single phone call or for that matter, use your favorite method of communication and tweet it. to all those ceos who i speak to all the time who say stop listening to the trumpet rick, he's just firing people up. it's the tax cuts that will be great for this country. i remind you, ceos out there, the muslim ban, charlottesville, the treatment of puerto rico and now the separation of families. why is this happening? why is this the policy of president trump? thank you for watching this hour of "velshi & ruhle." i hand you off to my colleague andrea mitchell. right now, the cries of the children. why the immigration debate rages we hear from some of the kids taken from their parents because of the president's new zero tolerance policy. crying helplessly. children calling for a parent.

where are the girls? the homeland security secretary cannot answer why the government has only released pictures of boys in detention centers? >> where are the girls? where are the young tods hdlers? >> i don't know. i'm in the familiar. >> you're saying they are being well cared for. how can you make that claim if you don't know where they are? >> it's not that i don't know where that ri. i'm saying the vast majority are held by health and human services. call for the president to end his zero tolerance policy are growing louder from former u.s. attorneys, religious leaders and from john mccain and susan collins. >> congress alone has the -- >> that is not the case. otherwise how could the previous two administrations have reje

rejected this approach. that's amazing that she said that. good day. president trump is resisting bipartisan calls to end the crisis created by his own administration where thousands of children are ripped from the parents and what pediatricians diagnosed as intentional child abuse. we are hearing from audio taken last week and released from inside a detention facility. it's not been independently verified by nbc news but just listen. >> it's a universal language of a cry for help but homeland

expert brushed off any concerns about the children's welfare during a contentiuos white house briefing. sg how is this not child abuse for these innocent children who are being separated from their parents? >> 10,000 were sent by their parents with strangers to undertake a completely dangerous and deadly travel alone. we now care for them. we have high standards. we give them meals. we give them education. we give them medical care. there's videos, tvs. i visited the detention centers myself. that would be my answer to that question. >> joining inin ining me now, contributor.

kp immigration reporter on the other end of the u.s. mexico border in san diego. first, jacob, you unlike kristen are at the border and been inside the detention facilities. your response to what she is saying about how the bureaucracy is handling this crisis. >> reporter: we heard the clip you played that secretary nielson said she's been inside detention centers. julia is on the air with us now have been able to confirm she's never beened inside this one. over 1100 kids have been separated. i'm not sure how she is supposed to accurately talk about what's happening on the ground without having walked through this facility like we did on sunday. >> you're not allowed to take

cameras in but we know from your descriptions, your extraordinary description what is you saw inside. the cages, the blankets on the floor. children crying. children separated from parents and not having any way. when she talked about the ability of people to re-connect. tell me what happens when you try to dial an 800 number and you get a line. >> reporter: well, you don't know where you child is. there's no guarantee you will be rey reunited immediately because you're the parent of that child. there's a process hhs has to go through. they tell us 52 day s the minimum stay. there's no guarantee that reuniting is going to happen and that your child won't place with sponsor that is other than yourself. i mean, it's just incorrect to

say it's an easy process and something that's simple to go through with because they hand you a piece of paper with an 800 number on it. >> one of the points you made in your many reports is you're assigned a number. it's an offensive category but they call it an a number for a lira alien. you have two agencies and there's no coordination between them. >> reporter: the on nous is on the individual to figure out how to navigate this process. they treat you like somebody who has treated a criminal act. you get that tear sheet. you've got to figure it out. it's not like you're calling an airline or somewhere where they want to be there in order to make this an easy process. i would have a feeling that

would disagree with that characterizati characterization. if it were easy, we wouldn't be hearing about people not able to find their children. >> you're talking to mothers and family who is have chosen this route. doesn't seem to be understandable at the white house briefings about why would parents go through this danger. why would they break the law. tell us what you're learning. >> reporter: they are choosing to wait out here. to weigh this decision. this impossible decision that they tell me they are being put in in a shelter like the one we're standing at now. first i want to sort of give you context as to where we are. this is on the mexican side of the border. it's one of the most dangerous cities in the country. we have to come in here can security detail. you see guards behind me now. we're told by pastor that runs this shelter that we couldn't

peak outside. one these mothers make the dangerous trek it's in this dangerous city where a turf war is being fought. two gangs are wages this war. i want to talk to a mother and her son because as you were talking about family separations and what these kids are going through, we've been report ogen a new trend which is mothers who are not prosecuted after crossing the border illegally because zero tolerance is not at 100% capacity who are still being separated from their kids younger than 18. that's something that did not happen during the obama administration and it this the fourth case i've found of separation by agents at the border. i want to get your take. your son is 14 and he has seizures. you were separated inside that facility. were you given a reason why?

>> no. i wasn't told why. they just separated us. you have been deported back to policy because the policy for mexican s different unlike central americans. do you still want to cross? even though there's a chance he could be celebrated from you. >> you still want to cross? why? i want to cross because i need him to get treatment. he has epilepsy. he has something in his brain and that's why i need to cross. >> antonio if you can share some of what happened to you. you were separated from your mom in there. you're 14 years old. >> i need help. i want my father to be released. their father was kept there by immigration conditions. can you tell me what conditions

you were held in. we're trying to understand what other kids are going through. can you tell us where you were sleeping? with other kids. on a bed, on the floor? on the floor. did you have to wrap yourself in blankets? how did you cover yourself at night? we didn't sleep very well. when you told when you were going to see your mother? when you were going to get your medicine? no. were you given your medicine? you were given your medicine. the kid was given his medicine inside? >> she says not this one specifically. they tossed this one to the floor. i bought this when i got here. thank you so much for sharing your story with us. even though you were separated for a short time, they were

separated for five days but gives us a window into what other families going through and especially not getting any explanation as to when they will say their parents again or why they are there is one of the most heartbreaking things for many of the folks that i've been talking to throughout the past couple of days on this immigration crisis. >> thank you so much. you're trying to be as specific as possible but i think we all agree, victoria, that five dies -- days is not a short time for a mother and child being separated, a child needing his medicine and not knowing when they will be reunited. >> reporter: it's a lifetime for a mother to be celebrated out from her child and aside from that separation, there is the logistical madness of what is going on on the bureaucratic side. what the trump administration has done is implemented this large scale zero tolerance policy without any organizational component to it. they implemented it a couple

weeks ago but there was no forethought of if we're going to do this, how are we going to do it right. we're seeing complete chaos, separation of families where the kids are lost from their parents because of the numbers in hhs and of the of refugee resettlement and there's the federal prison component that comes into play. add on top of that is the judicial component. there's an extremely long backlog of hearing immigration cases. adding onto that, prolonging this pain, prolonging the separation because this terrible policy was so poorly thought out to begin with. >> julia, you've been talking to all of these dhs officials. a lot of us watch kirstjne attempting to answer these

questions. show would say that's dhs. that's hhs not dhs. how does anyone work through this red tape? >> i think those mean nothing to people who have been separated from their children and as i just reported, we now understand there could be some situations where parents are permanently separated from their children. this is coming from officials that i spoke to in the obama administration that say in some cases where they had to separate because of more serious charges than what we're seeing now, it's possible a parent runs through this process much more quickly than the child is deported and the child stays on the united states side and it's hard to-and-a-half gto navigate the system. the american people want answers as to who is responsible for this. we're getting a lot of mixed

messag messages. people could just turn themselves in at port of entry. >> let me play that. >> as i said before, if you're seeking asylum go to a port of entry. you do not need to break the law ofhe united states to seek asylum. >> they're being turned away from ports of entry. >> that's incorrect. we have limited resources. we have multiple missions at cbp. what we do is based on the very high standards we have, if we do not have enough bed space, if we do not have enough medical personnel on staff, if we do not have enough caretakers on staff then we will tell people that come to the border they need to come back. >> what's your fact check on that? >> i've done reporting on this. i did this when the migrant caravan arrived, this lack of resources is intentional. i spoken to officials. i've seen the numbers, the

documents. they don't want to rush those resources that she's describing to the border because they want to make it hard for people to come in. they knew it was coming for over a month and did nothing to prepare it. in in case they are practically forcing them to go in illegally where they could charge them and separate them. >> let's follow up on that because there are people who come in and says they get the ports of entry are still separated from their children even though they are taking the legal front door approach. >> exactly. i get to see a lot of things we don't get and one thing i've seen is when asylum seekers present themselves at the port of entry, there's cases where they have been separated from their children. i've talked to multiple parents this has happened to.

they presented themselves at the port of entry. theyasylum. they feared for their lives. one father had a 1-year-old baby that was sent 1500 miles away to a shelter in texas. he remains in detention. >> when you talk to officials there about what they are doing at this port of entry, how do they excuse themselves? they do they explain it? >> the policy within immigration and customs enforcement is if an asylum seeker present themselves at the port of entry, they say they will not separate families so long as they have proper documentation. the cases in which they do separate, it has to do with the safety of the children that they haven't provided enough evidence that this is their child. the cases i followed in particular the father i

mentioned, he says he brought the original birth certificate as the child as well as his id. presented those documents the customs and border protection at the port of entry and was transferred to immigration and custom where he no longer had the documents and they said he didn't have enough evidence that this was his baby. i followed up with customed and abo border protection to see if they received it, they neither confirmed nor denied. i think what this reporting shows is there are instances in which even when asylum seekers go the legal route and present themselves at the ports of entry, the trump administration is sometimes separating families and secretary nielson said yesterday they are fot doing this. if people cross legally, they will not be separated.

there are instances where they are being separated when they cross legally. >> thank you so much. coming up, homeland insecurity. the demander for the ouster of chief. we'll talk what top senator is calling for her to go. stay with us. ♪ introducing e*trade personalized investments professionally managed portfolios customized to help meet your financial goals. you'll know what you're invested in and how it's performing. so you can spend more time floating about on your inflatable swan. [ding] welcome to holiday inn! thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! every stay is a special stay at holiday inn.

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the department of health and human services has leased images of older boys being held but what about the other children? kristen welker asked the secretary of homeland security that question at the white house yesterday. >> where are the girls? where are the young toddlers? >> i don't know. i'm not familiar with those particular imimages. >> the you know where the girls are, the young toddlers? >> we have children in dhs care. most of the children are transferred to hhs. i don't know what pictures you're referencing. >> we see images of boys. >> joining me is democratic senator who was the first snaert focus attention on the crisis by trying to visit a detention center last week and returning on father's day. where are the girls and why is homeland say it will take two more days to find pictures of these girls? >> they are in the care of the office of refugee relocation or

resettlement. we haven't been able to get a list yet. i understand it's important to keep the list confidential so there's not threats to the girls where they are but we have to have congressional oversight. the fact that the secretary isn't familiar with the other side of this that is so relevant to her policy is deputies ldeep troubling. >> what about whether she should resign? >> she should. she gave so many different false storie stories. that's exactly the argument that sessions, our attorney general, our chief of staff made in pushing this policy forward. she dismissed the idea it had to do with legislative leverage. the president said it's valuable for legislative leverage. she said all they have to do is go to a port of entry.

seven of us were down there on father's day. we were at the port of entry. we watched the american border guard stop these who were seeking asylum from being able to cross over the bridge to present their asylum case. two weeks earlier there were 40 families on the bridge. they didn't like that vision so they prevent people from coming at all and just let in a couple cases day, a few cases a day. >> i want to play some of attorney general sessions on fox with laura ingraham talking about the comparison that some are making to japanese enternment camps and others have made the comparison to what happened under the nazis. take a look at this. >> nazi, germany, concentration camps, laura bush, all the first ladies going ban to elenore roosevelt. what's going on here?

>> it's real exaggeration. they were keeping the jews from leaving the country. >> could you do fact check on that, perhaps? all those railroad cars taking people to poland and outside of germany. >> senator. >> yes, you're absolutely right. >> i don't know where to start. >> i thought that was a rhetorical comment. it's so deeply disturbing and you think about how child snatching has other chapters in our history. during slavery, children being removed from their parents mp american indians having children removed and sent off to boarding school. this is a shameful, terrible thing as laura bush said. border security yes. harm to family, harm to children, no. that's exactly the approach we need to take.

i met a little baby. a 2-month-old baby by a woman who did manage to present her case on sunday. the way she did it, she has to circumvent the american boarder control by traveling with the considers a cars. she was pretented to wash the windows of the side so she could get to the american side and present her case. >> what about all this talk of legislation. we'll stipulate it's not needed. the president could change this. what are you seeing now and i know senator finestein has the democrats lined up. >> we're going to keep pressing that president trump can ching this -- change this in a moment. it's what the secretary misrepresented in her press conference. we're also pursuing the keep families together act and finding ways to bring republican colleagues over.

we're not going to accept the president using this immigration policy in so many ways. >> thank you for what you're doing. we want to listen in to senator bill nielson. he's at florida where they were barred from entering the detention facility. >> we have just spoken to their publicist up in the office. they are just repeating what i have been told earlier today. i thought by the time i got here that they had thought better of refusing the senator, the

congresswoman from checking on the welfare of children. >> they obviously are hiding something. they are using the excuse, get this. you have to apply two weeks in advance. this is what the deputy secretary told me this morning and i said, obviously that is balderda balderdash. you know better than telling me that we've got to fill out a form of two weeks ahead of time when children's lives are at stake. they are obviously trying to cover up. they don't want us to see it. i'm going back and will be on the floor of the senate tonight telling the senate exactly what has happened today. this is not a good reflection on the trump administration.

that it is just perpetuating this policy of ripping children apart and they don't want to be held accountable. they know they have done wrong. they are starting to get this reminded every moment. yet, they are now embarrassed and don't want us to check on the comfort and welfare of these children. this is absolutely ridiculous. i am ashamed of this administration. that they are doing this. >> first of all, thanks for being here. if you could react to senator nelson from being blocked to entering this detention facility. >> i think it's clear the administration doesn't want people to see what's going on. i can't blame them. you have kids in cages at walmart. not the look the administration wants now. f

>> the administration, has blamed this on democrats this has been the law but not the policy. the policy didn't need to be used. tell us what happened under the obama administration. >> i'm shocked by this. i can't continue they can argue this is legally mandated. this is a policy decision by the trump administration to deter families from crossing. the obama administration was tough on border. you can do that humanmanely andu don't need to rip kids from their families. >> let's talk about trying to reunite these families. they keep saying people are trapped. she isn't aware of what hhs is doing. she says that's another agency. how are these families supposed to get back together? >> don't forget two weeks ago hhs vehh revealed they lost track of 1500 kids. now you have to keep track of kids and parents. it's more difficult than it

sounds. the parents end up on one track. if they don't reunit right away, the kids will be stuck here in the united states for years. guardians will be appointed and the parent will be down in honduras where chair child thei. >> do we have evidence that some of these families can be separated. >> a problem i dealt with trying to figure out ways in which parents were separated inadvertently. some cases that i've heard of where that's happening. that's likely to be coming in the weeks and months to come. >> here is the audio that a lot of us have been reacting to and confirmed by us from -- pfrom u by a civil rights attorney in is a child rkts, a 6-year-old girl who has memorized the number of her aunt.

>> they track down the aunt and the aunt could not come and claim that little girl because she is also living in the shadows and has her own child and would put the entire family at risk. again, it's a non-starter for this kid. >> i don't understand why we're doing this. that's horrifying to listen to that video. the federal government is not well equipped to be the guardian of thousands of kids.

why would we create a crisis where we rip parents away and seems like that when it provides no value in terms of border security from chemokekeeping the from coming in the first place. >> the president and others are pointing to the border patrol that supports this policy this h was lester holt's interview with a border official in charge. >> do you feel like the bad guy? you're the instrument of a policy that's very controversial right now in. >> i feel that the option of not doing anything is going to worsen this situation. i think we have to work with what we have right now and hopefully get the immigration laws redone. >> the truth is, your administration was criticized by many immigration activists for being too tough during periods of surge and doing too much on deportation. it was a controversial policy then.

>> absolutely. we kept families unified. the reason we did that is because it's very difficult to keep them together throughout the process. i know the border patrol agent in that clip. most don't want to take care of kids in cages. they wnant to be arresting bad guys. >> you seen any evidence with the vacancies in this region, acting secretaries, for instance, that the state department is doing anything to message to these countries what the new policy is or how to handle it. >> i haven't seen that. there's a big role they can play. there are programs we can run in central america that can stop them from coming in the first place. this is a government solution to solve this problem. it's unfortunate the way they are handling this. >> thank you very much. despite denials from homeland security, families are being permanently separated as you've just heard.

some parents are deported before they can be reunited with their children. the new york times cites a mother who was sent back without her son. guatemala is where people are fleeing violence and through this lock trek through mexico to reach the u.s. border. you've within talking to people down there. tell me, describe why families are so separate that they endure this long march to the southern border. >> reporter: life here can be extremely difficult and you were just playing that heartbreaking audio of that little girl who remembered her phone number. you have to think about the kids who don't remember their phone numbers when put in that type of situation. let me show you kind of how things work when you're deported back to guatemala here. this is outside of the airport. this right here is where the air forces and the deported are

brought down here to a processing center. then they will get out and get on buses like this one. these buses go all over guatemala. here is the thing about these deportations that a lot of people forget. some of these people being deported have trouble speaking spanish. here in guatemala there's something like 32 mayan dialects. in the united states there aren't translaters for a lot of them. those kids you hear about don't have basic says to even being able to vocalize what's going on and their parents when they are deported back here are processed through this little gate over here. they come back to guatemala and they basically try to find a ride back to their towns. it could be four or five hours ie w away from the city. when you get back to those areas, cell phone service is limited. you don't have internet

connectivity. it's not like you can make an international call easily. when hearing about the possibility that these families might be separated for ever it's very easy to understand once you get here to guatemala. this right here, let me show you. right now there's nobody here but underneath these gates you can see the courtyard. this is where the deported will come in. i also got to tell you, when you come back here to guatemala, there's a sense of fear that a lot of these immigrants get because not only are they escaping gangs but they have boar borrowed money to go to the united states from sketchy characters. that's what they are thinking about, the gangs they escaped and the money they owe of trying to get to the united states. >> that image under that door through the bars is -- tells more than any other picture could. thank you and coming up, the

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zero tolerance policy only fanned the flames surrounding the administration's decision to separate families. >> we have a long existing policy multiple administrations have followed that outline when we may take action to protect children. it's good to see you. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> if you could give us a reality check over whether there is a inherited law, a democratic law. >> the secretary was making the argument the administration has the ability to protect children. that's not what this is. that's not what they are doing. they are harming children. this is not a policy that the obama administration or any administration before it undertook. >> there were surges and controversy over deportations under president obama and it's seasonal as well as reflecting

problems in the central american countries. what happened when you were all considering. you were in the situation room. you're making a decision. who is involved, first of all. from all reports there was no interagency process here. no decision making, no planning, no ramping up of facilities for children at the border. >> it's clear they didn't think think through. the fact that families are still separated. that somebody's kids be unable to connect to their parents again, demonstrate they didn't think this through. all the agencies gather in a room and talk through how to make something happen. >> stay with me a second. the president is speaking right now and let's see if he's talking about immigration. >> it has its ups and downs and all we need is good legislation and we can have it takes care of. we have to get the democrats to

go ahead and work with us. as a result of democrat supported loopholes in our federal laws, most illegal immigrant families and minors who arrive cannot be detained together or removed together, only released. these are crippling loop hopes that cause family separation, which we don't want. as a result of these loop hopes, roughly half a million illegal immigrants and minors from central america have been released into the united states since 2014 at unbelievably great taxpayer expense. nobody knows how much we're paying for this monstrosity that's been created over the years. legislation that nobody has any idea what they're doing. they don't even know what it means. you have to see this.

it's a mile high. child smugglers exploit the loopholes and gain illegal entry into the united states putting countless children in danger on the perilous trek to the united states. they come up through mexico. mexico does nothing for us. they could stop id. they have very strong laws. try staying in mexico for a couple of days. see how long that lasts. [ applause ] they do nothing for us. i see id throut through nafta. i see it with the money they make on trade through nafta. one of the worst deals made by this country. a disaster. we're trying to equalize it. it's not easy but we're getting there. it's not easy.

[ applause ] we're going to take care of our american farmers. we're going to take care of our manufacturers and our manufacturing jobs. they're making unbelievable amounts of money. that's not including the drugs that are flowing through our border because we have no wall and we have no protection. the drugs that are coming in through mexico and the southern border is disgraceful. we'll see whether or not we can make a reasonable nafta deal or deal doesn't have to be called nafta. we can do one-on-one with mex o mexico. one-on-one with candadcanada. canada, they like to talk. they're our great neighbor. they fought world war ii with us. we appreciate it. they fought world war i with us. we appreciate it but we're prekiprek i -- protecting each other. there was a story talking about people living in canada coming

into the united states and smuggling things back into canada because the tariffs are so massive. the tariffs to get common items back into canada are so high that they have to smuggle them in. they buy shoes and wear them. they scuff them up. they make them look old. no, we're treated horribly. dairy. dairy. 275% tariff. basically that's a barrier without saying it's barrier. i told them, if they don't change their ways and we have a tremendous deficit. people say there's not that much of a deficit. they're not including two things. energy and timber. those are the two -- >> the president is now ripping on trade and his grievances against canada and mexico. the facts are we have a surplus

against canada and that is something the prime minister trudeau has not been able to persuade him of those facts. let's talk about the children and what you are did in the situation room when you briefly considered what to do and whether or not to go ahead with family separation. >> the way the process is supposed to work is the agency surface all their ideas and figure out what's the most effective strategy. this idea surfaced. we looked at each other and said it would create a crisis and i wouldn't solve the problem and it's immoral. it doesn't make sense as a policy. at the end of the day this president and administration is creating a crisis at the border. we now have multiple agencies involved with all the mechanics of dealing with these families. figuring out where they are housing everybody. figuring out procedures later in the process about whether or not people will get to be reunited. they are creating chaos, a

crisis at the great expense of human beings but also it's no way to enforce the border. it's no way to conduct an immigration policy. it doesn't work. it's chaotic. >> he's saying this is something he inherited from you and this is loopholes from democrats. >> this is a guy who is comfortable with the images he is seeing on tv and doesn't want the take responsibility. president trump could stop this today. this was a decision by his administration to undertake this policy. they are causing great harm to children and to families and to our standing in our world. it could stop right now if he made that decision. this has nothing to do with democrats. >> thank you so much. let's get our inside scoop today from nbc kristen welker at the white house. what's the latest? >> reporter: andrea, i just sfo spoke with a senior administration official and to pick up on the point you're making, the president seems to be digging in despite these

disturbing images and stouthe ss of these kids crying. he has no plans to back down. he wants to see a broader fix to the immigration as they say loopholes immigration, as they loopholes. at the same time, andrea, this official saying that the president is willing to consider some of those short-term fixes. of course, we had that emergency legislation announced by senator ted cruz overnight, and then there have been so many new potential fixes that have emerged throughout the day. of course the question is how quickly can those pieces of legislation move through congress. the sense is that wouldn't necessarily happen within the next 24 to 48 hours for example. but, look, officials here broadly acknowledge the political pressure is mounting and they go back to something the president has said which is he hates to see these images. he said that to myself and a group of reporters when we had the chance to ask him questions at the end of last week. so you can imagine, andrea, the pressure only mounting as these

images continue to mount. >> but, in fact, phil rutger, there's been some reporting that the white house staff is cherry picking the images and giving him really upbeat reports on what's happening at the border. >> yes, andrea, we reported that last night at the post that the president, his staff have been showing him images that are somewhat more positive than the ones we've been showing in the media, showing these kids smiling, having a good time, going outside. perhaps in a way to try to influence his thinking about this policy. i've talked to senior officials this morning as well and reiterate what kristen said, which is the president is not going to be pulling the plug on his policy. he's digging in. he sees it as entirely a problem for congress to deal with, not his administration. >> and here's the president speaking again about the children. >> we're stopping them all the time, by the thousands. but they still get through. we have no wall. we have no border security.

without a border, you don't have a country. you don't have a country. [ applause ] under current law, we have only two policy options to respond to this massive crisis. we can either release all illegal immigrant families and minors who show up at the border from central america, or we can arrest the adults for the federal crime of illegal entry. those are the only two options. totally open borders or criminal prosecution. for law breaking. and you want to be able to do that. we don't want people pouring into our country. we want them to come in through the process, through the legal system, and we want ultimately a merit-based system, where people come in based on merit.

keep in mind those who apply for asylum legally at ports of entry are not prosecuted. the fake news media back there doesn't talk about that. they're fake. they are helping -- they are helping these smugglers and these traffickers like nobody would believe. they know it. they know exactly what they're doing. and it should be stopped. because what's going on is very unfair to the people of our country. and they violate the law. people that come in violate the law. they endanger their children in the process. and, frankly, they endanger all of our children. you see what happens with ms-13. where your sons and daughters

are attacked violently. kids that never even heard of such a thing are being attacked violently. not with guns but with knives. because it's much more painful. inconceivable. here we are talking about business -- inconceivable that we even have to talk about ms-13 and other gangs. they attack violently. the most painful way possible. and a bullet is too quick. and we're allowing these people into our country? not with me. we're taking them out by the thousands. [ cheers and applause ] we're taking them out by the thousands. so what i'm asking congress to do is to give us a third option. which we have been requesting since last year. the legal authority to detain and properly remove families together as a unit.

we have to be able to do this. this is the only solution to the border crisis. we have to stop child smuggling. this is the way to do it. and ultimately, we have to have a real border, not judges. thousands and thousands of judges they want to hire. who are these people? when we vet a single federal judge, it go through a big process. everybody that's ever met her or him. they come. they complain. they don't complain. they say he's brilliant, she's brilliant. he's not smart enough to be a judge. now we're hiring thousands and thousands. what country does this? judges? [ inaudible ] i won't say it. [ applause ] i refuse to say it. i hope they picked that up back there. they won't. no, what -- seriously, what country does it? they said, sir, we'd like to

hire about 5,000 or 6,000 more judges. 5,000 or 6,000? now, can you imagine the graft that must take place. you're all small business owners. here's a guy, they say, could you please be a judge? come on, they line up to be a judge. it's horrible. we don't want judges. we want security on the border. we don't want people coming in. we want them to come in through a legal process like everybody else that's waiting to come in to our country. and it got so crazy that all of these thousands -- we now have thousands of judges, border judges. thousands and thousands. and by the way, when we release the people, they never come back to the judge anyway. they're gone. they're in your system. that's it. if they're good, that's great. and if they're bad, you'll have killing, you'll have murders, you'll have this, you'll have

that, you'll have crime. you'll have crime. and, remember, these countries that we give tremendous foreign aid to in many cases, they send these people up and they're not sending their finest. does that sound familiar? remember i made that speech and i was badly criticized. turned out i was 100% right. that's why i got elected. [ cheers and applause ] we want a great country. we want a country with heart. but when people come up, they have to know they can't get in. otherwise it's never going to stop. whether it was president bush, president obama, president clinton, same policies. they can't get them changed. because both sides are always fighting. this is maybe a great chance to have a change. but one of them says, we want to hire 5,000 more judges.

i don't want judges. i want border security. i don't want to try people. i don't want people coming in. do you know, if a person comes in and puts one foot on our ground, it's essentially welcome to america, welcome to our country. you never get them out. because they take their name, they bring the name down, they file it, then they let the person go. they say, show back up to court in one year from now. one year. but here's the thing. that in itself is ridiculous. like, 3% come back. the other thing they have is they have professional lawyers. some are for good. others are do gooders. and others are bad people. and they tell these people exactly what to say. they say, say the following. they write it down. i am being harmed in my country. my country is extremely

dangerous. i fear for my life. say that. congratulations. you'll never be removed. this is given to them by lawyers who are waiting for them to come up. and they're not all bad people. they're impractical people. but in a way, that's cheating. because they're giving them statements. they're not coming up for that reason. they're coming up for many other reasons and sometimes for that reason. there's been a 1,700 percent increase in asylum claims over last ten years. think of that. think of that. we're a great country. but you can't do that. smugglers know how the system works. they game the system. they gave it. it's so easy for them. they're smart. they didn't go to the wharton school of finance. but you know what. they're really smart.

the united states has just surpassed germany as having the most asylum seekers of any nation on earth. can you imagine? can you imagine? and germany, we talk about germany. they allowed millions of people in. by the way, their crime from the time they started is up more than 10%. that's one of the reasons it's at that level is because they don't like reporting that kind of crime so they put it down as different kind of crime. but their crime is up more than 10%. since they started taking im -- i heard somebody said crooked hk hillary clinton was questioning that statistic. she said, it is not true, it's not true. didn't she already have her chance, i mean -- [ applause ] i'll tell you what, when you read the ig report with these really dishonest people -- and i