e! we've doubled our 4g lte bandwidth in cities coast to coast. so take on more. with xlte. on the largest, most reliable 4g lte network. next on "meet the press," chaos and despair on the border with mexico. emotions are high as protesters attempt to turn away thousands of children attempting to enter the country after a traumatic journey from central america. this morning i'll ask secretary of homeland security jeh johnson about what the white house plans to do to fix this problem, what the president has called a humanitarian crisis. plus terror alert. security tightened around the world for direct flights to the united states. are changes in store for security at the airports here as well. and a second supreme court defeat for the president on obamacare this week. the round table debates how the rulings could dramatically affect the political landscape in this election year.

>> announcer: from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with david gregory. good sunday morning on a holiday weekend, a lot going on. this immigration crisis involving des operate children crossing the u.s. border is a staggering problem and so are the numbers. check this out, more than 50,000 children have been caught since october 2013. that is more than double the year before just to give you some sense of how desperate the situation is. our miguel almaguer joins me from murrieta, california, a town that's been a flash point in this story so far. miguel, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. this is the holding facility in murrieta. it is a flash point, a symbol that galvanized two opposite sides. these are the faces of the desperate and scared, just some of the now thousands of unaccompanied minors packed into 100 overwhelmed temporary shelters dotted across the country. >> go back home! >> a group of them greeted with

signs of anger, what some call hate, as protesters turned away busloads of immigrant families from a southern california border patrol station after they were caught illegally crossing the u.s. southern border. their journey, pulitzer prize winning author sonia nazario, says is perilous. >> the children are coming, they don't have any money, they come any way they can, gripping the sides and tops of the freight trains that travel up the length of mexico. there are bandits alongside the rails who will rob you and rape you and sometimes kill you. >> nazario would know. she's made the journey spending three months riding fright trains up the length of mexico researching for her book "enrique's journey." >> i think most americans have no idea what these children are fleeing, the level of violence, that it's really -- they have to

leave or they've been threatened many times by the narcos, they have to leave or they will get killed. >> reporter: for women, young mothers like esperanza, the trip is just as dangerous. thank god nothing happened to me, she says. with her 6-year-old son, edwin, she traveled 17 days by foot from el salvador before she reached the texas border. i thank god immigration caught me me. thank god we're here and we're okay. i wanted a better life for myself and my son. for so many here now, the question is what does the future hold for these families. alan long is the mayor of murrieta, the town where protesters greeted those buses. >> how come now, how come so many. i think what's happening is down in a less desirable area of the world, you have a lot of crime, poverty, and people are trying to flee to the greatest nation in the world. can't blame them for that. >> reporter: in a letter he sent

to the president, long blames washington for what's happening in murrieta. >> people are at a boiling point. they are tired of inefficiency at the federal level. >> reporter: on this fourth of july weekend, the nation that asked the world to give us their tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free finds itself in a crisis where the problem is growing but the answers are not. this morning there are no children at this facility, but the mayor says that will change. they expect waves of children to arrive here in the coming days. when that happens, protesters say they will be back. david. >> miguel almaguer for us this morning. thank you so much. here now is the secretary of homdland security, jeh johnson. mr. secretary, welcome to "meet the press." >> good morning, david. >> you heard the mayor of murrieta, why now, why so many. is part of the answer the administration through some of its executive actions have said, in effect, if you come, we're going to let you in?

>> first of all, david, the reason we're seeing this influx has to do primarily with the conditions in the three central american countries they are leaving from, the push factor. >> it's doubled, though. how many could it be, 90,000 this year? >> honduras is in a really bad place right now. el salvador, guatemala, the push factor is what is driving this recent influx. in addition, we know that the smuggling organizations, the criminal smuggling organizations, are putting out a lot of disinformation about supposed free passes into this country that are going to expire at the end of may, at the end of june. just give us your money and we'll get you into the country by the end of the month. it's like a used car salesman saying the sale will expire at the end of the week. >> that's not all the misinformation, mr. secretary. there is some deferred action

that will allow some children of illegal immigrants to stay. >> that's the point we keep stressing. the deferred action program is for kids who came to this country seven years ago. it's not for anyone who comes to this country today, tomorrow, or yesterday. the legislation that the senate passed, which provides for an earned path to citizenship is for those who were in this country in 2011. it's not for those who are coming here today. >> how many -- the numbers again. a year ago it's 26,000. it's double that. could it get up to 90,000 this year? >> i believe we're going to stem this tide. >> my question is how bad could it get? how many more are we going to see? people want to know the challenge you face. >> i believe we'll stem this tide. and we're doing a number of things to do that right now. >> so you don't think the numbers will go up is what you're saying. >> the numbers are definitely -- >> certainly go up from where we are. they have already doubled this year and we're sitting here in the summertime. >> they have gone up. i believe we'll stem this tide.

with regard to the adult population who are coming here without their kids, we have dramatically reduced the turnaround time from something like 33 days down to 4 days. with regard to adults who are bringing their children, we're bringing on additional detention capacity. we're turning that population of people around quicker, and with regard to the children, very definitely there are special considerations with the children. we keep reminding people of the dangers that your lead-in points out, to climbing on board top of a freight train. i've spoken directly to kids on the border who told me they have held on for days and hours to the top of the freight train literally holding on for dear life because they risk falling off and dying. we keep reminding parents of the dangers of sending your children unaccompanied on this journey, this long 1,000 mile journey and that there are no free passes once you get here. daca is not available for these children.

>> deferred action plan. not available for these children. >> it's for the children who came here seven years ago. >> critics say you're not stemming the tide fast enough. the bottom line is, what happens now? are you prepared to deport these children, young mothers we're seeing in miguel's speech, and all these images. are you prepared to deport them? >> our message to those who come here illegally, our border is not open to illegal migration, and we are taking a number of steps to address it, including turning people around faster. we've already dramatically reduced turnaround time, deportation time for the adults. we're asking this week for a supplemental from congress to build on -- bring on additional capacity and we're cracking down on the smuggling organizations. >> even for the children, we're talking about 50,000 so far this year. do they need to be deported, or i've seen some reporting

suggesting more than half of them could end up staying with families in america. >> the law requires when dhs identifies somebody as a child, unaccompanied child, we turn them over to the department of health and human services, but there is a deportation proceeding that is commenced against the child. now, that proceeding can take some time. so we're looking at options, added flexibility to deal with the children in particular. but in a humanitarian and fair way. >> i'm sorry, i have to -- it sounds like a very careful response. are they going to be deported or not? this is the bottom line. i know there's a process they have to go through. will most of these children that we have seen in this desperate situation stay in america or will they be returned to their homes in central america? >> there's a deportation proceeding commenced against illegal migrants, including children. we are looking at ways to create

additional options for dealing with the children in particular consistent with our laws and our values. >> i'm trying to get an answer to will most of them end up staying, in your judgment? >> i think we need to find more efficient, effective ways to turn this tide around generally and we've already begun to do that. >> what does that mean? are you saying it's impractical to deport all of them that are here now? >> i'm saying we've already dramatically reduced the turnaround time for the adults, and we're in the process of doing that for the adults with the kids. we're looking at additional options for the kids in particular. >> to deport them or settle them here in america? is the goal of the administration to settle as many of these kids in america as possible? >> the goal of the administration is to stem the tide and send the message unequivocally -- >> what about the thousands of children who are here now? what is the goal of the administration, to settle them in america or to deport them back to situations that might be even life threatening? >> there is a deportation

proceeding pending against everyone who comes into this country illegally and is apprehended at the border. >> when you look at the protests in murrieta, you see that anger. do you see that as hate towards illegal immigrants, prejudice, or do you understand frustration with the federal government, with the inability of congress to pass immigration reform? the drain on resources for a community? what do you see? >> i look at it, and it is unfortunate to see that type of hostility directed at women and children on a bus, frankly. i do not believe that that band of individuals that you showed in your lead-in reflects murrieta, california, and it certainly does not reflect the response we've seen across the southwest in general. >> does it reflect frustration at the government? you're the head of the department of homeland security, for not doing more to protect the border, to enforce the

nation's laws with regard to turning migrants away who are coming illegally? >> the broader response across the southwest has been very different in places like mcallen, texas, nogales, arizona, where the city governments, the population at large, faith-based organizations have really stepped up to support the border patrol to do the humanitarian thing here. the media is focused on that band of individuals in murrieta, california. i don't think that even reflects the sentiment in murrieta, frankly. >> is the priority that we have to do right by these children or do we have to find a way to clamp down on the border? what guides them? >> well, there's the issue. we have to do right by the children. i have personally encountered enough of them to know we have to do right by the children. at the end of the day in the final analysis, our border is not open to illegal migration

and we will stem the tide. >> does the president need to go to the border? should he visit when he goes there this week? >> the president can't be every place he'd like to be or even should be. i know the president receives daily updates from lisa monaco, his homeland security adviser on the white house staff, cecilia munoz, domestic policy council director, and myself. i have regularly briefed the president in oval office meetings, and we're doing a principles level meeting tomorrow morning. >> the broader issue of immigration reform, what the president can do without congress since congress is not going to get anything done. what is the one thing he'd like to do on his own to address the millions of illegal immigrants here in this country now? >> fix our broken immigration system. >> he can't do that by himself. what can he do by himself? >> there are a number of things that the president and i within the confines of existing law can do to fix the broken immigration system, and we will. if congress doesn't act, we

will. >> can you give me a concrete example of something you're considering doing? >> for one thing, we need to fix the secure communities program. this is a program where we work with local law enforcement to facilitate the transfer of undocumented who are in local jails. the program, frankly, has gotten off to a bad start, and we need to fix that program. i think the overarching goal of secure communities is a good one, but it needs a fresh start. for example -- that's one thing among a number of things we're contemplating doing. >> anything big issue you're dealing with is the terrorist threat coming from overseas, al qaeda, isis, the growing threat in iraq syria. isis making significant gains and airport security is tightened around the world. in a moment i'll discuss that with you, mr. secretary, and whether similar measures might be taking place in airports here. let me turn to my colleague jim

maceda at london's heathrow airport with the latest on what he's seeing there. jim? >> reporter: hi, david. heathrow, of course, is one of world's busiest airports a prime terrorist target, and while heathrow officials don't give any details on new precautions, passengers going on u.s.-bound flights are saying they've seen more explosive swab tests, especially on electronic devices like laptops, tablets, cell phones, and the like, and on their shoes as well. some passengers said those physical pat-downs seem more frequent these last few days. overall they are saying it seems to be taking twice as long to get through security. but you don't see any increased armed police patrols in or around the buildings behind me, those terminals, which would suggest that the focus is on preset disguised bombs that current scatters might not detect, and u.s. intelligence is saying al qaeda linked bombmakers have perfected.

some british aviation security and explosive experts say that they're taking this threat, david, very seriously, and frighteningly even say that current airport security techniques are not yet in place to deal with it. here is what a couple of experts told us. >> it's not particular difficult to disguise a bomb. to di guys it so it can go through all the tracks, potentially even, for example, take a laptop. you need to switch it on for it to work. you've got to really start changing the inside of it. even though it goes through a scanner, it looks like a laptop, it works like a laptop, but actually it's a bomb. >> after the shoe bomber, we saw people's shoes coming off. after the liquid plot, we saw liquid being restricted on aircraft. we are always reactive and that is what is wrong with the system, and that is why i believe we shouldn't be basing our response on deploying technology and then saying, oh, my gosh, there's a new device out there that our existing technologies can't identify.

>> reporter: david, so far passengers we've talked to here are largely understanding. they say they don't mind arriving an hour or even more earlier if it makes their flight safer. david, back to you. >> jim maceda in london. jim, thank you so much. secretary johnson, the question so many americans have, flights coming into the u.s. facing tougher security screening, are we going to see that again here domestically? >> david, our job is to try to anticipate the next attack, not simply react to the last one. so we continually evaluate the world situation. we know that there remains a terrorist threat to the united states. aviation security is a large part of that. so this past week, i directed that we step up our aviation security at some last point of departure airports coming into the united states. this is not something to overreact to or overspeculate about, but it's something we felt was necessary.

we do this from time to time. we ratchet it down from time to time. >> what about inside the country, domestic flights? do you think it's time to ratchet up those screens? those precautions? >> we continue to evaluate things. the screening we have domestically from one domestic airport to the other is pretty robust as the american traveling public knows. in this instance we felt that it was important to crank it up some at the last point of departure airports and we'll continually evaluate the situation. >> we're adequately safeguarded in your judge as best we can be against an al qaeda or isis threat that has developed domestically? >> i believe we've taken appropriate measures to deal with the existing situation and not unnecessarily burden the traveling public. >> the islamic state of iraq and syria has a lot of money, it has a lot of foreign fighters. what kind of access does it have to europe and the united states in terms of being able to pull off an attack?

>> obviously we're concerned any time a terrorist organization acquires territory, picks up capability. and as i said, the terrorist threat potential out there still remains. a lot of it centers around aviation security, which we continually monitor. >> secretary johnson, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you, david. >> appreciate it very much. i want to turn back to the issue of immigration, turn to the other side of the political aisle. i'm joined by raul labrador from idaho. welcome back. >> thank you for having me on your show and good morning. >> you've heard from secretary jeh johnson from homeland security, got to do right by the children, he said. that's got to be a bottom line ideal for the united states government. is that how you see it? >> i do not. as i was listening to secretary johnson's interview, the first

half of his interview, i kept thinking you need to change your slogan at the beginning of the show, instead of, if it's sunday, it's meet the press. if it's sunday, it's another administration official making stuff up on "meet the press." it's really shameful. >> what did he make up? >> he made up a lot of different things. if you look at what he said, he said the number one reason these children are coming to the united states is because of the violence in these central american countries. the reality is the violence in the central american country has existed for a long time. the level of poverty has existed in the central american countries for a long period of time, but it's over the last two years you have seen an increase in the number of children coming to the united states. he said he's going to be able to stem it and it's not going to reach between 60,000 and 90,000 children. that's not going to happen. their own administration estimates are that it's going to be about 60,000 to 90,000 this year.

it's going to increase to 150,000 to 200,000 next year. these are their own estimates, and now they come on national tv and they say that they're doing everything they can to stem the flow but that their number one priority is actually to make sure that we do right by these children. the thing this administration needs to do is immediately deport these families, these children. i know it sounds harsh. i know it sounds difficult, but they're creating a crisis at this time that is actually going to harm these children. these children, as your own reporting says, these children are going to come through the border, they're going to come from central america. many of them are being raped. many of them are being harmed. this is an outrageous thing that is happening to these children, and we need to actually take a strong stance against what's happening and against these illegal cartels. >> but for those who are hearing you and saying, but you do sound harsh, that as a practical matter deporting these individuals, many of them children to get back to central

america may not be realistic nor is it in keeping with what it means to be america and for a lot of american families who think if they're fleeing something that's so awful, we have got to find a way to deal with this in a more humanitarian way just as we have 11 million or so illegal immigrants who have to be dealt with in a way other than just deporting them. >> you know, americans are great people. i think they're willing to deal with the 11 million people if we feel that there's going to be border security. right now the frustration you see in murrieta, the frustration you see throughout the united states is because they feel this administration is doing nothing about border security. if we can feel safe in our homes, if we can feel safe in our homeland, if we can feel that we can actually -- are going to be able to stem the flow of illegal immigration, i think the american people are -- >> let me just stop you for a second, congressman. first of all, the frustration is not just with the administration, right? it is congress. it's house republicans who blocked immigration reform that

came over from the senate that you opposed, but it is also the issue of the law that is the law of the land was passed under the previous president that make it is a different way to treat those illegal migrants coming from central america as opposed to mexico. they have to be brought in and detained and put through these proceedings. that is the law that congress passed. >> that's a good point, and in 2008 the law was passed, and i think we need to change that law. we shouldn't be treating the children from central america any different than we treat the children from mexico and canada. and i think that is something that i will join the administration in doing. i don't think we should be doing that. but i think you need to realize that in 2008 the law was changed, and in 2009 there wasn't a huge, major change in the number of children that came to the united states. in 2010 there there wasn't a huge change and in 2011 there wasn't a huge change either. as soon as the administration in 2012 decided to do daca, the

deferred action program, that's when the number of children started moving up, and that's because these criminal cartels in central and south america decided to start advertising that there was a free pass. i agree with secretary johnson that these children should not be allowed to stay, but even in his statements today he wouldn't even answer your question whether we were going to deport these children or not. the best, safest message we can send to central america, if you want to let central american families know that they're not going to be able -- they shouldn't be bringing their children to the united states is by sending these children back in a humanitarian way. we can do it safely. we can do it efficiently. >> all right, congressman labrador, as always, thank you very much for your views and for being here this morning. >> thank you. coming up here, why are three female supreme court justices, all the women on the supreme court, so angry about an important ruling on thursday? our round table will be here to discuss the impact on president obama and obamacare and a busy

week in politics. plus, an astonishing new video showing the deaf-declared video of the isis caliphate. the latest on that isis threat and why one former world leader says the iraqi government must go to solve this crisis. >> announcer: "meet the press" is brought to you by -- yo by bo where the drive to build som yeah, i would never book a hotel if i didn't know the name first. now what if i told you you can save up to 60%, but you couldn't know the name until after you book?

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earlier in the debate about immigration in this country we tackled one of the key questions that divides both sides. it is, should those here illegally be given a pathway to citizenship. we tackled this. two experts on opposite sides making their case. head to our website to see it, meetthepressnbc.com. let us know by quoting or tweeting make the case. back with the roundtable in 60 seconds. >> announcer: "meet the press" is brought to you by --

our political roundtable is here and so much to discuss even on this holiday weekend. political director chuck todd. for the first time on the program, lori montenegro, national correspondent for telemundo, michael gerson, columnist for "the washington post" who serve ed as chief speechwriter for president bush, and carolyn ryan, political

editor from "the new york times." welcome to all of you. chuck, from secretary johnson, i think an ambiguous response to what they are going to do and how exactly we got here. >> it's been that way. it was that way in the white house briefing. you could not get a straight answer out of the administration. you couldn't get them to say, should the president's image be used to send the message in central america. to send the message, hey, don't sed your kids here. this isn't going to happen. ambiguity with you, do you want to increase deportations. they've been afraid to say that and it's the politics of this. immigration, separate from the issue debated in washington but conflated obviously back and forth. i think part of the problem is an administration on one hand has immigrant rights groups wanting them to expand some of the executive orders, dreamers, this daca thing, dreamers for the parents, and an exchange they know politically in order to get away with that, they have to increase the deportations but they don't want to say that. >> lori, is america still the

country that says give me your huddled masses? on immigration it seems more split on that. >> yes, it is, and i think this issue with the undocumented mi nors is making that more difficult, but i do believe that the majority of the american people would support immigration reform if it is done in the correct way. >> we're a long ways away from immigration reform. >> exactly. >> we're dealing with an exploding crisis on our border right now. >> not only that, i think one of the issues is that i think it has not been well explained. what is going on in central america? what exactly is going on in el salvador, honduras, guatemala that make -- children don't just start walking away from ntheir homeland for any reason. this is something that's been occurring tisince 2009. the united states did deport a large number of gang members back to el salvador. what did we think was going to happen? a lot of it has to do with our own policies.

we've given these nations money. those monies have not gone to what they were supposed to have gone to, so people feel hopeless, and then there's one other thing that i want to add to that, and that is the backlog, the current backlog on immigration. if you're a parent that maybe got here, was able to fix your immigration situation and you petitioned for your wife or your child, that was back in 1997 maybe, and if you look at the visa process right now, they might not -- they still may be in 1992. so people get desperate, and they become impatient, and so they make this treacherous -- >> they make this treacherous journey. you look at the politics of this, you look at raul labrador saying we have to deport all these people. secretary johnson would not answer the question yet the administration wants more power to be able to deport them right away. >> i think it's going to be hard for them to maintain this ambiguity that chuck talked about because they're going to send up a bill for $2 billion or $3 billion extra to help solve this problem, and he previewed

there's going to be an expedited process to return. that's going to be a problem on the president's left in the congress. they're going to wonder, what are you going to do with an executive order that will counter balance what you need to do in this bill? so it's a delicate balance, for republicans as well, by the way. they need to be critical of the president without alienating a rising demographic group, and they have not been very good at doing that. you can criticize the coyotes, you can criticize the administration. when you go after the kids and their mothers, that's a long-term problem for the republican party. >> george w. bush used to say family values don't end at the rio grande. it seems like a long time ago in autopsy politics. >> it certainly does. the president is saying more broadly he's going to take on the issue of overhauling immigration and that the congress has failed, and think about how intense that's going to be going forward given that the expectations on the left, the expectations from latino

groups are that he can make significant changes in the lives of millions of people and anything he does is going to be so provocative, especially given the congress and even the courts' resisance to him using his executive power. it's going to be a very, very challenging situation. >> when you look at those protests, what do you see? do you see -- is it intolerance? is it prejudice? or is it frustration with all of the costs, all of the drain on resources that an illegal flow like that can represent? >> i think it's all of the above. everything that you mentioned. i think a lot of people are afraid. i think a lot of people are still trying to recover jobs and think that the immigrants are coming here to take their jobs. i think basically a lot of it has to do with -- and it's provoked by the inaction of congress. if maybe this would have been tackled years ago, we would not be seeing this, but, you know -- >> but we're not going to get to that for a long time. >> and it's not going to happen.

>> but it is an indictment of the system that we go from crisis to crisis. if you're talking about the economy, if you're talking about immigration. the congress doesn't deal with broad questions on this. it's not capable of it. it deals with crisis after crisis, and it's no way to govern on an issue that is this broad. >> by the way, this is a not in my backyard. we've had americans protesting immigrant groups being shifted around in this country for decades. bill clinton lost a race for governor arguably because he agreed -- he allowed jimmy carter to send the boat life cuba cubans, some of them to arkansas. this is not a unique issue. we've had americans protesting new immigrants being bused around, shipped around this country for a long time, so that part of it isn't new. it's sort of how is the administration going to explain it. how do they give the local communities an idea that there is an end date here, that this is temporary and who these people are, and i think part of the problem the administration has had, particularly in

murrieta, there hasn't been a lot of information about what are they doing, how long are they going to be here? basic things like that. >> spend a couple minutes talking about something that seems as difficult if not more difficult, that's religious views, contraception, women's health and politics after the supreme court cases this week, the hobby lobby case, the wheaton college case. president obama sent a tweet out which gives you some insight into how he views this politically in a midterm election year, and the tweet was, throw back to last week when a woman, not her boss, made her own decisions about her health care. again, religious exceptions on the part of businesses or a college, they don't have to provide certain kinds of contraception. this becomes a ready-made political issue now. >> it is a political issue, and one of the most interesting kind of fascinating dynamics that you saw this week after the hobby lobby case, many people were reading the hobby lobby case as the court saying that the administration had come up with an alternative for religious

groups to -- there was a path for women employees to get contraceptive coverage. the decision or the order on thursday really seemed to be showing these deep and very profound divisions within the court and basically the court was saying these -- wheaton college does not even have to comply with what the administration said to provide contraceptive coverage. so you're seeing these really raw feelings on the court in a very unusually kind of fierce dissent from the women members. >> yeah. it was very narrow ruling. the wheaton ruling was essentially, we're not going to impose the hhs rule until there's a decision on the broader accommodation you're talking about, and they haven't decided on this issue. what they're talking about is the religious freedom restoration act, which says you have to pursue the least intrusive means to achieve these purposes. the court looked at this and said this was not the least

intrue tisive means. the question question is is the accommodation for nonreligious groups the path? >> isn't the question can you find a way to get contraception to women who want it through the insurance companies and as a way to get around people who have religious -- >> obviously that's what the fik was supposed to be but let's go to the raw politics of this is normally it used to be conservative movement used to quietly hope for losses on the supreme court because it gave them a political reason for existing, it gave them something to campaign for, somebody to beat up. what was fascinating post hobby lobby was how frankly excited democratic campaigns were acting. almost like we have something to run on here on the left, and i tell you, the swing vote in the midterm elections is women. it is white women basically 40 to 55 if you want to just i.d. the exact demographic group, and these are the women that in 2010

they were leaning republican at this time. this time they haven't been and it all starts with the contraception ad campaign that obama's campaign -- >> and this is ultimately about obamacare, too. this is now does it stifle your religious expression? is that the real parallel of obamacare for conservatives who want to make that argument? >> yes, it is, and also i think the decision basically is a double-edged sword. i think it opens up a pandora box to what is going to come after that. and not only that, i mean, you're already hearing people saying that not only will it affect obamacare, but is it another way for people to begin thinking about how they obtain their health care? maybe it's not through their job. maybe it's through government health care systems. so, i mean, i just think that the ruling is, like i said before, is just opening up a pandora box. >> thank you all. we're going to hear from more of you at the end of the program in a couple minutes. coming up here on this july 4th weekend, our harry smith meets a man whose mission is to find all

kinds of history, including inventions that are now part of everyday life. >> this is a replica of the original. >> exactly what it looks like. weighs 2 1/2 pounds. had a battery life of 20 minutes. ugh. heartburn.

did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. up next, the latest on the crisis in iraq and a stark warning from a former world leader. plus, right here at home, our kevin tibbles finds fear among american muslims. >> it's not a foreign issue. once they have their own state, they will launch attacks against us again. every hacker, crook and nuisance in the world. but systems policed by hp's cyber security team are constantly monitored for threats. outside and in. that's why hp reports and helps neutralize more intrusions than anyone... in the world. if hp security solutions can help keep the world's largest organizations safe, they can keep yours safe, too. make it matter.

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we've already talked about the terrorist threat coming from iraq and syria, the very latest on that now the islamist militant group known as isis attempting to consolidate the borders of the caliphate or islamic state they declared that week. i'm joined by andrea mitchell with more on that. welcome, andree na. >> thank you and good morning, david. so far isis is winning. in fact, the terror group's he will louis sif leader is so confident he appeared this weekend in a mosque in mosul. but president obama does not want to order air strikes against the terror group as long as iraq's widely disparaged president maliki is still in charge, and this weekend maliki said he will not step aside. earlier this week i talked about the iraq crisis and how it now threatens to spread with tony blair, now a middle east envoy.

iraq exploding. we're seeing the insurgents from isis taking more and more territory and holding the territory, and the border with syria all but erased, jordan threatened, potentially on to lebanon. a regional threat now. first of all, would this have happened if the united states had armed the rebel -- moderate rebel forces is year ago or longer and not let isis metastasize the way it has? >> you know i argued, andrea, that actions in syria a couple years ago, i think it was justified, but i honestly don't think you can say what might or might not have happened. and i think what is important is to deal with the situation we have now and, you know, having been through all these types of decisions myself when i was in government, i know how difficult they are, but i think you've got one basic problem, which is this extremism that's rebuilt itself in syria, it came back over the

border into iraq. we've got in the short term to push them back as hard as possible. i think the president is right to send help to the iraqis to be helping the syrian opposition, the moderate syrian opposition, but in the longer term we're going to have to get a strategy for the middle east that identifies correctly the problem, which is this extremism, and bears down on it wherever we can, however we can, with the allies we have in the region. >> we've increased our intelligence. we're prepositioning for the potential of air strikes, but the president and others are really reluctant to use air power to support maliki. that he don't want to take sides in this sectarian debate. >> sure. >> and so far maliki has been sectarian. he has not been the government governing all of iraq. >> i'm afraid that the two issues that are the connected with this are the way this group was able to overrun a part of syria, take control,

build up and rearm and refinance themselves in syria and then come over the border, and the other aspect is the sectarianism of the maliki government. i think the u.s. is absolutely right and would do so i think with the full support of the international community to leverage its support to say to prime minister millialiki, eithe has to change or the government has to change. very important in this, the ayatollah sistani has also called for an i clue sif government. that's very important for the future. >> with that signal from the ayatollah sistani, does that give us some political coverage to put more pressure on maliki? doesn't maliki have to go for this to work, for iraq to ever hold as the country we know it? >> it is much easier for the united states and others to help if there was a government in iraq that was genuinely inclusive, that had the support of ayatollah sistani, and that could command support in a fight

against extremism, not in a partisan fight within the shia/sunni split. >> you have written that removing saddam hussein did not cause this conflagration, but if we had not invaded in 2003, the united states, great britain, and others, wouldn't iraq be a very, very different place? >> well, it's hard to judge -- >> a better place. >> -- because obviously if you were to ask some of the kurds against whom saddam launched jep si genocide or people in basra who were excluded from government, excluded from their rights of worship, they would probably say no. if you ask the people in baghdad who have had a terrible time over the last years, they'd probably say yes. however, the purpose of what i'm saying is not to shuffle off responsibility. i take full responsibility for what we did. the important thing is to realize this is a long-term problem. its root cause is in this extremism. these regimes were never going

to be sustained. i mean, we removed the one in iraq but the people removed the other ones, and so in the end the question is, how do we help the region and can we help the region to a future in which this toxic mix of religion and politics is taken out of the situation and people are allowed to have the type of government that a majority of people in the middle east probably want. >> many, especially in his own country, now blame blair for joining george w. bush and invading iraq in the first place in 2003, which they see as the root cause of the current crisis, but as you just heard, blair has no apologies and no regrets. >> andrea mitchell, thank you very much this morning. closer to home, american muslims are also gravely concerned about all of this as our kevin tibbles found when he visited dearborn, michigan, just outside detroit, a city where muslims make up more than a third of population. it is this week's "meeting america." >> reporter: dearborn, michigan, is the home of the american

automobile. it is also home to the largest muslim population in the nation. and at the city's vast and impressive islamic center of america, the iraqi-born imam hat san al qazwini sounds the warning. >> i am worried about my original country, which is iraq, and i am worried about this country, my second country, the united states. it's not a foreign issue. once they have their own state, they will launch attacks against us again. >> reporter: as people go about their lives, they are touched, even horrified, by the seemingly unchecked violence in the middle east. still, this is middle america. and what could be more american? >> ali center field. >> reporter: kids obsessed with their national pastime. their parents, too. yet despite the homegrown game

they love, zinab allie say she and her family are often made to feel like outsiders. >> people look at us as if we're not really american. we're not blond, blue eyes. >> zinab is usa to the core. born and raised in dearborn, this year she celebrates independence day during the holy month of ramadan where muslims fast from dawn till dusk. >> my culture is the fourth of july. i celebrate ramadan but i had an all-american meal yesterday. i had motor leaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. >> reporter: in dearborn they proudly remember their middle eastern roots but are building their future as americans. at the lava lounge, aaron saab, the son of a taxi driver, epitomizes the american dream. >> this country gave me more than any other country would ever be able to give me. i managed to go to harvard

business school through my father. he was the one who pushed us to work hard, to work hard. >> we always -- >> reporter: across town at linda taled's home they prepare to break the fast. >> this is a drink we have when we break our fast. >> reporter: at this very american field on this very american weekend, there is plenty to celebrate. >> you need to have a culture. if you have no culture, you have nothing. our family is diverse because it has the best of both worlds. >> reporter: for "meet the press," kevin tibbles. >> thank you, kevin. and coming up here, harry smith with a unique story of how one man is discovering america's great forgotten history. that'sm the healthcare you deserve. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes, if it becomes simpler... if frustration and paperwork decrease... if grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home... american weekend, there is with a unique story of how one so let's simplify things.

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great rates for great rides. geico motorcycle, see how much you could save. we are back. fireworks, baseball, and hot dogs, that's what independence day is made of, of course. it's also about remembering history. so on this july 4th weekend, our harry smith has the story of an author who made an unusual career finding american history in everyday places. >> reporter: as the world walks by, two men have a conversation in midtown manhattan.

>> so we're at about 6th avenue and west 52nd street. tell me what happened here on april 3rd, is it 1973? >> the guy on the right is andrew carroll. the man he's speaking with is a martin cooper. cooper invented the cell phone and made the very first call from this spot. >> this is a replica of the original. >> that's right. exactly what it looks like. weighs 2.5 pounds. had a battery life of 20 minutes. as you notice you couldn't hold it up for 20 minutes. >> because it's so heavy. >> reporter: andrew carroll wants us to know that history didn't happen long ago and far away. no. quite often we are closer to it than we can imagine. he started a project called "here is where." >> this is the marriott park, and this is where back in 1925 the young busboy was working named langston hughes. >> he was a busboy in this hotel. >> he noticed a gentleman,

lindsey, famous american poet dining there. surreptitiously he put his poems on the table. >> reporter: carroll finds history in everyday places and among everyday people. he's the man who asked folks to start sending him wartime letters. that turned into a best-selling book. >> this is one of the first letters we received dated may 2nd, 1945, written by horace evers. >> reporter: they had stumbled into adolf hitler's private apartment. sergeant evers found hitler's stationary and then wrote down what he had just seen days before at dachau. >> a very powerful letter. >> reporter: history if the first perpendicular, not from commanders or academics but from those who live it and those who loved them. >> i won't forget opening a letter from a woman, dear andy, i'm sending you the letters from

my brother from vietnam. i just want somebody to know who he was. that line always stayed with me. >> reporter: carroll is still collecting letters and we were there when dustin and nicole hauly gave him theirs, letters exchanged during dustin's 15 months in iraq. >> when the letters would come and i could open it up and it gave me the opportunity to connect with him. >> you can almost see the person in it. you can see their quirks in it, the way she writes and dots her "i"s. >> it was the fountadation of o entire relationship. >> really? >> i don't think we would be here today if we wouldn't have wrote those letters. >> andrew carroll insists history is not made by others but by us. he will embark on a 50-state search for-mile-an-hour lett mo more history. for "meet the press," harry sprit. >> you can learn more about the finding history project by going to our website. it's "meet the press nbc.com. for the week's big question we will be talking about, should

the children who have already crossed the border be allowed to stay in the united states as this border crisis heats up? we want to hear your thoughts. weigh in on facebook. that's all for today. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." here are some of the best foul 4th fireworks displays from around the country.

we have to do right by the children, but at the end of the day in the final analysis, our border is not open to illegal migration, and we will stem the tide. >> a warning from homeland security secretary jeh johnson. hundreds of children continue to cross the border every single day. no sign of slowing down. so what is the white house saying now that they're going to do to stop them? what happened to your face? >> he hit me in the face. >> what is the reason? did you do something wrong? >> i didn't. >> free from police custody, a palestinian american teenager is back with his family after he was allegedly beaten by israeli police. we'll hear more from him and his