brownsville and mcallen. brownsville has 35 miles of secure fencing.s border security the way we would like to see it. a good mix of technology and fencing. in mcallen you have the opposite. you have wide open areas. we see about 6% of illegal ap e apprementions happen in brownsville. a lot have kids with them who will be let go in america. >> sean: is this a national emergency? >> of course, sean. we had all of that fentanyl seized yesterday. that could have killed half of the viewers of the super bowl. the american public has to realize that could kill 500,000 people. in new york they seized more poison. thank god the law enforcement are out there under-paid and getting shot at by people in america. thank god president trump is standing up for our national security. >> sean: what if that could kill 57 million people, the largest haul of fentanyl they got this week. what is a terrorist organization got ahold of that and wanted to lace our food with it? >> absolutely. and what about the airplane in the seizure in new york that was coming on planes? it'

the brownsville area in the mcallen area. brownsville area has about 35 miles of pretty secure fencing. it's border security the way that we would like to see it. a good mix of technology, secure fencing. the mcallen area, exactly the opposite. wide open areas. what do we see? about a 6% illegal apprehensions occur in brownsville and 94% occur in mcallen. do walls work? the answer is fairly killing the. that is what we are seeing. as we are driving over here, you can see mexico behind me, driving over here, groups of migrants, a lot of them have kids with them. >> sean: give the experience. give the pictures of people fully understand, is this a national emergency? >> of course, sean. >> sean: i'm sorry. go ahead. >> basically, we had all that fentanyl seized yesterday. i could have killed 57 million people. half the viewers of the super bowl. sup the american people has to realize that a kilogram can kill 500,000 people. if you look at new york, they seized another 70 pounds of this poison. that could have killed 15, 20 mill

now these spots, the brownsville area and the mcallen area, the brownsville area have 35 miles of secureis the way we would like to see, a good mix of technology and secure fencing. you have exactly the opposite, you have wide open areas. what do we see? 6% of illegal apprehensions occur in brownsville, 94% occur in mcallen. what do walls work? the answer is clearly yes. driving over here, migrants caught as they cross the border and a lot of these have kids with them which means the us population. jillian: democrats still insist there is no crisis. todd: isis could rise back up and take back its territory in a matter of months. a chilling warning part of a pentagon report as the us prepares to move troops from syria. the senate fighting against that plan voting to criticize the president for the mideast troops drawback. >> i believe the threats remain. isis and al qaeda have yet to be defeated and america's national security interests require continued commitment to our missions there. >> reporter: the president will give an update during the state of the union. jillian: senator ben sac

>> i just returned from brownsville this afternoon, brownsville, texas there on the rio grande. i went to that port of industry. that port needs to be reenforced, needs to be upgraded. there is fencing there. that needs to be repaired. i'm sure we'll work with the president on funding the repair work that needs to be done on those fences that are there and secure the border. so we don't have a problem with that. we have a problem with a big 30 foot concrete wall which would do nothing but be a monument to somebody's ego. >> he says he wants these steel barriers in place of a formal concrete wall. i'll repeat the question. are you ready to support at least some money for that kind of steel barrier? you want to call it a fence or whatever. are you ready to give him that? >> i have no idea what's going on in that room. if they come out there with the common approach i don't care what it is. if the democrats and republicans come together on that conference committee and presents them to that congress i will vote for it irrespective of what they call it so long as the common ground i

and we've already had an outside of washington hearing under the leadership of marcia fudge in brownsville, texas. great participation from our members, including our distinguished whip, mr. clyburn, participating. and here this week we've had omeland security committee having a hearing on h.r. 1, and as it relates to the integrity of our elections, and we have the house administration committee having a hearing on that as well. again, part of our h.r. 1, 2, 3rks the first 10 resolutions of the house, the first 10 bills, we're very pleased that we're advancing the for-the-people agenda but also .r. 8, the gun violence prevention bill. scheduled to report out two, that bill, understand and then mr. clyburn's initiative on the fix for south carolina, which has bipartisan, bicameral support. just a word further on the agreement that we will be voting on later today. in addition to the pieces on homeland security, which are very important, by the way, the homeland security budget is a ig budget. it's not just about the mexico border. it's about ice cutters off of alaska and other parts of our

administration committee headed by marcia fudge she had the first hearing out of washington in brownsville, texas, a couple of weeks ago, very well-attended, very important. part of h.r. 1, though, is also to reassert and repass the h.r. 4 which is the voting rights act headed by terri sewell of alabama. we hoped, we introduced it this week in preparation for the visit to selma this weekend. first weekend in march. as you know. those of us -- in addition to that we said we'll pass gun violence prevention. we did yesterday in the house and now it goes on. we have another bill on the floor today to expand on that in terms of a timetable. we said we'd do the equality act and we'll be marking that up, announcing that in about 10 days, two weeks perhaps. we're going to do dreamers and t.p.s. in the same time frame. we'll continue with equal pay for equal work. again, a lot of high profile events going on around here. the ur work to support financial well being of america's working families goes on. the president is returning from vietnam, from his meeting with kim jong un, i guess it took two m

to put a fence from el paso to brownsville. you can put it in certain spots. but the majority of texas is private land. >> that won't work. you need more man power, technology, a combination of all of the above. i would rely on the expert that borderland and homeland security to tell us what they really need. >> do you? you sort of intimated that perhaps those in washington are not quite clear about the parameters of what they seem to be talking about. were you surprised when the president, we understand, did off script and ad libbed about loving and wanting more legal immigration into the united states? when he said that and when you were listening to the speech, what did you think? >> well, i do think that that is something that needs to be done. i think that lottery system is not functioning at all. my former firm was trying to bring in an underwriter from loids of london for several years and the lottery system they locked out every year for three years and gave up. but when we're below 4% unemployment, we've got to do some

we're not right on the border like laredo or brownsville, and i think that's been one of our benefits from a standpoint of people coming from mexico to shop. they want to go to an all-american city. o'brien: so you have a fair amount of tourism coming in from mexico--from mexicans who want to shop here, and then they go back home? darling: yeah. we were--until about 2 or 3 years ago, we were the number one sales tax collector in the state of texas and about 20 times higher than the american average. o'brien: so how does it work? explain to me sort of the dynamics of the border for folks in mcallen. darling: one of the things, we own a couple of international bridges, so we have about 8,000 people who come across every day walking and doing business and shopping and owning shops and working, et cetera, and so we're very close to what happens in mexico. i would say what happens there happens to us a lot on the border. o'brien: what does washington get wrong about the border? darling: oh, i think--well, i think the rest of the nation does for one thing. i mean, they just don't understand

last year i traveled to brownsville, and mcallen, texas, where i saw he horrors of the trump administration's family detention jails, i saw children sleeping on concrete floors, it was cruel and inhumane. not only did we secure $450 million for humanitarian relief, including enhanced medical support and food on our border we got many, many programs and understood if -- and funding for alternatives to detention. finally, mr. speaker, 10 seconds? let me just say it's a first step, it's far from perfect but it does lay the groundwork which really addresses many of the issues between myself and the deleens conference committee have fought so hard for so i support this bill and i ask for an aye vote. thank you again. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. granger: i yield five minutes to the gentleman from tennessee, mr. fleischmann. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. fleischmann: i rise in support of this joint resolution. earlier today, our colleagues in the united states senate overwhelmingly passed this bill, i believe it was 83-16, but at

end of the day, so he won that game, and yesterday, he won because an acquaintance of his is from brownsvillewas the correct response in final jeopardy! what will happen today with amanda and mark joining us? let's start finding out. here we go. ♪ and the categories now in play are... next... [ laughter ] eric? take almanac for $200.

you can't fizzily build a fence from el paso to brownsville texa, texas. >> the geography of texas would not allow it and most texas along the border is privately heele healed. >> we are a solve rern nation th that needs to control his border. >> as determined by home line security. >> will you be at the rally or protest tonight? >> well, i hope to be able to beforehand. we are still trying to finalize that. that's the extent of my involvement. >> good luck to you, mayor, hopefully you get to meet with the president and express your view and tell him a little bit about your town. >> thank you very much. >>> still ahead this hour, the governor of virginia says he's staying put despite racist voters in his past. >> right after this break, two more democrats entering the race, they are sharing the same phenomenon but two different messages. stay with us. i needed help. for me, chantix did it. chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. chantix, without a doubt, reduced my urge to smoke. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms

that's something you hear from brownsville all the way to el paso. >> we spoke to the el paso mayor,o made the point particularly about economic times across the border. of course you heard the crowd yesterday cheering for beto to run. jeff zeleny caught up with beto o'rourke last night. i want to play what he had to say about 2020. >> of all of this how can you not run? >> oh, i don't know. i just want to make sure whatever i do next does the greatest good for the country. i want to make this town proud. they have given me everything. i'm focused on supporting el paso tonight. >> how close are you? >> before the end of the month i will make a decision and an announcement. >> sure looks like a yes. >> we'll see. >> in your view, should he run? will he be a credible contender for 2020? >> of course he should run. he showed in his campaign he's capable of bringing a broad base of support including millennials who will be a key factor in 2020. they were something that was significantly strong in the beto o'rourke campaign and got him to draw these huge crowds all over the state of texas

cal perry joins us now from a gap in a border fence near brownsville, texas. cal, what do you have?ese migrants just come over the rio grande, this sector is the busiest sector along that border with mexico. in groups of hundreds they come across, the smugglers don't care that cpb is there, they don't care the media is there. they're just trying to make money and get people across and i want to stress we're talking about family units, people coming for asylum, we're not longer talking about what we saw in the '80s and '90s with single males. we saw them talking to customs and border protection. we asked skd what thwhat they n >> what do you need in this sector? >> tools that protect the board thaerks wi er, that will include technology, fencing, roads similar to what we had in arizona. but then you need the personnel. a fence and technology don't make a hexes and seizures. they detect but ultimately it's going to be the agents to get out there and respond. >> let's talk about that appropriations bill. look at this hole in this wall. the u.s. government doesn't move quickly at all. t

border region is crime-ridden and these documents i just entered into the record clearly show that brownsville, el paso, all the areas in the border region and in fact el paso is listed in the top 29 cities where crime has gone down that you put in your written testimony and if all these stats show differently why are you still insistent that this is a crime-ridden area and i, give a short answer i only have five minutes. >> i don't recall saying today the border region is crime-ridden but i will answer your question. illegal immigration through our southern border is dramatically and negatively impacting the crime rate in our cities and would be lower if we do not have illegal immigration. i point to the example of molly tibbetts. >> you're talking other cities but are not the cities here in the border areas. >> well, i thank you would agree with me the most illegal immigrants coming to our southern border don't reside at the border region but transit through there and make their way to other parts of our country. >> i know many come to houston because we have the jobs and we are an open city

brownsville to del rio. the violence, not all of it is reported other.these guys will blow you away for the slightest reason. they are not playing. why we are talking about allowing these folks to come across the border, they are here now, but to allow more to moving we arein and out, inviting a cancer into this country that needs to be stopped. a fortunately or unfortunately have known a lot of folks over the years. most are dead so i can name some names. a friend of mine was leasing their clients -- airplanes. when they crashed, they would turn around and buy the middle east them. these guys are working here now on connections from canada to miami. that is what it is about, the dollar. how much they can get. guest: i think he is exactly right. that is why i think on the immigration issue, yeah, much of the border already has walls and barriers. i think there are ways to do it but i don't want to dismiss enhancing the checkpoints with technology and manpower. i think he has a very good point along the border. one of the things i was worried about the sh

border region is crime written and when these documents enter the record clearly shows del rio and brownsville and el paso and even el paso is listed in the top 29 citying where kiem had gone down that you quoted in your written testimony, it is all of these show so differently, please a short answer because i only got five minutes. >> i don't renault sthat the border religious on fire. >> illegally immigration, negatively impacting the crime rate in our cities. it would belower if we did not have illegal litigation. >> you are talking about other cities thought they are there in fact of the border areas. >> well, i think would adpree with me that most immigrants coming into our southern border does not resign at the border region if they transit their way there and make sheer world to another country point. >> i heard you said earlier and maybe the word crime written was not the act word you ambiguoused b use. let me move onto another topic following up some questions about the family separation policy or these zero tolerance policy. you said earlier and you answered questions about some of y

you can't build a fence from el paso to brownsville, texas. geographically, texas -- it won't work.e fact that the majority of land along the border with mexico in texas is privately owned. you've got all those things. it could be part of the solution, part of the process as we control our borders. >> you know this president feels very strongly about this. he calls it a wall. you can call it a fence, whatever you want to call it. do you think it's worth declaring a national emergency over which is something he very well might do? >> no, from my standpoint, no. i would probably absolutely say no. i don't think there were any winners listening to pundits on in the media related to the shutdown stating who won and who lost. there were no winners in that shutdown and i'm hopeful we won't have that again. the fence has worked on -- our fence here slowed down some criminal activity, car thefts things like that. the neighbors in the area that borders that fence have state that had they felt more secure with the fence and their own comments and anecdotal information. it's not the total pana

you can't build a fence from brownsville to el paso, texas. geographically, texas, it won't work. >> with me now, todd curry, an assistant professor of political science at university of texas at el paso. so professor, welcome. and wechted to talk to you wauf this quote of yours. trump's trip to el paso is the equivalent you said of a criminal returning to the scene of the crime. what did you mean by that? >> well, trump's most notorious policies regarding immigration started here in el paso. or family separation, the torneo, all of these occurred here in el paso. >> so your point being you're calling those crimes and referring to trump. >> not necessarily calling them crimes. what i'm in essence saying is that when trump is showing back up here, he's bringing back up these certain occurrences that have occurred that are sort of negative marks on him at least nationally, and they all took place here where he is come lg back to this evening. >> this is something i also addressed with the mayor. he has insisted over and over falsely that el paso

my mom lived in a section of brooklyn, east new york, around brownsville, the height of the crack eraowing up in brooklyn? >> my mom did the absolute best she could to shield us from as much as she could. i used to ask mom, what's that, and she would say, they're just planting firecrackers outside. outside the home was the highest level of stress as possible. my high school was in one of the roughest neighbors in the city. >> i was raised by both my parents. my mom was very heavily christian. christianity. my dad was a hard working guy. he had a third grade education but he worked countless hours to provide for a family of six. i started seeing crime, i started seeing drugs. >> you got sucked in. >> i got sucked in. one minute i was going to church with my partners but by the end of the night, i started entering the street life. >> and started selling drugs? >> it brought me to selling drugs. there was a cousin of mine who in 1996 was murdered, shot nine times. i felt like, who was going to die next? that brought on a sense that i had to make a change. >> in 1998, they met as students

i was just there this weekend in brownsville, texas, where we had a voting rights hearing, chris. we had a chance to run around. i was running around the streets. bennie thompson, the chairman of the homeland security committee was there to talk to property owners who are adamantly against the notion of taking of their land. look, this is the president at his worse. rather then trying to stoke fear across america, he should step back, get a good night's sleep and in the morning say let's find a bipartisan approach to get this done. democrats want to work together. we've already put a strong modern plan on the table that is fueled by a willingness to work together. so, look, let's just get this done. i think the president should listen to everyone else, except for sean hannity, who he seems tunes into. >> well, it's hard to argue with that case. anyway, president trump tried to underscore his message on the wall by paint it as a class war. this is really going after angry voters. >> -- to defend our very dangerous southern border out of love and devotion to our fellow citizens and

. >> reporter: the final stretch of wall ends near brownsville, texas but the border between the twoies stretches further to the east some 13 miles through marsh land. >> that was cal perry reporting. for a different perspective from the other side of the border, nbc's report is in mexico right across from eagle pass, texas. ♪ >> reporter: eagle pass, texas a quiet unassuming place population 30,000. but the voices of residents here are being drowned out by more than 2100 law enforcement agents. >> a lot of people won't say nothing because they are scared of what will to be done the home. >> reporter: the reason for the extra security lies just across the rio grande river in the mexican city. now forced into an immigrant showdown with its texas twin. all this law enforcement presence what is the message that it's sending? >> you're not going to be able to cross illegally. you can't cross in any way shape or fashion. >> is its necessary >> at this level, no. >> reporter: we cross the border and this is what we found. the atmosphere here is very tense. you have the mexican federalis, t

marcia fudge is going to be in georgia she was in brownsville texas last week, doing hearings. we are doing the work but we need the conversation to continue because the myth of voter fraud has taken on the air of truth. we have to make sure the truth of voter suppression takes on the air of urgency. hr1 is a smart approach i think. the challenge with hr1 is it conflates so many ideas into one bill. but as an opening i think it was a necessary one. what my hope is going to be is that we see substantial change in the composition of the senate. ii'm not saying anything about y role in that other than i'm going to make sure georgia elects a senator that reflects our value. i think hr1 was an excellent conversation starter and that the pieces embedded there in are parts of our national narrative. >> jelani: the next round of three questions, the young lady in the red in the back. and the young lady in the black next to her, and on this side, the lady with the glasses on her nose. >> guest: so i know we were speculating but he did declare a national emergency to build the wall so wh

we have already had outside of washington hearing under the leadership of marsha pledge in brownsville, texas with great participation of our members including our distinguished witnesses participating are. here this week we've had homeland security committee having a hearing on hr-1 as it relates to the integrity of our elections. we have the house administration committee having a hearing on that as well. some -- again, part of our hr 1, 2, 3, the first ten resolutions of the house, the first ten bills, we're very pleased how we're advancing for the people agenda. but also hr-8, the gun violence prevention bill. probably -- i think the -- scheduled to report out too, that bill and mr. clyburn's initiative on the fix for south carolina, which has bipartisan,bicameral support. a word further on the agreement that was -- that we'll be voting on later today. in additions to the pieces on homeland security -- by the way, the homeland security budget is a big budget. it's not just about mexico. it's about ice cutter s off of alaska. it's not just the southern part. i'm pleased that some lo

i just came back from brownsville, texas. we were at a port ofen try. -- port of entry. i saw a port in dire need of trofitting. i saw fencing that's already there in dire need ofepairing. i do believe that we can do what is necessary to secureur border, just do it in a smart way, not to build monument to anybody. >> woodruff: so to be clear, you're saying democrats, you're third in line in leadership in the house, the democrats are prepared to support the money for some sort of physical barrier? >> so long as it's done smartly. i believe that we will vote for whatever that committee comes out. if they come out with a bipartisan aroach -- approach to get this done, irrespective of hothey put it together, i do believe you'll get extensive pport among democrats for it. it may not be unanimous, but there will be a lot of unity. >> woodruff: are democrats prepared to show respect to the president tonight? i asked that, because we remember under president obama there were state of the union addresses when members called out to him, one of them calling him a liar. how do you s

bennett and i started the week down in brownsville, texas.e monday at the port of entry. so he is developing some work involving the takings down there. families are very, very upset with losing their property. many of them have already lost property and never were paid for it. these things have got to take place. >> you're talking about the possibility of using eminent domain to take property to build a border wall. when the president explained what the wall would be last night saying it would be see-through steel slats. >> yeah. >> you, more than most democrats in leadership seem open to the possibilities of funding for some new barrier under the right circumstances. >> yes, so long as it's smartly done. listening to the experts. i don't think we ought to put ourselves in the place of experts. we ought to have a smart wall. i defined that as a wall using drones, make it too high to get over, using x-ray equipment to make it too wide to get around and using scanners to go deep enough not to tunnel under it. to me, that would be a smart thing

now we have a crisis not in burundi, but in brownsville, in texas. that's a national emergency, something happening in africa that's relatively inconsequential to our country, then the crisis at our border, and it is a crisis, is at a clear and present threat to the united states and meets the actual definition of a national emergency. and also to neal's point about precedent, i think this is very important because i keep hearing this. a liberal president can take away guns from law-abiding citizens by national emergency. well, no, he can't. not by constitutional emergency. these national emergencies deal with external threats. they deal with terrorism. many of them are specific to iran, for example. this is an external threat at the border. it does not give the president power to act extra constitutionally against americans. in peacetime. >> steve, if a democrat becomes president and decides that climate change is a national emergency, you're going to be supportive of the president's power to do that and to direct funds to fight -- >> right. >> -- c

>> i'm from brownsville, texas. my dad's house is just three blocks away from the actual border.lking about violence and drug cartels and criminals, that is not the community i grew up in. speed when i have a home near nogales, and i can tell you that a lot of people have different stories. clearly they do. clearly they do. i want to ask you, because i ask you about the word "wall" he gave me the word unity. also a different interesting wt specifically the word wall. it's become a political game, the semantics of this. you take that out here talking about some of the same things, we already have 600 plus miles of structure or barrier or whatever you would call it. can democrats reach a compromise? the 17 bipartisan group that is meeting right now feels like they can. is that word -- if you take it out -- does make a difference? >> a what were come and i think that's what you are referring to specifically. that is not a border security issue. but if you were talking about -- >> harris: when he barrier work? >> a wall, a barrier. as kellyanne conway likes to say, whatever you want

region is crime ridden when these documents i just entered in the record clearly show del rio, brownsville, el paso, all the areas on the border region and el paso is listed in the top 29 cities, where crime has gone down, you quoted in your written testimony, if all of these stats show differently, why are you so insistent this is a crime-ridden area? please short answer, i only have five minutes. >> i don't roll saying today the border region is crime ridden. i will answer as fulsome as i can. illegal immigration through southern border is dramatically and negatively impacting the crime rate in our cities. it would be lower if we didn't have illegal immigration, i toint -- point to the example of mollie tibbet. most illegal immigrants coming through don't reside at the border region, they transit through and make their way to other parts of our country. >> i know many come to houston, we have good jobs and we're an open city. but, i heard you say earlier and maybe the word crime ridden wasn't the exact word you used, but eluding to the fact the border areas had a lot of crime. and i just

i have been to brownsville. i want to be very clear to my colleague, i have seen the cages. i have walked through the cages. i have seen the children crying. i have been with the mothers who had no idea where their children were taken. we were all crying. it was a group of women, members of congress, mothers and grandmothers ourselves, weeping in the arms. the guards were weeping. i met two women breast-feeding their babies that were taken by the government of the united states of america. breast-feeding their babies. so, i understand that you did not make that happen. but, we are all citizens of the country that made that happen. with all due respect, to my colleague, miss brooks, who is a friend and a colleague, yes, they face trauma in their home country and we need to do more. yes, they arrive with trauma at our border and we need to do better and open our arms with compassion, but we have inflicted additional trauma on each and every one of those children. we need not forget until we get to the bottom of this. i appreciate all of your professionalism in helping us to do

she was in brownsville, texas, last week. we are doing the work, but we need the conversation to continue because the myth of voter fraud has taken on the air of truth. we need to make sure it's the truth of voter suppression takes on the air of urgency. h.r. 1 i think is a smart approach. the challenge with h.r. 1 is con flates so many ideas -- conflates so many ideas into one bill. as an opening sal vo, i think it was the -- salvo, i think it was the necessary one. what my hope is going to be is that we see substantial change in the composition of the senate. i'm not saying anything about my role in that. other than i'm going to make sure georgia elects a senator. that reflects our values. but the goal for me is to make certain that the conversation starts and i think h.r. 1 was an excellent conversation starter and that the pieces that are imbedded therein are important parts of our national narrative. jelani: we'll go for the next round of three questions. the young lady in the red in the back. then the young lady in the

crime ridden when these documents that i just entered into the record clearly show that del rio, brownsville, el paso, all the areas in the border region and, in fact, el paso is listed in the top 29 cities where crime has gone down that you quoted in your written testimony, if all of these stats show differently, why are you still insistent that this is a crime ridden area and i just please a short answer because i've only got five minutes? >> i don't recall saying today that the border region is crime ridden, but i will answer your question as full somely as i can. illegal immigration through our southern border is dramatically and negatively impacting the crime rate in our cities. it would be lower if we didn't have illegal immigration. i point to the example of -- >> so you're talking about other cities not the cities in the border areas? >> i think you would agree with me that most illegal immigrants that come into our southern border don't reside at the border region, they transit through there and make their way to other parts of our country. >> well, i know many come to houston becau

and we've already had an outside of washington hearing under the leadership of marcia fudge in brownsville, texas, with great participation from the members, including our distinguished mr. kye burn participating and here this week we've had homeland security committee having a hearing on hr 1 as it relates to the integrity of our elections and the health administration committee having a hearing on that as well. part of our first 10 resolutions of the house, the first 10 bills we're pleased that we're include advancing the for the people agenda but also hr 8, the gun violence prevention bill. and mr. clyburn's initiative on the fix for south carolina which has bipartisan bicameral support. just a word on the agreement that we will be voting on later today, in addition to the pieces on homeland security which are very important, by the way, the homeland security budget is a big budget. it's not just ant the mexico border. it's about ice cutters in off of alaska and other parts of our border are that are not necessarily just the southern part and i'm pleased that some long-advocated for pie

i was on the border of the ticket today in brownsville. my first toe up is we voted homeland security more of what they need and they have a well-defined plan of how they can put that to use. they have a choice that they will have to make up declaring the national emergency and then using money from somewhere to film some kind of barrier if you can't give me a definitive and final answer my hope would be that the emergency money fo for that purpose would come out of emergency money for another purpose would hate to see that happen but that would be the best possible alternative i can think of especially taking money from the military construction because those projects have been in the pipeline for years and years and that would be disruptive so my hope would be that emergency to emergency. do you have any thoughts on those lines? >> of this at this stage the president hasn't chosen to declare the national emergency assuming that that was the authority authorized by the president and his declaration thing to make the determination that by

i've been to mcallen, texas, i've been to brownsville. i want to be clear to my colleague, mr. mckinley, i have seen the cages. i have walked through the cages. i have seen the children crying. i've been with the mothers who had no idea where their children were taken. we were all crying. women, members of congress, mothers, grandmothers, ourselves, weeping in the arms. the guards were weeping. two women breast-feeding their babies that were taken by the government of the united states of america. i understand you did not make that happen. we are all citizens of the country that made that happen. to myll due respect colleague, ms. brooks, who is a yes, they colleague, face trauma in their home country and we need to do more. yes they arrive with trauma at our border. we need to do better and open our arms with compassion. we have inflicted additional trauma on each and every one of those children. we need not forget until we get to the bottom of this. i appreciate all of your professionalism in helping us to do just that. on is thet to focus children who are separated in your j

system and we've already had an outside of washington hearing outside the leadership of marcia in brownsville great participation from our members, including our distinguished witness, mr. kyburn participating. and here this week, we've had the homeland security committee having a hearing on hr-1 as it relates to the integrity of our elections and we have the house administration committee having hearing on that as well again, a part of our hr-1, the first ten resolutions of the house, the first ten bills, we're very pleased that we're advancing the for the people agenda, but also hr-8, the gun violence prevention bill. probably, i think we were scheduled to report out 2, that bill sand mr. kyburn's initiatie on south carolina which has bipartisan, bicameral support. just a word future on the agreement that we will be vote votingi inon later today. in addition to the pieces on homeland security, which are very important. and by the way, the homeland security budget is a big budget. it's not just about the mexico border. it's about ice off of alaska and other ports of our border that are not n

border region is crime-ridden and these documents i just entered into the record clearly show that brownsville, el paso, all the areas in the border region and in fact el paso is listed in the top 29 cities where crime has gone down that you put in your written testimony and if all these stats show differently why are you still insistent that this is a crime-ridden area and i, give a short answer i only have five minutes. >> i don't recall saying today the border region is crime-ridden but i will answer your question. illegal immigration through our southern border is dramatically and negatively impacting the crime rate in our cities and would be lower if we do not have illegal immigration. i point to the example of molly tibbetts. >> you're talking other cities but are not the cities here in the border areas. >> well, i thank you would agree with me the most illegal immigrants coming to our southern border don't reside at the border region but transit through there and make their way to other parts of our country. >> i know many come to houston because we have the jobs and we are an open city

able to grow tropical species here of plants that you couldn't think of growing as far south of brownsville0 years ago. .hat is 150 miles south of us we have tropical species of birds, dish moving northward each year. i have seen how we hardly even have a freeze in corpus christi for sometimes years on end, where we used average six or seven phrases per winter here. my artre winters where is the coldest of has gotten his 36 degrees. 30 years ago it would have averaged for a five phrases come even north potter and when averaged getting down to 29 degrees at least once each winner. now north potter island rarely gets below 37 and 38 degrees on the coldest morning in the winter. real.change is 80% is entirely man-made and 20% is net for all fluctuation over time. i am so sick and tired of local officials wanting to bring more industry and that does not benefit the public and will only destroy the environment even more. i want people to know that neoliberalism supports capitalism, untaxed industry. they are not the true conservatives. they are you liberals. industryconsider a destroying everyth

my mom lived in a section of brooklyn calledew eastork around brownsville.lyn? >> even though my mom did the best she could, trying to shield us from the best she could. the uzis would go off. i would say what's that? she'd say that's just fire crackers. inside the home, education was stressed at the highest level possible. again, my high school was one of the roughest neighborhoods in the city. >> i was raised by both my parents. my mom was very heavily christian, christianity. my dad was a hard working guy. my dad had a third grade education, but h worked timeless hours to provide for a family of six. i srted seeing crime. i started seeing drugs. >> got sucked in. >> i got sucked in. one minute i was in church, going to church with my parents. at the end of theng night, t changed. i started entering the street life. >> brought me to start selling drugs. there was this cousin of mine. on october 13, 1996 he was murdered. he was shot ninetimes. i felt like who was going to die next? me. that brought sn aense that i had to make a change. >> in 1998 the three

all of texas, 254 counties, from amarillo to brownsville are impacted day -- impacted, they are at war with these drug cartels. the majority had better wake up. it's time to put politics aside and admit we are at war with the drug cartels. let's fight this war to win. vote against a resolution that surrenders to the drug cartels. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. johnson: mr. speaker, at this time i am proud and privileged to yield to the gentleman from mississippi, bennie thompson, the chair of the homeland security committee, one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from mississippi is recognized for one minute. mr. thompson: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from georgia for recognizing me. mr. speaker, i rise in strong support of the resolution. i was in west texas this past weekend and saw nothing to justify the president's designation of a national emergency. there aren't gangs of violent criminals and terrorists overtaking our southern border. and if that was a crisis, it's

you know i come out of brownsville, they had the good cop/bad cop.gh it's sleeting outside. he tried to reason for him. i've known donald trump 35 years and i gave up on the doubt side a long time ago. but i felt if anybody could talk to him, martin would. the answers have been today, he's not only not meeting with martin, he's not even discussing his daddy at an official ceremony. but i give martin the credit for doing what his parents taught him always extend yourself and let the other person show who they are. he is here with us like i said from jail cells on, we've been together national action network. may we here words from the oldest child, the son of dr. martin luther king jr., martin luther king iii. [ applause ] >> good morning and let me thank god for the wonderful opportunity to be back in washington. as we observe the 33rd federal holiday. on last tuesday, my father would have been 90 years old, january 15th. challenging to even imagine that because he did not live to see 40. my family and i are so honored to be here this morning for the

i came out of a sing the parent home in brownsville, brooklyn.it weren't for people telling me i was somebody like a jesse jackson that my concept of myself, self-concept is the most important thing in your life. you have to change people's minds in order to change their direction. i think that's what the president, former president is doing with my brother's keeper >> you've done that yourself, my friend. >> i've tried. >> very much so. good to see you. >>> you can catch the reb's show on saturdays and sundays right here. he is the host of "politics nation" airing at 5:00 p.m. eastern. >>> this breaking news, we want to reiterate, we may be about to find moung paul manafort will spend behind bars. we'll be back with more after a break. hind bars. we'll be back thwi more after a break. h paul manafort will spen behind bars. we'll be back with more after a break. o paul manafort will spend behind bars. we'll be back with more after a break. w paul manafort will spend behind bars. we'll be back with more after a break. paul manafort will spend behi

my mom lived in a section of brooklyn called east new york around brownsville.h my mom did the absolute best she could, she tried to shield us from as much as she could, i used to always ask mom, like what's that. she would say baby, they're just playing with fire crackers outside. >> inside the home, education was stressed at the highest level possible, but again, my high school was in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the city. >> i was raised by both of my parents. my mom was very heavily christian. she was christianity. my dad, he was a hardworking guy. my dad had a third grade education, but he worked timeless hours to provide for a family of six. i started seeing crime. i started seeing drugs. >> you got sucked in. >> i got sucked in. one minute i was in church, i was going to church with my parents, but at the end of the night, things changed. i started entering the street life. >> were you selling drugs? >> brought me to start selling drugs. that was a cousin of mine, and on october 13th, 1996 he was murdered. he was shot nine times, and i felt like,