month of february, a record number officials say is putting an added strain on the agency and border patrol agents. >> thank you, everyone. we will get started. thank you for joining today. my name is andrew mean, i'm the assistant commissioner for public affairs at u.s. customs and border protection. the purpose of today's briefing is to announce the c about. p's enforcement actions for the month of february. i'm joined by chief brian hastings of the law enforcement operations director at the united states border patrol, who will provide the prospective from usbp and the impact on the search in migration over the last several months. commissioner mcaleenan will share his perspective after chief hastings and finally after the commissioners remarks we will open up it for a few questions. the numbers and migration statistics will be provided on cbp.gov at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. we will address the fiscal year 2018 border security port when compared to fiscal 2019 illustrate this growing trend. i'm going to provide a brief overview of the numbers and then turn it over to chief hastings. total

month of february a record number that officials say is putting added strain on the agents the and border patrol agent. this is just over 20 minutes. >> thank you everyone. we will get started. thank you for joining today. i'm the assistant commissioner for public affairs at u.s. customs and border protection. the purpose of today's briefing -- for the month of february and fiscal year 19. joined by chief ryan hastings a law enforcement operator who this surge impact of in migration of the last several months. commissioner remarks will open it up for a few questions. the numbers and migration specifics will be provided on cbp.gov at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. we will let dressed fiscal year whenfor security port compared to fiscal 2019 to illustrate this trend. i will turn it over to chief hastings, total enforcement actions for february in fiscal year 2019 were 76,103. that includes those deemed inadmissible at the ports of entry and those apprehended in between the ports of entry. this represented a 31% increase over january. of that 76,103, 7,249 were unaccompanied children and 40,385 were famil

the border patrol el paso sector i want to highlight because they have experienced these trends and increases more acutely than any other place along the border. new in this fiscal year. that includes el paso and about 40 miles south, as well as all wait through new mexico and the boot hill extending toward the west. el paso sector alone has seen a 434% increase in apprehensions this fiscal year. the vast majority are family units and unaccompanied children arriving in wlarge groups which challenges their capacity and our facilities. facilities having migrants near el paso have reached capacity and gone over numerous times in this fiscal year in the first quarter a situation that impacts both the efficiency of migrant processing and quality of the care we're able to provide. to help address this, we're taking steps to establish a centralized processing center, c.p.c., in the el paso sector. this will help us protect the health and safety of families and children in custody while streamlining operations and reducing the time that we're holding families and children. the el paso central process

the border patrol unable to handle influx of border crossers, border patrol commissioner kevin today spend his time asking for congressional assistance. carping that immigration is at the breaking point. what is happened to your department of homeland security? the department that slow walks the president's demands to secure our southern bore border. while releasing tens of thousands of illegal immigrants into united states, we look tonight. president trump has declared a national emergency sent military to border yet dhs is paralyzed, appears defenseless and on its knees before central american and mexican illegal immigrants. has department of homeland security sold out america? we knew there was massive corruption on mexican side of the border, but our side as well? we take it up former kansas stear of state, chris and krister in bedford. >> president trump today defending his decision backing an effort to strike down obamacare, saying time for republican party to take the lead and provide the best health care possible to the american people. >> obamacare is a disaster, too expense

the border patrol closed some borders. we need a border wall. the customs and border protection commissioner put it best when he said, this is clearly both a border security and a humanitarian crisis. the president attempted to remedy this crisis by declaring the emergency, an action well within his statutory authority and constitutional obligation. to protect our country. i urge my colleagues to oppose this veto override and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon. mr. defazio: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, -- to the gentleman from new york. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. espaillat: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, madam speaker. president trump continues to push for his useless, immediate evil wall. along the southern board -- medieval wall along the southern border, despite a bipartisan vote in the house of representatives and the senate to reject this poorly invoked emergency declaration, which would rob taxpayers and

dhs' border patrol and u.s. immigration customs enforcement are responsible for the majority of uac referrals to orr. in the summer of 2017, orr added a check box to the referral page to indicate whether a child has been separated from his or her parent. this check box offers a consistent format for dhs to provide information on the status, separated or nonseparated of each referral case. the referral page also has a notes section, where border patrol and i.c.e. can type in the name of other information of the separated family member, including their alien number. border patrol and i.c.e. will add this to the information section of the referral. hhs can learn of a parent's separation after the child's admission to an orr care provider facility. prior to the summer of 2018, there was no automated means for aggregating the indicators of separation and the records for the children through the orr portal. this is not the same as saying there is no information about separations in uac case files. this is just to say

the border patrol only had slightly 12,000 border patrol agents.n 2019, fiscal year fiscal year 2019, an average of almost 54,000 apprehensions. almost twice as many border patrol agents. 19,555. now, the border patrol claims it cannot function. 40% fewer apprehensions. if the 8% more agents in 13 years ago. what is going on at dhs. they may claim they are being overwhelmed. who is fooling whom. you are not fooling anyone on this broadcast. president trump is in the midst of a battle within his own administration of the future healthcare. obliterating obamacare. republicans afraid of the presidents boldness. >> we will be the party of great healthcare. the democrats have let you down. they've really let you down. obamacare doesn't work. >> and apparent outgrowth that ruled the affordable care act, obamacare unconstitutional. multiple sources tell fox news that there was disagreement between the white house and helping human service secretary and attorney general over whether to support the texas decision and go all in on an obamacare repeal. a conc

according to border patrol, border apprehensions declined 75% from 2000-2018. you have no reason to doubt accuracy of your own agency's data on that, right? >> our numbers have declined. i can't say the exact%. they have declined from 2000- 2018. >> also according to border patrol, in one of the opening statements, one of my colleagues was talking about the flow of illegal drugs. in the fiscal year 18, 90% of heroin came through legal ports of entry. 80% of phentanyl came through legal ports of entry. and 80% of cocaine came through legal ports of entry. you have no reason to doubt the dataen on that, correct? >> that i have to put in perspective. that is where the seizures are. as i stated this my opening statement, we have both a humanitarian crisis at the border and a border security crisis. my agents are being diverted away and the demographic is very different too. we cannot compare just number of apprehensions. you also cannot compare just seizures. it's the unknown. that's what keeps me up at night. what's crossing through our borders between the ports o

the question becomes where is the border patrol, where is immigration and customs enforcement. .s. troops on our southern border? how can this be? >> congress has refused to close loopholes. let's talk about i.c.e. if congress is failing to fix it legislatively then we have to do what we can operationally to address the surge. we need a nationwide operation, they need to look for these people and were ordered removed. then go find them. arrest them and remove them to show -- i did that back about three years ago, and that had an immediate impact on illegal crossing plummeted because we showed we have consequences. so i think i.c.e. and the dems are going to raise holy heck that we are arresting family members. but the democrats can't demand to see a judge, demand they have a right to see the judge. but once the judge said removal. you have to remove them or there is no integrity in our system. lou: let me refresh everyone's thinking about what happens when you have a million people crossing the border. i don't know what the current ratio is, when i was covering the border when i

amy: you go back into the 20's saying border patrol saying border patrol doused mexicans with a chemicald in not the death camps -- in nazi death camps. a d: yes, it was andsification program onone of the ways in which the migrant process, even the mexico was exempt from quotas, the crossing became increasingly dehumanizing. amy: you have president trump attempting to build this border and isolate the united states from the effects of u.s. policy and get at the same time, his people and president trump himself, elliott abrams, pence and bolton are pushing attempt in venezuela. you even have the countries that are supporting the self-proclaimed president, going go -- geoeye go -- president, guaido, balking atsing the m military. --g: the administration marco rubio has also managed to stage a second border crisis in venezuela. there are a lot of layers to president trump. transactional, a way to try and keep the and florida electoral votes in the republican coalition, a way of mobilizing this new right in latin america, new allies in brazil and colombia. in some ways it is a gesture toward

border patrol, border patrol chief saying we need a wall but democrats ignoring it.for joining us, appreciate it. fired up this morning. the time is 20 minutes until the top of the hour. why do so many democrats who endorse the green new deal jump ship when it came to a vote? the so-called boss alexandria ocasio cortez said so. carly shimkus here with online reaction up next. ♪ heather: welcome back. state attorney kim fox defending her office after the decision to drop all 16 charges against jussie smollett. >> alternative prosecution model that anybody else without his riches, without his fame were also availed to and it is frustrating, the nature of his offense and we treated jussie smollett the same way we would treat someone similarly situated. heather: carly shimkus with serious xm 115 is here with online reaction. >> she says she didn't give jussie smollett special treatment but then she has to explain the text messages she sent one of his family members, would she do that for other people? julie: situation has people criticizing her record is chicago's top pr

this, as the yuma, arizona, border patrol has released new video of migrants crawling under barbed wire in a desperate attempt to enter america. earlier this month, homeland security chief kirstjen nielsen warned lawmakers the migration crisis on the southern border is "spiraling out of control." but some immigrant groups are accusing the administration of intentionally releasing the migrants to cause chaos of the border. william la jeunesse has more now from yuma. william? >> harris, i've actually heard immigrant groups complaining that the border patrol holds someone for more than 72 hours were ice more than 20 hours, because by law they are supposed to be released.

we had over 4,000 in one-day alone this week according to border patrol and most concerningly about 13, 400 in custody right now, and in the past, 4,000 is a really high number for just how many people we have in custody, so 13, 400 is just unmanageable so now border patrol is actually catching and releasing immediately and not turning them over to i.c.e. and we don't have any chance to process anybody coming across-the-boarder. it's a real problem an emergency

desperately she's trying to raise a posse of dhs employee volunteers to help secure the border and the border patrol responding to the border crisis by releasing illegal immigrants onto american streets. are they also dumping deadly drugs at the same time? traffickers have wide-open access to the united states. the cartels frankly are winning. the cpb said commissioner kevin mcillwaine is actually whining instead of acting and crying out for congressional help of all things. congress is the problem, not the solution. tonight we are calling on the president to fire these incompetents in the leadership of the department of homeland security and customs border protection. they can't act effectively. they can't create, they can't innovate. they only react and then call on congress. customs and border protection has become a little more than a welcome wagon service for the cartels trafficking its deadly drug running and illegal immigrant smuggling across our southern border with mexico while tens of thousands of americans are dying. these border officials should hang their heads in shame and they should

in the meantime, customs and border patrol is saying that the increase in family units coming over the southern border has placed enormous strain on their system. they're saying their facilities were not designed to accommodate this many children and parents. let me read you part of cbp's statement. they said u.s. border patrol has been transparent for several months by con vague the message, publicly, internationally, and to congress, the immigration system is broken and that they are at critical capacity levels across the southern border. customs and border patrol facilities and man power cannot support this dramatic increase in apprehensions of family units, and unaccompanied children. there is no consequence that the border patrol can apply to this demographic under current law and court rulings. the number of children and families has forced the border patrol to quickly process the children and the families and start releasing them. it's diverted agents from their law enforcement duties, according to cbp, and the department of homeland security said it's committed to addressing th

when you have the customs and border patrol commissioner say that the system is beyond capacity, without the political talking points, what did you witness when you were at the border? >> exactly that. border patrol is not being authorized in some areas. the ability to do over time. if they have an eight hour shift, imagine -- they are in operation, it sometimes takes a couple hours to get to where a group is because the terrain is so bad. they get out there, not to mention terrain and weather issues, they get to the group and the group all runs in different directions. so now they have to chase them as best they can and they only end up rounding up a fraction of them. by the way, once you get toward your eight hour shift, it's time to go home and got to get either new people onto that group and let it go. typically there are so many groups other than they just let them go. the other thing, i will tell you real quick, some of the border patrol members told me that flew with me -- the things that bother them the most is that some americans are talking about the border patrol almost as if

first changing demographics have created extraordinary challenges for our border patrol. in the most moelt levi border crossersy young mechanicen men and our allows allowed to us swiftly return them to mexico today we see massive rise in the mum of families and uncompanied children frp central america and beyond. human smugglers exploit the loopholes in laws and take advantage of our broken immigration system. smugglers are telling vur knell rnable families that the child is the visa to stay in the united states if they turn themselves in at the border. the smuggler propaganda is working. already family apprehensions in fiscal year 2019 are more than 800% higher thap 2013. we're also seeing mierpgts arriving at the border in groups of record sizes. these massive groups overwhelming everything from the remote border patrol stations to busy ports of sbroe. 70 groups of more than 100 migrants each have been apprehended by the border patrol since october of last year. just five months. 70 groups. and some of not just a hundred they're thousands. and if you're curious, two year

ey surrendered to border patrol agents from the u.s. and border protection agency, or c.b.p. the groups they're encountering in recent years changed dramatically. a dede ago, 90 of immigrants caught crossing illegally wer single adult men from mexico. today nearly 90% are families and unaccompanied children from ceral america. it's a population the border patrol says they were not prepared to take on. inside here is what they call a processing center, where the families are held for about three days. they won't let us shoot any picture inside, but we can tell yowhat we saw. it's basically a giant cement room, with a processing desk in the middle, and around the perimeter are a number of cells where the families are they're broken up by populations, so mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. but the single most crowded room was for unaccompanied males.ze and dozens of teenagers, lying like sardines in this one cement room.ea but whaty strikes you about the room is how many children there are. a toddlers runniund; infants in their mother'

amna nawaz was granted access to border patrol's yuma sector operations in arizona. the first of two oports, starting with a view from the u.s. sithe border. and a warning:iewers may find some images disturbing. >> nawaz: under the hot arizona sun, with few belongings and well-worn shoes, these migrants have just crossed onto american soil after the nearly 4,000 milo ney from guatemala.ur theyndered to border patrol agents from the u.s. customs and border protection agen, or c.b.p. the groups they're encountering in recent years changed dramatically. a a decadego, 90% ofra immignts caught crossing illegally were single adult men from mexico. today nearly 90% are families and unaccompanied children fromm central erica. it's a population the border patrol says they were not prepared to take on. inside here is what they call a processing center, where the families are held for about three days. they won't let us shoot any picture inside, but we can tell you what we saw. it's basically a giant cement room, with a processsk in the middle, and around the perimeter are a num

from texas to california the border patrol is seeing large busloads of migrants arriving. we are on the arizona mexican border near yuma. that is highly 2 in mexico. it's like a major interstate. under the new smuggling model, they are paying $7,000 for three day trip by charter line bus. they are being dropped off right there to walk into the united states. it's actually a pretty short walk, only about 200 yards. what do those immigrants confront? there is no wall here. as a matter of fact, all there is is this barrier they easily go under or over. in fact, of the 700 miles of barrier in the united states along the border, not quite half of it looks just like this. >> we do have the charter style buses that drive up, drop them off in large groups. they have easy passage through shallow waters, walk through the shallow waters right up to the vehicle barrier, right over the barrier under it up to her agents. >> single adults can be kept, harassed, but children have a passport. yesterday we we had into breatg by the border patrol that there were about 400 fraudulent documents

changing demographics have created challenges for border patrol. most illegal border crossers were young mexican men in the past, and our laws allowed us to return them swiftly to mexico. now there are families and unaccompanied children from central america and beyond. human smugglers are taking advantage of our broken system. smugglers are telling vulnerable families their child is there visa, stay in the united states if they turn themselves in at the border. the propaganda is working. family apprehensions this year are more than 800% higher than 2013. we are seeing migrants arriving in record sizes. these massive groups overwhelm ports of entry. 70 groups of more than 100 migrants each have been apprehended since october, last year. some of these are thousands. if you're curious, two years ago, we had two groups of more than 100 people. migrants arriving have had a long and arduous journey. smugglers and traffickers do not care about their victims well-being. they only care about making money. they leave these migrants in dangerous conditions wi

>> reporter: ana, border patrol is issuing dire warnings about the situation on the border. they're saying the system is reaching a breaking point, that the number of migrants in detention is reaching crisis levels, as president trump is demanding more cooperation from mexico to stop this flow of illegal immigrants into the u.s. and he's threatening to close down the border between the u.s. and mexico if he doesn't get it. this is not the first time he's issued such a threat. he said in december that he would close down the border. but it is the first time he's attaching the deadline. he says he's going to do it by next week. and he's continuing to call for congressional action. and this comes as customs and border protection is saying that the increase in families coming over the southern border is putting an enormous amount of strain on their limited resources. cbp says their systems were not designed to handle this many children and families. their statement says, u.s. border protection has been transparent for several months by conveying the message both publicly, intern

i want to just commend our border patrol and i.c.e., what they've been doing, border patrol, and our military, by the way, has been fantastic. we're building a lot of the barbwire areas where people were pouring through, they're not going through. they have done a fantastic job. we have built some temporary fencing and some permanent fencing with the military. they have done a fantastic job. but the border patrol, they are capturing, catching, grabbing, they're doing whatever they have to do, thousands of people, thousands of illegal aliens a month. 75,000 last month. the job they are doing, they're apprehending, call it whatever -- whatever you'd like to use, but they're apprehending thousands and thousands of people a month and we're catching them and we're keeping them. we're not doing the release. at a certain point we have to do some release because we don't have the bed space. we don't have the room and we don't have the funds to build new space. because we have ridiculous laws. in other countries, leo, when you have somebody comes in illegally you say, sorry, you have to leave

last week, the border patrol in the rio grande valley arrested more than 1,300 illegal immigrants in a single day. as you know, mr. commissioner, cbp announced that more than 76,000 people crossed the border in february alone. 76,000 in one month. this is the largest monthly total in more than a decade. and i understand where my friend, the senator from california, says well, the numbers of people detained are down from their million plus high, to roughly 400,000 people last year, but that's, but the main problem is the people, as the chairman has described, who basically have figured a way to thread the needle and exploit the vulnerabilities, or the gap in our asylum laws, and to basically win at making their way permanently into the united states, never to be removed. at this time last year, compared to this time last year, family unit apprehensions have increased 209%. in the rio grande valley sector. family unit apprehensions have increased 497% in the del rio sector, and most staggering, in the el paso sector, overall apprehensions have increased 434%, while family unit apprehens

says we are having to rely on alternate resources other than border patrol.hat do you mean? >> national guard down there a little bit. this is going to help out. heather: talk to many sheriffs across new mexico. and the sheriffs association. can you be sure there are specific stories, sticks in your mind? >> the thing that speaks in my mind, the citizens down there at the southern border, the medical issues, the influx of people, the stuff going on with private property and homes being broken into, vehicles stolen. we hear about it all the time on local news, you see it happening. if something needs to happen to slow this down. heather: what would you say to democrats trying to block the $1 billion being spent to build this wall or block the president himself? what would you say to those democrats? >> they need to put their personal differences aside and realize what is good for the united states of america and recognize that there is a problem down there. there is a problem with the immigration system. rather than fight the system let's figure out how the un

border patrol at a breaking point.en morning as kirsten nielsen prepares for questioning on capitol hill today. griff jenkins joins us from washington dc as we learn 76,000 people tried to cross our border just last month. good morning. >> reporter: when kirsten nielsen appears this morning she will tell lawmakers to heed what customs and border protection are saying are troubling alarming trends. >> based on the experiences of men and women on the front line this is a border security and humanitarian crisis and we know what is driving these trends, increases in traffic, direct response to vulnerabilities in the legal system. >> reporter: according to the data there's a 300% increase in the number of family units apprehended compared to the same time period of fiscal year 2018. more family units stopped at the border in the last 5 months than were apprehended in all of 2018. 136,000 apprehensions in the first 5 months compared to 107,000 the entire fiscal year 18. there have been 70 large groups of 100 individuals tota

>> reporter: ana, border patrol is saying that the situation is reaching a breaking point, that the number of migrants in detention is reaching crisis levels. this is president trump once again threatening to close down the southern border if he doesn't get more cooperation with mexico, to try to stem the flow of undocumented migrants coming into the u.s. and this is not the first time that president trump has said he would close down the border. he did so in december. but it's the first time he's attaching a deadline to that threat. he says he'll do so by next week if he doesn't start to see results. and this comes as customs and border patrol says that the increase in the number of families coming into the u.s. is putting enormous strain on their limited resources. they say that their facilities just weren't designed to handle family units. i want to read you part of customs and border patrol's statement. they say, u.s. border patrol has been transparent for several months by conveying the message both publicly, internationally, and to congress that the immigration system is broken and t

the border patrol has been warning of an unprecedented crisis, putting the agency at a breaking point with thousands of undocumented immigrants illegally flooding across the border this week alone. u.s. detention centers are wilting under the pressure of the numbers of people. we are told we could see people stopped at the border reaching 1 million by the end of the yea year. that doubles last year's numbers. here is the commissioner of a short time ago. >> on monday and tuesday, cvp started the day with over 12,000 migrants in our custody. as of this morning, that number was 13,400. a high number for us is 4,000. a crisis level is 6,000. on monday, we saw the highest totals of apprehensions and encounters in over a decade with 4,000 migrants either apprehended or encountered at ports of entry in a single day. yesterday we broke the record again with 4117. >> harris: on this fox news alert, william la jeunesse is following the story from a west coast bureau. william? >> harris, basically the commissioners raising the white flag thing is agency is overrun and overwhelmed. 40% of border

the national emergency is worsening the border patrol calling crisis on southern border now unsustainable as a record number of illegal immigrant families have been apprehended breaking the yearly record in just i five months to this fiscal year. the want of homeland security expecting almost a million illegal immigrants to be arrested this year. and in addition to what had could be as many as 3 million illegals who avoid apprehension altogether. white house press secretary sarah sanders today calling out the the radical left the ignorance on border security. >> it is absolutely abhorrent that democrats are still refusing to acknowledge crisis on border particularly when barack obama himself even called it as i crisis in 2014 we know what it is time and fixing they should follow the president he's actually leading it is time somebody step up and follow the president and fix this problem. >> l and i would nominate first of all to follow him secretary dpght of homeland security tonight we take up national security crisis at the border, the president unseeing fight for border security. headl

the need to president declares is very much an emergency to you. >> i agree 100%. 21 euros and border patrolof everything in the tucson sector when we were making more arrests than at any time in history of the border p. right now we are dealing with more people, we are on pace to deal with more people than we've ever dealt with before. this is in fact an emergency. it's greater than 2014. it's greater than the early 2000s. it's an emergency and we are seeing the effects of it right now. >> neil: brandon judd, national border patrol council president, thank you. here is "the five." ♪ >> dana: hello, everyone. i'm dana perino with emily compagno, juan williams, jesse watters and greg gutfeld. we are already laughing. it's 5:00 in new york city and this is "the five" ." 2020 democratic candidates continuing to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. going to extremes to impress voters. here's the latest example from kirsten gillibrand. she's getting mocked for posting that video pumping iron. gillibrand is also sporting a "just trying to get some ranch" t-shirt, reference to a viral moment i

>> well, you're 100% right that the border patrol agents who are down there dealing with this, what is definitely an emergency at our border, they wanted a whole lot of things. but in fairness, what the president put forward in january and what i think a lot of republicans were talking about, i know i was, is the need for judges, the need for more beds, the need for more technology, the need for more fencing, the need for more roads lateral to the river, and a lot of resources beyond just the fence. now, the fence, the wall, whatever you want to call it obviously was the headline point. but what the president put forward was a comprehensive plan. what i know i was asking for was comprehensive. and if you talk to border patrol right now, they'll tell you they still need all of the above. and what we're seeing right now, as you know, is an unbelievable wave of people. border patrol says that march we're going to have upwards of 100,000 illegal crossings. >> a number not seen since 2008. although we have lived through this before. one point of pushback and we'll see how we move forward. i

customs and border patrol tweeted a picture saying border patrol reported 47 applications on the southwestder yesterday, the largest single day total in a decade. on a broader scale, this from dhs secretary's march report, 76,000 illegal immigrants apprehended being inadmissible in february, 12 year high, 2000 aliens apprehended every day at the southern border and border patrol apprehended 268,000 in the beginning of the fiscal year. the pentagon money is not the only military asset, us troops remain there with surveillance and there are reportedly plans for more troops to come. heather: hard to deny those numbers. rob: 3700. the family of kate steinle who was killed by an illegal immigrant is far from going forward with the wrongful death suit against the city of san francisco. the ninth circuit court of appeals, very familiar, ruling a sanctuary city cannot be held liable for her death. this despite this the refusing to tell immigration and customs enforcement about a car's release from custody months before her death. steinle was shot and killed when walking on appear with her father.