we know that there was struggle, and it's just-- i know it's very, very difficult for us to get our heads around the fact that nobody who's even in the house heard anything. so, yeah, this is a really -- this is a devastating case. my heart goes out to the families that are-- that have to live through this horror and all we can really do is have some confidence in the law enforcement investigation and hope they can bring this to conclusion because this is really, this is a very, very sore spot in our hearts and our minds. neil: you're absolutely right and i'm happy to hear. and you don't find it cold at all. and one quick question, much made of the fact that the doors were open at the house sometime later and that was discovered. do you read anything into that, a frantic race to get out, the part of the killer or killers

to get out? >> we don't to if they locked the doors to begin with and they're college kids and maybe not security conscious, they've been out and having a great time. i didn't hear anything about the means of entry and that's something that i'm curious about is how, what was the means of entry here? was this a forceable entry, were doors left unlocked? and these are all some of the questions that i have as a, you know, a law enforcement professional that i would like to know, but i don't know what to make of the fact that that door was not locked, as far as you know, when they discovered the bodies, they could have been unlocked previous to that. neil: you're right and this is a college house, of course, doors are open all the time. we'll see. randy, i understand that you have a gary sinese connection, too, and i was curious to kind out what that was. >> you know, i'm so proud, the

wounded blue is the organization that i founded, it's the national support and assistance organization for injured and disabled law enforcement officers and you know more than 300 officers have been shot so far this year, three have been murdered in just the last three days and there's a lot of pain in the law enforcement community, physical, emotional and psychological and i actually appeared entrees gallagher's show the other night talking about how we are helping injured and disabled officers across this country and gary sinese happened to be watching your channel and reached out to me and made a very generous donation and said that he loved the work that we're doing and i'm really so jazzed about that, that somebody of gary sinese's notoriety and i don't know if you knew this, neil, but in the last book that i wrote the power of legacy, he was in my book and i interviewed him for my book because of everything that he

has done for military and law enforcement, toughing so many millions of lives and that's what the wounded blue hopes to do as well and this is the giving season. so. neil: you're right about that. >> if your viewers would like to support us go to the wounded blue.org and hit that donate button and do what you can. neil, i don't know if you know this, last year around christmas time i was on your show talking about the wounded blue and one of the-- the biggest donor we've ever had saw me on your show and reached out to me 20 minutes after the show and became a major donor for the wounded blue. i can't thank you enough for asking me on your show supporting wounded officers across this nation and i'm actually in los angeles right now to do a fund raising event for that group of recruits who were run down in that tragic accident. neil: right, right. >> we're raising money for that today. neil: you're an amazing, amazing guy and the one thing you have in common with major

dan, you both have given back and then some, never forgot your roots where you came from or trying to help people out. so you and gary sinese have that very much in common. >> thank you so much. neil: and sort of put this in perspective and remember in a season of paying it forward, do you have keep paying it forward. both of those gentlemen have and do. more after this. better future so we're hard at work helping them achieve financial freedom. we're proud to serve people everywhere, in investing for the retirement they envision. from the plains to the coasts, we help americans invest for their future. and help communities thrive. from gas to groceries, we're all dealing with higher prices, and we could all use the security of extra cash. with today's home values near record highs, the newday 100 va cash out loan is helping veterans homeowners

get more money than they've ever imagined. cut your expenses by paying down high rate credit cards, personal loans, even car loans. and at newday, we look at your total picture. when banks say no to a veteran, newday can say yes. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month.

i just turned 80, what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan available through the colonial penn program. it has an affordable rate starting at $9.95 a month. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information.

>> all right. the missile strikes begin. this has been a record week for

such strikes across the entire country of ukraine. of four cities targeted kyiv among them. that's where you'll find our nate foy, he's there right now. and this might be vladimir putin's new strategy, just strike and strike and strike. what are you hearing? >> it's unfortune, the people in ukraine are suffering as more infrastructure gets hit. the strike yesterday was bigger than we first thought. the first number was 76 missiles that were fired. they're now saying it was 98. ukraine is not saying how many of those missiles were shot down, again, 40 of them targeting kyiv and unfortunately, the number of people killed in this strike also continues to grow. take a look at this video from overnight. the death toll now stands at four. 13 people are injured, including four children, all of these numbers according to ukrainian authorities. and neil, emergency workers pulled the body of a one and a half-year-old boy from the rubble in central ukraine overnight. that boy's parents were also

killed in the strike. there's a surviving older brother who is now an orphan as a result of the attack. a 64-year-old woman was also pulled from the wreckage yesterday after the strike and her sister explained what kind of person she was, listen. >> >> heartbreaking to listen to this, neil. remember, 40 of those missiles targeted kyiv which makes it to the largest strike on the capital throughout the entire war, but we're making progress in the kyiv region with the critical infrastructure that was damaged. water supply has been restored according to mayor klitschko, and key areas have electricity.

and the strategy to leave ukrainians cold and in the dark this winter. listen to this. >> also, today, neil, russian authorities in zaporizhzhya are starting to build a protective dome over the power plant to protect it from nearby shelling and drone attacks going on for months. we'll send it back to you. neil: nate, be safe, my friend. nate foy. to general jack keane. general, latest wrinkle, all things vladimir putin, promising there will be consequences if we send these patriot missile defense systems to ukraine. what do you make of that? >> well, he's been brandishing off and on nuclear weapons

which i think is behind the statement. and a few weeks ago he said there's no purpose to putting nuclear weapons in ukraine. and he's putting pressure on europeans as well to stop the flow of arms. some of these have been been decisive. particularly the himars, and change the battle in ukraine's favor and enabled them to be successful in their counter offensive. i think where putin's head is, neil, frankly, i believe he has come to the conclusion and this is one, going to be a protracted war and two, given that, he believes he can outlast the ukrainians, by that, i mean, he believes-- he can't defeat the ukrainian army, he's tried to do it and failed miserably at it. he's trying to defeat the ukrainian people, obviously by taking their source of energy away in the second month of winter now, two more months to

go for sure and killing as many of the ukrainian people as they can. but that's failing. we're in contact with the institute for study of war on a regular basis with the ukrainian people, with their military and leaders and they're steadfast and if anything, they're resolve has been strengthened. so i don't see him accomplishing that mission either, but he's not giving up. he believes in the long run, the europeans will likely take a knee here because of their own economic setbacks and the united states public opinion will change in terms of supporting the war and the united states will likely take a knee and he's willing to wait and outlast the ukrainians in his mind and the supporters who are helping them so decisively. i think that's kind of where his head is. >> it's a pretty sad commentary and then he can go back to the russian people and say i beat these s-o-b's and it's something that the world

thought he would take down in a week and it's a year. and still, it's like vietnam with snow. >> yeah, i mean, he'll create his own false narrative. that's why i say, we shouldn't worry about putin's exit strategy. he's going to come up with some bold-faced lie to justify it. when they left afghanistan after 10 years they went home on a see called freedom road and they declared victory, is what they did. and he'll come up with some kind of narrative here, if there's negotiated stalemate and ukrainians are not able to take all the territory back, but are able to take a bunch of it which would be a good thing he'll come up with kind of victory narrative. neil: why hasn't anyone tried to-- maybe they have been quiet because we don't know, but that's surprising. >> well, what we don't know, i think, our intel services probably have a feel for it, is how close are the elites around him, part of the power structure and how much

confidence do they have in him. my sources are telling me that putin is involved every single day in tactical decisions on the battlefield, not big brush strokes, like he was when the war started. he's involved in tactical decisions about where troops should go and when they should go and what they should go with. so, yeah, given that fact that he's got his hands all over this operation and as poorly as it's been executed. you've got to believe there's some significant dissent there. how significant that is in terms of removing him is another matter. we don't know that answer. neil: general, if i don't talk to you again, have a merry christmas. very good seeing you again. >> yeah, same to you, neil, and the great team you've got there, thank you. neil: thank you, my friend. well, now in the bahamas jail and they're talking to him and talking to his parents, and his girlfriend, and they're putting a case together, where is it going after this. (burke) deep-sea driving, i see... (customer) something like that...

(burke) well, here's something else: with your farmer's policy perk, new car replacement, you can get a new one. (customer) that is something else. (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ better luck next time. but i haven't even thrown yet. you threw good money away when you bought those glasses. next time, go to america's best - where two pairs and a free exam start at just $79.95. can't beat that. can't beat this, either. book an exam today at americasbest.com

hi, i'm angela. i've lost 58 pounds with golo and i've kept it off. i suffer from autoimmune hypothyroid and i always thought it would be so difficult to lose weight, but with golo, it simply wasn't.

>> all right. we know about the founder of ftx now is stewing in a bahamas prison, but do you know about the people around him, his parents and girlfriend? well, the heat is on them right now. charles watson has more from atlanta. charles. >> yeah, hey, good morning, neil. there's certainly a lot of focus on sam bankman-fried's inner circle, particularly when you talk about his former alleged girlfriend carolyn ellison and bankman-fried's parents. and bankman-fried's parents who are professors, they were involved to the extend that joseph bankman would frequently accompany his son sam fr

bankman-fried's appearances at capitol hill. and they allege that bankman-fried used customer funds to buy millions of dollars of real estate in the bahamas for himself, his parents and other company execs, and the ceo says he's investigating the company's relationship with both parents. >> we're investigating that as well as any other players. >> okay had he been an employee of ftx. >> i don't know if he had an employee status, but the family did receive payments. >> and bankman-fried's alleged former girlfriend, former ceo v bankman-fried's hedge fund, alameda research, which prosecutors say misappropriated funds and had access to $8 billion of customers money that

is allegedly missing and a lot of people are wondering whether ellison will be charged, whether the parents will be charged or whether they'll work with the friends to bring bankman-fried down. there's also some thought that one of ftx's co-ceo's may be coope cooperating with the officials as well and he tipped bahamian officials before, that it was being done incorrectly. neil: charles watson in atlanta. we're keeping track of title 42 and what happens when it goes away in four days, there be possible solutions to this. we just don't hear that in this heated political environment, including some solutions from virginia democrat senator tim ka kaine, including one he was talking about 10 years ago.

time to reconsider now. ging sg like a hundred bucks a window when other guys were charging four to five-hundred bucks. he just didn't wanna do that. he was proud of the price he was charging. ♪ my dad instilled in me, always put the people before the money. be proud of offering a good product at a fair price. i think he'd be extremely proud of me, yeah. ♪

>> title 42, you've heard more than enough about that, and of course, this is the measure that allows migrants to be immediately expelled at the border as adjudicated on the u.s. and more often than not in new mexico and then everyone starts fearing, does that mean we'll see a surge at the border. some are saying that we go from 5,000 migrants trying to get into the country a day up to potentially 15,000. no way to know for sure. we know it's a big worry. senator tim kaine, democratic senator from the beautiful state of virginia, kind enough to join us now. it's good to see you. >> thanks, neil. good to be with you, friend. neil: where are you now? the president, it doesn't look like right now, and g.o.p.

efforts to extend title 42 failed in a circuit appeals court. they might take it to the supreme court, but looks as it stands now that it goes away on the 21st. are you worried about that? >> well, it puts the burden squarely on the shoulders of congress, neil, to finally do something about this. this has been one of the most frustrating parts of my 10 years in the senate. i naively thought when we did a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013, great, it was bipartisan and the house will do something and we'll sit down at the table and as you know the house did not act and we've been in a holding pattern knowing we needed to make significant changes, including border and investments and other changes for dreamers will you unwilling to do so, i think that title 42 puts the burden on the shoulder of this now divided congress when we get to january, republican house democratic senate, we've got to

find an answer because we haven't done comprehensive reform since 1986. neil: when you addressed the senate in that, it's all in spanish and i think we've never seen that prior and it looked like we were close to something and then we weren't and i'm wondering, if title 42 does indeed go away, and we see this surge, there's a separate measure, we understand, that the president is taking, senator, to look at the asylum cases of cubans, haitians, nicaraguans and venezuelans, they seem to get a fast pass to have their cases heard in the united states and i don't know how that could sort it out. that could dramatically increase the numbers, could it not, and make a volatile situation worse. >> it could. although here is what's going on, neil, that's interesting. i think if you really look at what is the root of the problem, the root of the problem is obviously, instability in neighbors,

especially neighbors to the south, but also inadequate work visas system in the united states. so i'm convinced this is what's happening and i visited with some migrants in downtown panama city about a month and a half something who crossed the darian gap from colombia and come north from venezuela. here is it what they're saying, there's no opportunity for us, we want to come to find work. the u.s. doesn't have a good work visa program, they cross the border, if they're picked up they say they want to apply for asylum and recite enoughs facts, the officials say you've given us acts and we need to adjudicate your case. it takes five years to adjudicate and at the end of five years, 85% of the people who were allowed in turns out they're hae not qualified for asylum, and then what do you

do, they're here and have kids. >> you're in the chaos trying to cross and claiming asylum. neil: how do you deal with the crisis right now, senator. because the rap against the president fairly or not, he doesn't appreciate the magnitude and hasn't visited the border and even some of your democratic colleagues, senator tester, and there's a problem here and you've raised the timing of title 42. without taking a person pot shot at the president, if those around him and those in his party are saying, you know, that this is not some made up drama at the border, you've seriously got to do something and he doesn't. do you think he wants to? >> well, i think here is what they should do. i have a lot of faith in secretary mayorkas, i think he's very solid. what we haven't seen yet he-- >> he's following orders from the president, right? >> right. congress needs to take action. he has said that. but they haven't necessarily said okay, here is the actions

that congress should take. we know we need to fix the system and it's going to be like the 2013 reform, it's going to be pairing a border investment together with other reforms. in 2013, neil, the proposal on the table was 45 billion dollars of border security over 10 years, remember when president trump was in office, he only wanted 25 billion so we-- if we had done that in 2013, this problem would be so much less right now so look, when title 42 comes to an end-- >> you might be right, but isn't the immediate problem. sort of of like when the firemen come to the house that's in flames. you can address the wiring and issues that led to that later, and you've got to put out the flames first. isn't the flames the seive at the border, people coming through and you've got to secure the border and then address all of this? that's a popular republican argument i grant you, but isn't that the more immediate crisis? >> well, the real flames are

people are going to leave violence and lack of economic opportunity, that's why my great grandparents, all eight of them came over from ireland, there was nothing for them there, you're never going to stop that. you're right, better investments at the border are key. i think you're gog see us getting a budget bill this week that will have some resources to deal with it. this is one of my top priorities for the new congress, when you talk about a split congress, this is something we ought to be able to find a path forward on and i'll tell you why, the low unemployment right right now means all of my employers are saying, i need workers, can you do immigration reform. for the first time, a number of my republican colleagues since 2013 are back at table and we are negotiating. there was a look for modest dreamers, and this is my top hope for the next congress because we've got the low

unemployment rate that's constricting the economy and a wise immigration reform could help us deal with that. neil: i hope it stays low to your point. quickly, i never like to discuss politics two years in advance and i'm going to discuss politics two years in advance and many of people are looking at joe biden, he's the likely nominee, that he's too old, if donald trump runs again, we'll have two old guys going at it. what do you say. >> we have a question mark on our side and the g.o.p. has a problem on theirs. the question is, what will joe biden do, he's certainly indicated he's leaning heavily-- >> you're okay with him. you have your doubts about the other guy. >> all right. >> if he runs i'm going to back him, but he's still making his mind up. neil: so you're not going to back donald trump, you're not going to back donald trump? >> i am making news nonstop today. [laughter] >> all right, well, thank you very, very much.

we'll see what happens, senator, there is enough common ground here to your point, let's see if we can find it. always good to have you, open you and your extended irish family have a great christmas. all right, we've got griff jenkins coming up, aishah hasnie coming um. two full hours and what's at stake. fox news continues after this. >> honoring tradition, and they're laying wreaths at the graves of 400,000 heroes. these are live i am packages of the wreaths in place at sacred ground. welcome, i'm griff jenkins in