divorce. >> it's complicated enough when parents from two different states enter into a custody battle. it's twice as complicated when one of the parents is fighting that battle from another country. >> so i want to tell you a little bit about the hague convention. it was started in the '80s and applies to children under the age of 16 who have been removed from their home by one of their parents. what we'll see now is a court hearing and a judge is going to have to decide where the children should live. i want to point out their ages are 3 and 1. >> sad to see this. thank you, chloe. that does it for us today. we're back monday. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. good morning. it's 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart in new york. we begin a busy hour with breaking news out of the southern district of new york. any minute now -- you are seeing

on your screen there the podium set up at the department of justice where federal officials will be holding a press conference to announce bribery charges against democratic senator bob menendez along with his wife nadine. we'll bring you the remarks when they begin. a federal grand jury allege they received, quotes, hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes using his influence in washington to enrich several new jersey businessmen, as well as the egyptian government. as for menendez' future on capitol hill, a source says he will be stepping down as chairman of a committee while this goes on. we are awaiting that news conference to begin.

ken, what else is inside this indictment? how serious are the charges? >> reporter: extremely serious. this is a bribery indictment against senator menendez and his wife nadine. this involves new jersey businessmen who sought and got the senators assistance intervening in criminal cases. the indictment says menendez went into business transactions for a number of things. they say the conduct began in 2018, the year menendez was re-elected. the indictment says federal agents searched his home about a

year ago and found over $480,000 in cash, much of it stuffed in envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets and a safe. it says some of the envelopes contained the fingerprints or dna of one of the alleged bribers or his driver. a lot of this evidence comes from text messages sent or received by nadine menendez. the texts show she's demanding money from these men. the indictment said senator menendez helped one of the men secure contracts with egypt and in march of 2020 nadine texted an egyptian officials and said anything you need, we'll make it happen. there was another text message where her husband sent her a

link to a news article reporting on two pending military sales to egypt and nadine menendez forwarded the link to the egyptian meat guy saying bob had to sign off on this. there's an issue proving a quid pro quo, proving that menendez did these acts for the money. prosecutors have a lot of evidence. >> there's a 39-page indictment, ken. as you say it's very specific and includes those photos of the money and what they say is the senator's jacket and these two gold bars, more than $100,000 worth of gold found on site, ken? >> reporter: that's right. that was part of what was seized. the indictment has -- describes

a google search made by someone at the menendez home, how much does a kilo of gold fetch. as you said, it's a speaking indictment, 39 pages full of photos, of things seized. obviously the seizure of gold bars doesn't prove that bob menendez took a bribe. when you read the indictment, it paints a picture of an ongoing exchange of favors and official action. really nadine menendez at the center of it growing annoyed when some of the money doesn't arrive on time. she had a consulting business she was being paid by some of these people. it describes senator menendez taking action by intervening in a state and criminal investigation by speaking with law enforcement officials who would come to testify at this trial. very powerful evidence. >> ryan, as we await the beginning of this news conference there -- you see the podium set up -- what does this mean for menendez' role and

position on capitol hill? >> reporter: no doubt, jose, this complicates the situation. he is one of the most powerful members of the united states senate. he sits as chair of the senate foreign relations committee. he's likely to step away while he deals with this indictment. he wields incredible influence on capitol hill and in the state of new jersey. as ken points out in the indictment, that's what prosecutors are alleging, he was using that political influence to help business partners who were providing him bribes in exchange for the help. this makes the situation complicated for democrats on capitol hill. there's a narrow margin between democrats and republicans in the united states senate. democrats enjoy that majority. we have not heard from chuck schumer as to how he intends to handle this situation with

menendez. when menendez went through this in the past, as we pointed out back in 2018, he was under criminal indictment. underwent a trial. he stepped away from the foreign relations committee at that time. he was not acquitted in that case. it was a hung jury and prosecutors dropped the charges. menendez described himself as being vindicated. then he went on to win re-election. this could complicate things. this is the second time he's been under a criminal probe. he's up for re-election in 2024. new jersey is a democratic state. they have elected republicans in the past. it's not out of the realm of possibility his seat could be in danger. there is a lot at stake here for democrats when you have someone in a position of power like menendez when you're dealing with a senate map where the

margins are so tight. it's not something that they would want to have to deal with all happening at once. >> as we're coming up past seven minutes past the hour, ryan, any reactions from any lawmakers? >> reporter: no. this indictment has just come down in the last hour. the senate and house are not in session today. we have not had the opportunity to ask many of these lawmakers. we've reached out to many to get a response. you know, i did run into senator menendez yesterday when we were hearing reports that this indictment could come down. i specifically asked him if he was concerned about a potential indictment or had any response. he refused to answer any questions. his spokesperson pointing to past statements saying when this is over, he expected to be vindicated. this is something capitol hill is just digesting. the initial reaction is yet to

come. >> ken, take us down the road going forward. what's next for this case? >> reporter: well, next will be the initial appearances by the defendants. i should say, jose, as we're sitting here we have statements coming in from some defendants. their lawyers say they reviewed the indictment and believe the allegations have no merit. no doubt bob menendez is going to profess his innocence if he hasn't already, and they're presumed innocent. the initial appearance and the arraignment and then a series of pretrial motions and maneuvering. generally that takes about a year in federal cases. could be sooner. approximately a year for a case like this to go to trial. >> these defendants that are included along with the senator, his wife and other defendants,

has the senator had any comment on this? i know you said presumably he'll say he's not guilty. any comment at all? >> as our colleague jonathan has been reporting, the senator's office has made comments saying there's no wrongdoing here and they expect to be vindicated. it's so interesting. when you look at the last corruption case where he wasn't convicted, the allegations were similar. it was a friend of the senator, an eye doctor, a florida eye doctor, who allegedly provided him -- well, did provide because the senate ethics committee showed he provided gifts of trips to the senator in exchange for official acts. at the end of the day a jury was hung and did not convict the senator. then the justice department

decided not to retry the case. the senate ethics committee weighed in and admonished the senator, saying they took his gifts he shouldn't have taken. the florida eye doctor was later convicted of medicare fraud and sentenced to 17 years in prison and then pardoned by donald trump at the urging of senator menendez. that's a separate case. it may have sent a message to senator menendez, you know, he could take gifts, lucrative gifts from people, and he wasn't prosecuted for it. now you have a series of text messages from his wife that seem to be very incriminating. >> ken, this all -- thank you for bringing us the details on this. this current indictment starts in 2018 when the senator meets his now wife.

>> reporter: that's right. the other case fell apart in 2017. then the senator ran for re-election in 2018 and was re-elected. this indictment is saying that's when the conduct began. at the same time he began dating the woman who would later become his wife. >> as we're seeing and setting up the different camera shots, there's some of the photos in the indictment. there you see what they say is the senator's jacket with some $100 bills on it. there's some gold bars that officials say were found in the senator's home, about $100,000 worth of gold bars. this is one of the automobiles that, according to the indictment, was given to the senator, or at least lent to the senator for either his or his wife's use. that car was found in the parking of the apartment when

authorities following the permission went in and searched the area. ryan, is there any way to kind of describe the influence of the senator from new jersey? >> reporter: yeah. first of all, jose, he has a level of seniority that not many members have had. he's been here for a long time. this is an institution that prizes seniority. he's amassed a great deal of power. sitting on the foreign relations committee is one of the most important in the u.s. senate. it's a focal point around u.s. diplomatics. it controls the purse strings of aid that goes to other country. menendez is at the table for many of these national security issues of which the united

states is a central player in. he's an ally to the white house in terms of funding for ukraine, the ukraine war effort, concerns about relations with china and china's growing threat and also we should point out that the fact that he sits on his perch as the chair of the senate foreign relations committee is part of why prosecutors are concerned about the relationships he has with foreign business entities. also, i want to point out how historic this second indictment of senator menendez is. according to our team, frank thorpe tracked this down, the data seems to indicate that he is the first united states senator in history to be indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations. there have been other senators who have been indicted multiple times because of the same

allegation. these are two completely different allegations that senator menendez is subject to. he's the first united states senator to deal with two separate indictments while serving in the united states senate. you have to wonder if that adds to the laundry list of reasons why their may be calls for him to step down from his position, as opposed to stepping down from his position on the senate foreign relations committee. he's not necessarily stepping down from the foreign relations committee out of the goodness of his heart. it's a rule as part of the senate caucus. if you're under indictment, you cannot serve as the chair of a committee. not only is he doing it -- maybe it is voluntarily, but it's something he would be compelled to do as a result of the senate rules. >> and something he did last time he was indicted. >> reporter: that's right. he's done this in the past. we should also point out, jose,

that he's been defiant when it comes to these charges. he's repeatedly said he's not guilty of any crimes. the idea he may end up stepping down completely from the united states senate would be a long shot given how defiant he's been. also, that's not the trend on capitol hill. we've seen a lot of members of congress facing serious accusations, facing accusations of ethics or corruption charges and instead of stepping away from their positions they've remained until there's an outcome. george santos on the house side is under criminal indictment. he refuses to step down. congressman matt gaetz faced a serious investigation by the department of justice which didn't result in charges, but he's still facing questions from the house ethics committee. he's still refusing to step down.

this is the trend line. when facing serious criminal investigations, accusations or indictments, members of congress tend to hang on. >> ken, you know, you mentioned it's a spoken indictment and a very long and detailed indictment. ken, you were talking about that earlier, there is the responsibility by the government to prove that there were quid pro quos, that there was something done for payment or in kind. public officials and members of congress, senators have to deal with their constituents every day and part of their responsibility is to serve their constituents. that's one thing. the other thing is when you have photos of cash and money and gold bars and a car, it is the responsibility of the government to tie these two together. >> reporter: you're absolutely right, jose.

you're getting to the heart of the matter. a series of supreme court cases has made it much more difficult for federal prosecutors to prove political corruption. it used to be the case that if they showed a pattern of gifts from a business person and then a pattern of assistance from that lawmaker, public officials, that benefited the gift giver, that was enough to convict on a charge and even potentially bribery. now the supreme court said you have to show a quid pro quo. the acts don't have to be carried out as long as you had an agreement to commit an official act for money, that's enough to convict on bribery. we can think and use common sense. that's a difficult thing to prove. there is nothing in this indictment, at least that i can see, that suggests a smoking gun, wire tap with both senator

menendez admitting on tape that he took the money in exchange for the official acts. >> ken, let me interrupt you. i think it's begun. >> we're not going to take any questions today. we'll start in about a minute. >> that's the one-minute warning they give you as an update when they'll start. ken, just finish that thought in a minute or less. >> reporter: sure. what the indictment -- instead of having the smoking gun evidence, like senator bob menendez on tape, they have a mountain of circumstantial evidence, particularly from his wife where she's asking for and even demanding payments and favors and then describing the favors that her husband is doing for some of these people and then they also point out that senator menendez didn't disclose some of the alleged payments on

his senate ethics financial disclosure. i see we're assembling here. >> this is part of the team that's going to hold the news conference. they will not be taking any questions, but it's maybe a more detailed explanation of this indictment. there you see it. >> good morning, everyone. thank you for coming. my name is damian williams, i'm the united states attorney here in the southern district of new york. i'm announcing my office obtained a three-count indictment charging senator robert menendez, his wife nadine menendez and three new jersey businessmen for bribery offenses. the investigation that led to these charges has been run out of the southern district of new

york. the indictment alleges that between 2018 and 2022 senator menendez, the senior u.s. senator from new jersey, and the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee and his wife nadine menendez engaged in a corrupt relationship. the indictment alleges through that relationship the senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for senator menendez using his power and influence to protect and enrich those businessmen and benefit the government of egypt. the indictment alleges bribes were in the form of cash, gold, home mortgage payments, a no-show job for nadine menendez, a mercedes-benz and other things of value for the senator and his

wife. constituent service is part of any legislator's job. there are things that senator menendez says he can do and things he says he cannot do. he put it all on his senate website. for instance, it says he cannot compel an agency to act in someone's favor. it says he cannot influence matters involving a private business. it says he cannot get involved in criminal matters or cases, period. we allege that behind the scenes senator menendez was doing those things for certain people, the people who were bribing him and his wife. let me say a little more about the conduct that's alleged in the indictment. the indictment alleges that senator menendez took several actions as part of this corrupt relationship. first, the indictment alleges that the senator used his power and influence, including his

leadership role on the senate foreign relation committee to benefit the government of egypt. senator menendez allegedly provided sensitive, nonpublic u.s. government information to egyptian officials. we also allege that senator menendez improperly pressured a senior official at the u.s. department of agriculture to protect a lucrative monopoly that the government of egypt awarded to hanna. second, the indictment alleged that senator menendez used his power and influence to try to disrupt a criminal investigation undertaken by the new jersey attorney general's office related to an associate and relative of one of the men.

third, allegedly the senator used to disrupt a criminal investigation of davies by seeking to install an united states attorney who could be influenced and second to try to influence that office to act favorably in the case. as we allege, the senator agreed to do these things because hanna was paying bribes and because davies was paying bribes. fortunately the public officials did not bend to the pressure. that's a good thing. now, as part of this investigation special agents with the fbi executed search warrants on the residence and safe deposit box of senator menendez and nadine menendez in new jersey. they discovered $500,000 of cash stuffed into envelopes in

closets. some of the cash was stuffed in the senator's jacket pockets. some of the envelopes contained davies' fingerprints and dna. agents discovered a lot of gold. gold provided by davies and hanna. the fbi found the mercedes provided to them. the items the fbi recovered are discussed in the indictment which i encourage you to read carefully. let's look at some of the items. as you can see here, this is the mercedes-benz we allege was provided as part of the scheme. you see here three kilograms of gold. these three kilograms together are worth approximately $150,000. of course here you can see just

a fraction of the cash that was uncovered as part of the scheme. i want to make a couple things very clear. first, my office remains firmly committed to rooting out public corruption without fear or favor and without any regard to partisan politics. that's in our dna. always has been. always will be. second, this investigation is very much ongoing. we're not done. i want to encourage anyone with information to come forward and come forward quickly. they can do that by reaching out to the fbi's tip line at 1-800-call-fbi. a case of this magnitude requires partnership. i want to thank our partners at the fbi who have been incredible every step along the way. i also want to thank our partners at the irs for their

assistance. i want to thank our colleagues from around the department of justice who are far too many to name here. they have also been invaluable. of course, i want to thank the career prosecutors from my office who are handling this investigation. they have done tremendous work, eli mark, laura pomerantz and their supervisors, the chiefs of our office's public corruption unit. i want to invite to the podium fbi assistant director in charge james smith. jim? >> good morning. i'm not going to go any further into the case as u.s. attorney williams explained. what i want to talk about more or less is the fbi's public corruption -- at the fbi public

corruption is one of our top priorities. i want to thank the agents, the team over here from the fbi, the irs for their hard work into this investigation. they've spent many hours, days, weeks and months working this investigation. i would like to thank all the prosecutors from the southern district of new york. i would like to thank damian williams for his support in this case. i would like to thank the irs for their investigators who worked tirelessly along with the team to investigate this case. i would also finally like to thank the doj's public integrity section. thank you for your support in this. >> all right. thank you, everyone. >> i think that's it. no questions as they announced earlier. back with us is ken dilanian and

ryan nobles and charles coleman. charles, what do you see in this indictment and this news conference they just held? >> what i see is a clearly constructed investigation that is obviously very thorough, includes a number of different tipsters and informants who provided information in a case that appears to be on its face very, very strong. looking at this more deeply, jose, it's very important the work that's being done out of the southern district as well as with the fbi. we're at a place in america where there's a lack of public confidence in a number of our institutions, our legislative body being one of them. when you add in a notion of corruption and people not being held accountable, it amplifies the lack of trust. the work being done here cannot

be underscored enough in terms of its importance and significance, particularly at this juncture in american democracy. i see a strong case and a meaningful case in addition to the fact that it seems they dotted their is and crossed their ts. >> ken, it seems as though as far as the government is concerned the wife of the senator, nadine, had a very direct contact with and communications with high -- one was called a general, but we don't know if that was his title -- representatives of the egyptian government. >> reporter: that's right. the indictment alleges senator menendez gave information to his wife to give to egyptian officials. it's one thing to have local corruption. we've seen that forever.

what we're seeing here is the united states relationship with egypt was corrupted because a senator who had his finger on that aid. bob menendez had sign off on foreign military sales. he was allegedly on the take in terms of his relationship with egypt. that goes beyond one senator and one indictment. it has implications for u.s. foreign policy. it's not a great look for the united states. another point, playing off what charles said, we should remember this is the biden justice department indicting a senior democrat in a climate where republicans are saying there's a two-tiered system of justice. not in this case. it's a serious set of charges that could land senator bob menendez in prison for many years. >> important to remember the previous indictment was under

president obama and that department of justice. ken -- actually i want to ask charles this. charles, what's the process going forward for senator menendez, his wife and these other three indicted co-conspirators? >> well, he will be required to appear at some point to be arrested and booked and processed. at that point the indictment will be basically read in open court. he will have an opportunity to plead guilty or not guilty. it's unlikely that given who he is that the senator will face bail in new jersey. it's unlikely he'll be -- rather he'll have bail set. what i mean by that is it's unlikely he'll be put in jail. he'll likely have bail set and begin the process of defending himself against these charges and this prosecution. his next steps is that he'll be arrested.

he's going to be likely given an opportunity to surrender. the indictment will be read as part of his arraignment. he'll be arraigned and then he'll go through the criminal justice system and have to mount his defense like any other person charged by the federal government. >> ryan, it's such a complicated web they describe in this indictment. among other things, the fact that the senator had to sign off or could sign off on all kinds of foreign military aid, et cetera. it's standard operating procedure and it's in the indictment. it's standard operating procedure that the state department actually falls under the -- voluntarily lets the chairperson to have that kind of influence. >> reporter: when i saw senator menendez yesterday, he was

walking out of the senate foreign relations committee room. that's how directly connected he is to the foreign diplomacy of the united states of america. this is a guy that's in the room for every single one of the most important conversations as it relates to how the united states presents itself to the rest of the world. you know, there's a long list of things that he's accused of here, but i have to wonder if the political pressure comes as a result of the influence that the federal prosecutors are saying he had in that relationship with egypt. that would be the most glaring example of him using his position of power to benefit himself financially and perhaps at the risk of the rest of the united states government. so, you know, the last time this happened there weren't a lot of calls for him to resign from fellow democrats. i assume in short order we'll see a lot of republicans calling on him to step down.

i think the big question here is will he get that same level of pressure from his democratic colleagues. it's one thing to step down as chairman. he's still going to have a vote and be privy to conversations. there was a briefing held a couple days ago before president zelenskyy was here about the situation in ukraine. that was held in the secure briefing room here at the senate. senator menendez was able to be a part of that conversation. this is, you know, a very difficult situation i think that senate democrats will find themselves in if senator menendez continues on in his current post. he has every right to defend himself in a court of law. there's no doubt about that. will he continue to remain in the united states senate? that's an open question. >> charles, ken, ryan, thank you so very much for being here this morning. just moments ago, the united auto workers strike got bigger. we'll tell you about that. also, a mayor at the

southern border declares a state of emergency as the number of migrants crossing the border reaches high numbers. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. n. o with the perfect slice. and if we profer it, we know america will too. what about spaniards? and i guess spain.

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we are following breaking developments in the auto workers strike set to go nationwide. in the last hour the president of the united auto workers union announced that new strikes

against general motors and stellantis will happen at noon today. he shared that progress has been made with ford. maggie vespa joins us now from toledo, ohio. what do we know about the negotiations? >> reporter: based on what the president said in that video, basically gm and stellantis are not making enough progress. i want to point out, it's 38 locations in 20 states under those two of the big three only. in other words the uaw announcing they're not taking further action against ford, the third member of the big the, saying they have made progress in the negotiations. you can see the bullet points they highlighted from each of the companies. ford they say has given them the right to strike over plant closures in the event of

layoffs, job security for two years. you can see their grievances with gm and stellantis. it's a lot about job security including talking about the big three investing long term into evs. as you said, this strike, which largely has been concentrated in the midwest, about to go coast to coast. talking through that would have been useless. about to go coast to coast. people are so fired up out here. the facilities closing are from california to pennsylvania. these are parts distribution centers. think of the implications to retailers. this will be crippling for two of the big three. we want to point out

numbers-wise, we're talking about a source with knowledge, saying roughly 5,600 union workers, more than that, going -- joining the picket line in about 20 minutes. we've had 13,000 workers so far. this strike grew by almost 50% and now stretching from the east coast to the west. >> maggie vespa, thank you. now to the humanitarian crisis at the southern border. the current epicenter is eagle pass, texas, where the mayor declared a state of emergency in response to an overwhelming number of people crossing the rio grande river. look at this. a line of men, women and children crossing the river from mexico. those who make it across are the lucky ones. a 3-year-old child drowned when he was swept away wednesday.

just yesterday texas officials pulled another body from the rye rio grande. here's what one man said about his journey. take a listen. [ speaking in a non-english language ] >> he says he asked the american people for forgiveness for crossing the river this way. the biden administration is sending 800 military personnel to the border to help process the arrivals. the mayor of eagle pass says more needs done. >> it is not normal for people to walking in without consequence. the word gets out. they're sending messages.

it's like it's come one come all type of thing. you see people coming in. no consequence. >> with us now to talk about this tom llamas in eagle pass, texas and gabe gutierrez. tom, what are you seeing? >> reporter: we're seeing waves of migrants come through eagle pass. about 15 minutes ago i would say dozens of migrants, mostly adult men, a couple families as well walked through eagle pass. the interesting thing is we're seeing texas highway patrol go up and down the rio grande. just behind me there are some mexican law enforcement officials on that side of the rio grande. nobody is stopping these migrants as they cross over. they're simply walking through any opening they see. the question a lot of people are having is why now, why here? from the migrants we spoke to there were a lot of rumors going

around. the biden administration entered that new policy where you have to apply for asylum in a different country. you can't come to the u.s. and apply for asylum. they say the app wasn't working. they grew frustrating. they heard rumors at eagle pass you could jump through. other people telling me they heard rumors they were allowing families in. a mother came from honduras with her two daughters. she walked across the rio grande with them on their shoulders. of course you said a 3-year-old died. we saw this morning, jose, what looked like texas -- i think they were fish and wildlife officials giving migrants life jackets so when they crossed the river, they don't drown or get swept up in the current. it's a strange situation. the numbers have been trickling up since title 42 ended. this was a huge surge.

there's about 28,000 people here. they think 10,000 migrants came through eagle pass alone. >> these are men, women and children. gabe, any response from the white house? >> reporter: yeah, jose. the white house announced that it's sending 800 new military personnel down to the border to help with these efforts. the white house also saying that it's expanding dhs facilities to be able to handle more than 3,200 extra migrants. the white house also facing questions from republicans who said that it's the president's lax border policies that have led to this. i asked white house press secretary specifically whether the white house which took credit for the drop of border

crossings will it now take responsibility for the rise in border crossings now. listen to her response. >> the president has taken action to try to deal with what's happening at the border, historic action without the help of congress. you see it for yourself what congress has tried to do, put forth a piece of legislation, a c.r. that does the opposite of what we're trying to do. we're trying to fight fentanyl, deal with smugglers, put more legal enforcement at the border. they're trying to reverse that. >> reporter: that's something we're hearing over and over from the white house. the press secretary mentioning that president biden asked congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, but congress has not acted. they're saying that republicans are proposing that continued resolution which they say would

lead to border agents being fired. the white house blaming this influx partly on the inaction in congress. >> tom llamas and gabe gutierrez, thank you. with us to continue the conversation is a texas congressman who represents the border district. you live and represent a border district. what's the situation like right now? >> you know, when you look at the last few days, we've had over 8,000 individuals coming in. some areas getting more activity like el paso and certainly the eagle pass area. look, everybody talks about, you know, the border. you can send more personnel. you can do certain things. that's playing defense on the 1 yard line. if we don't play defense on their 20 yard line and extend it and have repercussions at the border, people are going to come in. i know that sometimes people say, well, it's seasonal. yeah, there's an aspect of

seasonality. a lot of it has to be that, you know, if the criminal organizations are promoting and getting people here and saying this is the time to cross, yes, those numbers are coming in. look what's happening at the darian gap. there are large numbers and we're not doing enough to stop them at the 20 yard line and everything is being done at the 1 yard line. >> congressman, what do you see as the solution to this? >> well, you know, i'm looking at your split screen here. i'm seeing dps. we're seeing border patrol. we're seeing -- talking about sending more military folks mor military folks. and they are just helping folks come in. look at what we're seeing right now. you got to have a policy where you actually return people back. you got to do that. otherwise people are going to keep coming. if you don't detain people, if you don't send people back, then

the border becomes a speed bump. and what i'm worried about is that my counterparts in the other party, if we don't do a cr, we'll have a shutdown. and i've talked to border patrol agents and chiefs. they want to keep working. they got families, they got bills to pay. and while they are working and then the stress builds up with large numbers, it will be a very difficult time for our men and women and we have to help them instead of having a government shutdown. >> and if there is a government shutdown, border patrol would have to continue working even though they would not be getting paid because they are essential employees of the federal government. but congressman, it is so difficult because the fact is that you have tens of thousands of people as you accurately state are going through the darien gap as we speak and many more are on their way there. they have to do that dangerous trek through mexico. there has not been one person

that i've spoken to in the last two years that have gone through that that tells me the most difficult and horrendous part is going through mexico. is there something that could be done -- you talk about the 20 yard line. all right. let's talk about the 20 yard line. is there something that could be done with mexico in cooperation with mexico or with maybe even the central american countries that are -- just the whole area there. >> yeah, absolutely. and that is playing defense on the 1 yard line. first of all, one of the things that we need to do is give authorities to homeland where they can do the work outside the u.s. border. that means a lot. just think about the authorities that homeland does. and then working with mexico and working with guatemala, clomg colombia. what happened to those regional border process centers that were supposed to set up in panama and colombia? if we don't, all they will do is just keep coming over here.

the criminal organizations know exactly what they are doing. they are saying -- promoting this as a time to cross because every time somebody processes, only ones making money are the criminal organizations. and you are right, they are coming through a very difficult time. and there is ways that we can work with those countries. we've got to work with those countries. keep in mind that under president biden, there wasn't one time that mexico was actually stopping more people at their southern border with guatemala than the u.s. border patrol was doing. that is what we need to do. we got to work with those countries and put pressure on mexico and the other countries that work with us, let's go ahead and do that and get the job done. i know some of our dhs officials and headquarters, because i talked to them, they are going down to mexico, they used consulates and the embassies are talking to the mexicans to stop

those people. they have to do a lot more. there are ways that we can do it, but we have to change some of the authorities and change the mindset that we play defense at the 1 yard line. because look at your images. you can send a lot more border patrol agents or dps or the military there, but what do they actually do when somebody hits the u.s. border? tell me what they do. and that tells you got to have repercussions of policies and do the work outside on the 20 yard line. >> congressman, thank you very much for being with us. appreciate it. >> thank you. a pleasure. turning back now to the breaking news, new charges against bob menendez. he has released a statement slamming the charges against himself and his wife nadine. he writes "to my supportersuppo friends and community, i ask you

recall the other times that the prosecutors got it wrong. i'm confident that the matter will be successfully resofld once all of the facts are presented. and my fellow new jerseyans will see this for what it is. i remain focused on continuing this important work and will not be distracted by baseless allegations. ." and today president biden is announcing the first ever white house office of gun violence prevention. vice president harris will oversee the office and stephanie feldman, policy adviser on gun issues, will lead the office. the white house says it will play a key real in implementing the bipartisan safer communities act, the law passed last year. the office will work federal, state and local leaders as well as advocacy groups to prevent mass shootings and homicides that primarily affect low income communities. joining us now is david haug, a

2018 parkland high school shooting survivor. david, thank you for being with us. you will be there today with the president when he makes this announcement. what do you want to hear? >> i want to hear him speak directly to young people that made this happen. march for our lives started calling for this in 2019 with our peace plan which was the most ambitious plan for gun control ever put out. we had a town call where we asked specifically, there is video asking presidential candidates about creating an office of gun violence prevention. and it is young people and survivors, so many that made this happen that were on the front lines. so i want to hear the president talk directly to them and say you did this. because survivors need to know that their voices matter and that they are heard. >> and gun violence is so

prevalent. every time you and i talk, there have been hundreds, literally hundreds of people that die in between our conversations. that is almost like a daily reality in our country. how is it that conversation about this can end up being constructive? and constructive in real ways and in real terms. >> well, we need to take a holistic approach. that is what separates the work of march for our lives. we're not only survivor-led, we started after parkland, and we marched in washington, d.c. and demanded action, but we take a wholistic approach. whenever i talk to people for example when i was in the shooting club at my college, when i talk to people who didn't agree with me, i said is there anything that i could say to you that would change your mind about banning assault weapons. if they say no, i say okay let's not talk about that, let's talk about what we can agree on which is probably you do agree that we need more mental health funding

for the two-thirds of gun deaths that are suicides. you probably agree that we need to fund more programs that help young people from wanting to pick up a gun in the first operation. the reason why parkland doesn't have shootings every day is not because of stronger gun law, but we have one of the best things is that we have resources. median household income is well over $100,000 in parkland and that helps prevent young people wanting to pick up a gun. but we need to address all the factors. and so that is why i'm excited that president biden is taking action and listening to march for our lives and our calls for action for four years. we've renlg sdered thousands of young people to vote, we've protested at the white house calling for this office for four years and it is finally happening. and the only reason why that is because young people made their voices heard and voted. and we have to vote again in 2024. because this office, if we lose the presidency, if it goes to a republican, it is almost certainly not going to exist anymore. we have to keep the work up

because the president is listening to us and in addition to the action on climate that he just took. if anybody is interested in supporting us in that work, march for our lives.com. because we have to keep going. >> david, good to see you. before we head into the weekend with all of the news that we're giving each other 24 hours a day, i want to end with some good news. a 12-year-old boy from florida has saved a man's life by using a cpr technique he learned from a show "stranger things." and it was caught on tape. austin was swimming with his behavioral technician two weeks ago when the two began timing how long they could hold their breath under water. austin noticed jason slowly drifting to the deep end and he realized jason had been under too long. so he pulled him to the steps. where one hand cradled under his head, he used his own hand do chest compressions remembering

what he saw a character do on "stranger things." well, jason regained consciousness a few minutes later. >> i feel way better that he's alive and healthy now. >> every doctor, everyone has said i should be dead. so i'm just -- i'm so grateful to be alive and i'm so grateful that austin stepped up and saved me. >> stepped up and saved me. there is good in the world. that wraps up the hour for me. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on andrea mitchell reports, new jersey senator bob menendez under indictment today by a manhattan grand jury for alleged federal crimes including conspiracy to commit bribery and already stepping down from his