immediately that could potentially save their lives people who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure i want to give them a chance right here at home it's time for congress to give these wonderful incredible americans the right to try thanks . thanks thanks. thanks thanks one of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs with thanks

in many other countries these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the united states and it's very very unfair. that is why i've directed my administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of my top priorities for the year thanks and prices will come down substantially watch. america has also finally turned the page or decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies our jobs and our.

wealth our nation has lost its wealth but we're getting it back so fast the era of economic surrender is totally over from now on we expect trading relationships to be fair and very importantly reciprocal thank you will work to fix bad trade deals and negotiate new ones and they'll be good ones but they'll be fair and we will protect american workers and american intellectual property through strong enforcement of our trade rules

thanks we rebuild our industries it is also time to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure thank you. thank you america is a nation of builders we built the empire state building in just one year isn't it a disgrace that it can now take ten years just to get a minor permit approved for the building of a simple road thank you i am asking both parties to come together to give us safe fast reliable and

modern infrastructure that our economy needs and our people deserve thank you night i'm calling on congress to produce a bill that generates at least one point five trillion dollars for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs. every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and where appropriate tapping into private sector investment to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit and we can do it thank

the bill must also streamline the permit ing an approval process getting it down to no more than two years and perhaps even one together. we can replace our great building heritage thank you we will build looming new roads bridges highways railways and waterways all across our land and we will do it with american heart american hands and american grit thanks

we want every american to know the dignity of a hard day's work. we want every child to be safe in their home at night and we want every citizen to be proud of this land that we all love so much. we can lift our citizens from welfare to work from dependence to independence and from poverty to prosperity. thank is tax cuts create new jobs let's invest in workforce development and let's invest in job training which we need so badly thank

let's open great vocational schools so our future worker is going to learn to grow up there realize if both potential. thank you let's support working families by supporting paid family leave thad thank you as america regains its strength opportunity must be extended to all citizens. that is why this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance at life thanks

struggling communities especially immigrant communities will also be helped by immigration policies that focus on the best interests of american workers and american families for decades open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities they've allowed millions of low wage workers to compete for jobs and wages against the poorest americans most tragically they have caused the loss of many innocent lives here tonight are two fathers and two mothers evelyn red riggers freddie quavers elizabeth alvarado and robert mickens their two teenage daughters keylock waves and

nice americans were close friends or long out but in september two thousand and sixteen on the eve of nieces sixteenth birthday such a happy time it should have been neither of them came home. these two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown six members of the savage m.s. thirteen gang have been charged with kayla and nieces murders many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as illegal unaccompanied alien minors and wound up in kayla and nieces high school evelyn elizabeth freddy and robert tonight everyone in this chamber is praying for you

everyone in america is grieving for you at least and thank you very much thank you thank you. thank. you you. thank . thank you i want you to know that three hundred and twenty

million hearts are right now breaking for you we love you thank you. thank you but we cannot imagine the depths of that kind of sorrow we can make sure that other families never have to endure this kind of pain tonight i am calling on congress to finally plough as the deadly loopholes that have allowed m.-s. thirteen and other criminal gangs to break into our country we have proposed new legislation that will fix our immigration laws and support our ice and border patrol agents these are great people these are great great people that work so hard in the midst of such danger so that this can never happen again. thanks.

thank you united states is a compassionate nation we are proud that we do more than any other country anywhere in the world to help the needy the struggling and the underprivileged all over the world. but as president of the united states my highest loyalty my greatest compassion my constant concern is for america's child america's struggling workers and america's forgotten communities i want our youth to grow up to achieve great things i want our poor to have their chance to rise so tonight i am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties

democrats and republicans to protect our citizens of every background color religion and creed thad . and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber is to defend americans to protect their safety their families their communities and their right to the american dream because americans are dreamers to. thad

here tonight as one leader in the effort to defend our country homeland security investigation special agent seles tino martinez he goes by d.j. and c.j. state call me either one. so we'll call you c.j. . surf if teen years in the air force before becoming an ice agent and spending the last fifteen years fighting gang violence and getting dangerous criminals off of our streets. at one point and mr king leaders ordered sea jays murder and they wanted it to happen quickly but he did not cave to threats or to fear. last may he commanded an operation to track down gang members on long island his team has arrested nearly

four hundred including more than two hundred twenty m. s. thirteen gang members. and i have to tell you what the border patrol and ice have done we have sent thousands and thousands and thousands of m.m.s. thirteen horrible people out of this country or into our presence so i just want to congratulate you c.j. your brave guy thank you very much thad allen and i asked c.j. what's the secret he said we're just tougher than they are and i like that it's a bad now let's

get congress to stand you and all of the people in this great chamber have to do it we have no choice c.j. we're going to send you reinforcements and we're going to send them to you quickly it's what you had over the next few weeks the house and senate will be voting on an immigration reform package in recent months my administration has met extensively with both democrats and republicans to craft a bipartisan approach to immigration reform based on these discussions we presented congress with a detailed proposal that should be. courted by both parties as a fair compromise one where nobody gets everything they want but where our country

gets the critical reforms it needs and must have thanks here are the four pillars of our plan. the first pillar of our framework generously offers a path to citizenship. for one point eight million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age that covers almost three times more people than the previous administration covered thank you and your our plan those who meet education and work requirements and show good moral character will

be able to become full citizens of the united states over a twelve year period thank the second pillar fully secures the border thank you that means building a great wall on the southern border and it beats hiring more heroes like c.j. to keep our communities safe. thank you surely our plant closes the terrible loopholes exploited by criminals and

terrorists to enter our country and it finally ends the horrible and dangerous practice of catch and release thank the third person or and the visa lottery a program that randomly hands out green. it's without any regard for skill merit or the safety of american people thad it's time to begin moving toward a merit based immigration system one that admits people who are skilled who want to work who will contribute to our society and who will love and respect our country

one thousand. the fourth and final pillar protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration thad under the current broken system a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives under our plan we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children thad

is vital reform is necessary not just for our economy but for our security and for the future of america. in recent weeks two terrorist attacks in new york were made possible by the visa lottery and chain migration in the age of terrorism these programs present risks we can just no longer afford. it's time to thank these outdated immigration laws and finally bring our immigration system into the twenty first century thanks for pillars represent a down the middle compromise and one that will create

a safe modern and lawful immigration system. for over thirty years washington has tried and failed to solve this problem this congress can be the one that finally makes it happen most importantly these four pillars will produce legislation that fulfills my ironclad pledge to sign a bill that puts america first thanks so let's come together set politics aside. and finally get the job done thanks

these reforms will also support our response to the terrible crisis of opioid and drug addiction never before has it been like it is now it is terrible we have to do something about it in twenty sixty we lost sixty four thousand americans to drug overdoses one hundred seventy four deaths per day seven per hour we must get much tougher on drug dealers and pushes if we are going to succeed in stopping discord thank

my administration is committed to fighting the drug epidemic and helping get treatment for those in need for those who have been so terribly hurt the struggle will be long and it will be difficult but as americans always do in the end we will succeed we will prevail thank you as we have seen tonight the most difficult challenges bring out the best in america. we see a vivid expression of this. in the story of the ol let's family of new mexico ryan hall let's is twenty seven years old an officer with the albuquerque

police department he's here tonight with his wife rebecca. thank . thank you ron thank you aaron was on duty when he saw a pregnant homeless woman preparing to inject heroin when ryan told her she was going to harm her unborn child she began to weep she told him she didn't know where to turn but badly wanted a safe home for her baby. in that moment ryan said he felt god speak to him you will do it because you can he heard those words he took out

a picture of his wife and their four kids then he went home to tell his wife rebecca in an instant she agreed to adopt the whole let's name their new daughter hope. ryan and rebecca you embody the goodness of our nation thank you thad. thank you. thank you. thank you ryan and rebecca.

as we rebuild america's strength and confidence at home we are also restoring our strength and standing abroad around the world we face rogue regimes terrorist groups and rivals like china and russia that challenge our interests our economy and our values in controlling these horrible dangers we know that weakness is the surest path to conflict and unmatched power is the surest means to our true and great defense for this reason i am asking congress to end the dangerous defense sequester and fully fund our great military thad allen. thank

you as part of our defense we must modernize and rebuild our new. clear arsenal hopefully never having two years it but making it so strong and so powerful that it will be terror any acts of aggression by any other nation or anyone else thank you happ some day in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons unfortunately we are now out there yet

sadly. last year i also pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish isis from the face of the earth. one year later i am proud to report that the coalition to defeat isis has liberated very close to one hundred percent of the territory just recently held by these killers in iraq and in syria and in other locations as well thanks . but there is much more work to be done we will continue our fight

until isis is defeated. army staff sergeant justin peck is here tonight in iraq and last november justin and his comrade chief petty officer kenton stacey were on a mission to clear buildings that isis had rigged with explosives so that civilians could return to that city hopefully soon and hopefully safely clearing the second floor of a vital hospital ketan stacy was severely wounded by an explosion immediately just in bounded into the booby trapped and unbelievably dangerous and unsafe building and found kenton but in very.