princeton university, "wall street journal" columnist joon, jon ralston and nbc news correspondent julia ainsley. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. it's fair to call the deteriorating situation at the u.s./mexican border a crisis, even if the biden administration refuses to use that word, but it's more than that. it's a political crisis for the new president with no easy way out. republicans are quick to blame mr. biden for the growing number of migrants crossing the border saying it's his rhetoric and policy shifts that caused the surge in migrants. the democratic administration says it was left with an unworkable immigration system

joining me now, geoff bennett in the briefing room, julia ainsley, kimberly atkins, columnist for "the boston globe," and teresa maria, founder of latina. julia, you have the breaking news now. >> yes, that's right, and this is good news for people separated under the trump administration, particularly for families who have been deported. up until now those parents had not decided if they will bring their children back into dangerous conditions or leave or stay separated from their children back to the united states. the biden administration announced they will give them the option of bringing their child back or coming to the united states themselves and that carves out special protection for families separate and parent deported. they can now come back to the united states. on top of that, they're providing mental health services, health care, transportation, legal and career and educational services and none of that cost will be passed down to the families. this was far wider than what we had originally expected from this task force. so far the biden administration had been reluctan

thanks to julia ainsley, jonathan lemire, dr. nahid bhadelia, much obliged. >>> coming up, majority of americans supported tougher new gun laws even before what we witnessed in boulder. but our next guest has a warning for everybody wanting to close gun loopholes. >>> later, death, politics, what is at stake for children and everyone else in the fight on the southern border, all of it as "the 11th hour" is getting under way on wednesday night. way on wt sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes we just need a reminder not to take toda

joining me now is one of the reporters on that byline, julia ainsley. julia, with a warning, we are standing by right now for the president who has some news to deliver. i think he's coming on in just a moment, so if i do interrupt you, i apologize for that. but your reporting, what does this mean for the ability of facilities to house these migrants? >> katy, in a lot of ways it explains the reason why we're seeing all this overcrowding in border patrol stations, because we know the capacity to hold them in hhs where they are more properly cared for was very diminished due to covid. the biden transition saw the numbers start to increase and said to people in the trump administration, you need to go ahead and increase this capacity so that we can better prepare for the incoming, what they would imagine would be a surge of unaccompanied minors. instead they said they sat on their hands, not even starting to do site visits or surveys just days before the inauguration. they think if they had acted earlier, we wouldn't be in as dire of a situation as we're i

thanks to julia ainsley, jonathan lemire, dr. bhadelia, much obliged. >>> coming up, majority of americans supported tougher new gun laws even before what we witnessed in boulder. but next guests had a warning for everybody wanting to close gun loopholes. >>> later, death, politics, what is at stake for children and everyone else in the fight on the southern border, all as the "the 11th hour" is getting under way on wednesday night. gettingr way on wednesday night for wo. with safety and tech to keep you connected. supported by a five-star sales, service and finance team. and backed by the one star you know. so, go the extra mile. it's never crowded because so few have what it takes to go there. mercedes-benz vans. i'm a verizon engineer, part of the team that built 5g right. the only one from america's most reliable network. we designed our 5g to make the things you do every day, better. with 5g nationwide, millions of people can now work, listen, and stream in verizon 5g quality. and in parts of many cities where people can use

i'm going to turn to my colleague julia ainsley who of course has been covering this for a few years now through the trump administration and now here. so let's do this in layman's terms, julia, why is there a surge at the border? is this due simply to the election? >> no, it's not simply due to the election. i think that that is a part of it. one thing that i'm hearing internally at dhs is that they are worried about false narratives getting out through spanish media, or through cartels that are trying to convince people to make this journey, telling them that it's okay, there's a new slf sheriff in town, biden will let people in, the borders are open. there is concern about that internally within dhs. that's not the case. if you show up to the border now you are not guaranteed to come in and be able to claim asylum. they have a number of people ahead of them who have been waiting during the trump administration to come in and make that claim. but the other piece of this, chuck, that's so important is that under the trump administration the trump administration used the cdc authority

joining me now is julia ainsley and morgan chesky who is in dallas. julia, this gag order and the inability for reporters to see what's going on, what is compelling the biden administration to give less access than it seems the trump administration did? >> well, right now -- you're right, katy, access is key. we want to see the conditions in these facilities. when it was overcrowded in 2018, we were able to understand more of what was going on. they allowed at least pictures of what was going on. we aren't getting anything like that now. when you talk to people running these sectors, the epicenters of the overcrowding, they say, really, they can't take any requests from the media, it all has to be cleared from washington, and right now the washington press office is just denying pretty much everything across the board. we're getting a reminder of how many children are in police custody. that's not something we get from a spokesperson, we have to dig for that. i'm hearing it's harder to get that information because they want to prevent leaks. one of the

joining us now, one of the reporters behind that story, nbc news correspondent julia ainsley. julia, good morning to you. it's always great to have you. thanks for being up early with us. what is your read on -- and i know you were reporting this out yesterday -- on why people are being released without these court dates? and it sounds like the biden administration is trying to take some steps to focus on the root cause in some of these triangle countries and also in their outreach to mexico. what kind of possibilities are there in terms of trying to get a handle on what's going on? >> well, right now we're seeing a very short-term solution in the rio grande valley, kasie. that's because of the numbers. we know based on data just from last weekend that in the rio grande valley, they have over 3,700 immigrants in a facility built for 250. those numbers -- i'm not adding or subtracting zeros there. that's exactly what we're seeing. and that is the reason why -- >> wow. >> -- customs and border protection is taking this unprecedented move to start just releasing adults and familie

joining me now, julia ainsley, she has been on this story since the beginning. the administration is planning to do at this point. >> reporter: well, what they are planning right now, they are trying to look as far as they can to find facilities that can quickly take on unaccompanied make grant children. that is the critical piece. you talk about 100,000 crossing the border, it's that critical over 9,000 unaccompanied minors. you can't relief them without a home to go to, without a sponsor. they can be living on the streets of the united states. so right now they're backed up in customs and border protection facilities, where there is no place for children to be living. some in the past had to sleep under concrete in the past. right now, they are looking around the country, we reported they are looking at ft. lee, virginia. there were a number of other sites they are looking at. part of the reason they have a striking capacity when it comes to dealing with these children is a lot of those facilities downgraded during covid. they wanted to have more space for chi

julia ainsley is the nbc correspondent that reported on this story. and a reporter who spoke with those children at the border in the nbc latino article i referenced earlier. welcome to you both. julia, let me start with just your reporting on this. warnings that were sent up the chain where they were just sort of looking at what was happening at the end of last year and what the capacity was going to need to be in covid and saying we're going to need more space. >> it wasn't just one warning, this was repeatedly as i understand at least once a week brought up in numerous meetings, both at hhs and dhs from the biden transition team telling that at the time, the current administration, the trump administration, that they needed to expand health and human services capacity so that they wouldn't have the backlog that we're seeing now of children at customs and border protection. they could foresee this would be a problem. they told the trump administration, look, you have the same data we're looking at, if not more data. you need to go ahead and start the

. >> julia ainsley as pete sort of teed you up and said for more of these details on this specific threat about march 4th there's obviously also been this qanon theory moving around to the point that the trump hotel in d.c. raised its rates tonight because of this conspiracy theory circulating about somehow donald trump might become president on march 4th referring back to when inauguration day was not on january 20th. how much of that is involved in the decision to issue this joint bulletin? >> well, i think that the joint bulletin is coming from a number of people at fbi and dhs who analyze a lot of the chatter they see online, a lot of the groups that, you know, went to sort of the more far flung corners of the internet after they were deplatformed after january 6th from more of the main stream platforms. they're watching a lot of that. let me just read to you, chuck, what was read to me by a senior law enforcement official who had knowledge of this bulletin that went out late last night around midnight. he said the perception of election fraud and other conspiracy theories associated

dasha, you are breaking some news with our colleague julia ainsley about what's happening once these facilities reach 100% capacity. they're currently at 700% capacity. what's going on? >> reporter: hey, katy. well, the biden administration has been messaging that the border is closed, only unaccompanied minors allowed in. but here on the ground, the majority of families crossing the border, the majority of families crossing the border here in the rio grande valley are being allowed to stay in the united states. and per my reporting with julia ainsley, as of saturday, border patrol has been authorized to begin releasing those migrant families without a court date. and, katy, that is a pretty big departure from customs and border protection policy. we spent the weekend here and this morning talking to those migrant families. this morning i asked about 12 people or so about whether they had a court date set. they said no. we were able to look at some of their documents and even obtain a copy of one of those documents from a migrant who asked to remain anonymous, and where a court date

columnist peggy noonan, john ralston, editor of "the nevada independent," and nbc news correspondentin julia ainsleylcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press with chuck todd." >>> and a good sunday morning. it's fair to call the deteriorating situation at the u.s./mexican border a crisis, even if the biden administration refuses to use that word, but it's more than that. it's a political crisis for the new president with no easy way out. republicans are quick to blame mr. biden for the growing number of migrants crossing the southern mborder, saying it's s rhetoric and policy shifts that caused this surge in migrants. the new democratic administration says it was left with a dismantled and unworkable immigration system by former president trump. look, conservatives want nothing less than a big wall and some stricter enforcement of the border. progressives want nothing less than humane treatment for migrants fleeing violence, wherever it is, and a path to citizenship for those that are alr

. >> julia ainsley is covering the situation at the border.ha burns is on the ground in mission, texas, where she's been talking to migrant families and kelly o'donnell is at the white house with the latest from the administration. julia, let me start with you. it's very important that we be very clear about why this is happening, the mechanisms that are or aren't allowing us to be here and the ways in which we can get out of it. my top line question for you is, can you just explain to everyone what policy changes were made between the trump and the biden administration in terms of how unaccompanied minors are dealt with at the border, what that has led to and now how -- what our orpg options are to address? >> i would be happy to. it's important to do this. a lot of times we are just putting out facts but getting blow back because a lot of people just don't understand this situation. it's very politically fraught. basically, a year ago the trump administration blocked all asylum seekers from coming into the united states, no matter who they w

mike memoli, julia ainsley, getting us started. thank you. >>> i want to dive into politics of this current moment as republicans try to keep focus on a border emergency. in some ways they sabotaged our immigration policy and this is why we're here, as they also don't want to have a focus on the pandemic. democrats, meanwhile, would like nothing more than to talk about what they believe is a popular covid relief bill signed into law last week. the situation at the border complicated things for them significantly. >>> joining us now, maria teresa kumar, founder of voting latino and msnbc contributor. maria teresa, this is a impossible situation in some ways because in many ways the asylum process was essentially destroyed by stephen miller, they sort of blew it up so it's an extra mess. throw in the pandemic and national disasters and there's sort of a normal draw of people fleeing extreme poverty and extreme problems. but they're going to have to go it alone here because it doesn't look like they're going to be able to get anything

julia ainsley broke that story for us overnight. she joins me now. at the border, it shows no signs of slowing down here. the facilities, housing the children, far past capacity. what's the holdup here? >> reporter: well, the holdup is with health and human services. we saw a similar situation in 2019 when there was another surge of children under the trump administration. basically, health and human services takes a long time to be able to bring more beds online. we saw last weekend they called in fema to set up two new facilities. those have opened this week. one in dallas and one this midland, texas. when we spoke yesterday to biden administration officials, they said that another possibility is to get more beds in the existing facilities, but to increase covid precautions. double masking and more health care professionals. they are desperate because as you see, they are over capacity, especially in the border patrol stations. we know where they set up a facility just to process more children and more immigrants, they had over 3,300 as of yesterda

and nbc's julia ainsley covers the dhs. gabe, let's start with you. what did you see when you're inside that facility? what really stuck out to you? >> hey there, geoff. we saw children. they were calm and appears to be in good spirits. what's significant about this, reporters are asking for access to these type of facilities for weeks and our team was able to go in as far as the pool team, so other media organizations, and this is the first time during this recent surge that reporters were allowed in. now, we should make the distinction, this is an hhs facility, department of healthp human services. this comes after these unaccompanied migrants are processed within border patrol facilities. over the last couple days we've been seeing images of overcrowding at the cbc facilities. when we went here, we went along with the congressional delegation as well as white house officials. when you walk in there's a big sign painted in it that says welcome. and we saw staff members, more than 1,100 members trying to get to some sense of normalcy, but it's diffic

nbc's julia ainsley joins us now with more on her reporting. et's just start with that big headline. and what we're hearing from the white house press secretary jen psaki, this is what she had to say about what's happening at the border earlier today on "morning joe". >> now we're in this tough spot, where we need to be able to find facilities, shelters, where these kids can have access to educational resources, to lawyers, to doctors, and we are also in a circumstance where we're dealing with covid. so a lot of these facilities have smaller capacity. so that's the challenge and that's what we're confronting. >> so julia, what are you hearing about the administration's plans to handle this influx of unaccompanied minors? >> well, we got a clue last week, kristen, when jacob soboroff interviewed the dhs secretary, alejandra mayorkas. and he said one of their plans is to go ahead and send personnel from health and human services to these overcrowded border processing facilities to see if they can more quickly match the children, as soon as they co

we know from julia ainsley's reporting that more than 800 kids have been under border patrol custody for more than ten days what's happening here is a bottleneck with health and human services that is the agency that should be taking custody of these children while they await being united with a sponsor or a relative the problem is they do not have to pass any -- they're not able to create bed space quickly enough to keep up with these numbers, so that is the urgency right now. a rush for expanding capacity with health and human services so children are not stuck in over crowded facilities with customs and border protection like the 235 silt behind me here. >> dasha, thank you. >>> the spotlight will fall on a minneapolis courtroom on monday. this morning we are learning more about the jurors. here's shaquille brewster. shaq, good morning. >> reporter: hi, frances 15 jurors were selected. 14 will be there in the courtroom seated for the start of opening statements on monday, but it will be up to 12 jurors once those alternates are dismissed, 12 jurors who will determine the fate of d

joining me now is julia ainsley.of this plan. >> so this plan, these details, are things that my colleagues have been asking the biden administration about since the beginning days. it is a transition. will they bring deported parents back to the united states to reunite with their children? and the answer we're getting today is yes. they are looking at giving parents the option of coming back to the united states. not only that, katy, they want to look at siblings who are siblings of the children who are separated to see if they need to be reunited with their parents. they want to provide legal services, education, health care, mental health care, and make sure that not a penny of that gets passed down to these families. this is a 180 from the former administration in so many ways. one way is on that mental health care. steven miller as we reported here killed a d.o.j. settlement that would have required the government to pay more mental health services. now we're seeing a step forward to pay for the services and to

. >> well, julia ainsley, just js correspondened and soto, the assistant dean in texas, also an nsnbc news is news contributor. what is the situation like on the boarder right now? and how does it compare to previous years? >> we're not near what would be a recent record. in may, there were 144,000 undocumented immigrants. in february, just over 100,000. the we demicographic is the one you faked about. er the kids who came without their lawful parent or guardian. and we need to care for them. we have help and human service to do that. but they were so down sized under covid to make room is not have over crowding and spread the virus, that now they're so reduced in capacity that i'm told if could take them a year just to get where they need to be. and natsz why we're seeing this weekend, fema entering the picture. you're there in texas. can you talk about things and have they really improved at the boarder? >> i want to start with where our governor is at. and our governor, greg abbott, has always been very muffin on the side of immigration restriction. so, here in texas and the powers

the reporter who broke that news, julie ainsley, joins me now. julia me about what you found. >> well, it's interesting, chris. basically, what we're finding is that along the border there are different sectors. and usually, especially under the trump administration, those sector chiefs were very vocal about what they were finding. enter the new administration and they find that every media request, whether it's an interview even with a local station, has to be cleared through washington and they say a lot of these requests are being denied. and then more importantly from an access and transparency perspective they're also having to deny journalists' requests for access to the very facilities where these children are being held. we've talked about those overcrowded border processing facilities being filled with children crossing the border. and also they're not able to do ride-alongs where you're able to go with a border agent firsthand and see the border itself with a border agent. now, dhs says this is because of covid precautions, they're not able t

joining me now is nbc's julia ainsley. julia, when does this go into effect and what does it mean for families that are currently detained by i.c.e.? >> all those who are currently detained will be released tomorrow, so it's going to affect immediately. and in fact, we just learned this late last night in a court filing. this is part of a decades-long lawsuit to represent children and families who have been in i.c.e. detention, and it really became a forefront under the obama administration when they started detaining families and then the trump administration wanted to hold them for even longer than 20 days, which was what the court allowed. under the biden administration, they are going to bring this down to under 72 hours. so only three detention facilities left. one will be closed to families. the other two that are both in texas will be very quickly these people will come, they'll be processed for covid-19, and then released. and i should say that those who expect to be released tomorrow, the only reason they would sta

now, my colleague julia ainsley got data that showed 60% of migrant families in february were allowed in january. the biden administration says there has not been a policy change, that the borders are still closed to anyone except the unaccompanied minors we've been talking about, but there has been a reality shift on the ground here as we've been talking to local officials. they tell us that mexico is no longer allowing the u.s. to expel migrant families with children under the age of 6 into their country. so many of them have been able to stay here. that's what we've been seeing here on the ground, a lot of families with very young children. we've been speaking to some of them fleeing desperate situations. i spoke to one mom who said two of her family members were murdered in el salvador. she had to leave her 6-month-old daughter behind. those are the heart wrenching decisions some of these families are making. the communities in this area are used to this. this is nothing new. they've seen they see surges time and time again, and they are not frustrated with the fact that there are

julia ainsley reported that as of friday only 13 families remained in i.c.e. been scheduled for released that day, the remaining six families scheduled to be released tomorrow. what is the impact of this? . >> if the administration follows through, it would be the end of family detention as a deterrent. this was put into place by the obama administration. it is a longstanding practice of trying to scare families away from coming to this country and this would be a wholesale, new approach. >> talk to me about the if and skepticism that was baked into that answer. >> well, i think that both under democratic and republican administrations we have seen families held in what activists and advocates called baby jails. they were put into place by the obama administration and built by the obama administration and the scope of their use was expanded greatly under trump. there's a long way to go before they're closed entirely. >> aclu lawyers are calling for -- you spoke to secretary mayorcas. tell me about that. >> we saw lots of allegations during the trump administra

. >> julia ainsley, great reporter.his every day, congresswoman escobar of texas. you live in a city on the border, largest binational community in the western hemisphere, if i'm in the mistaken, between el paso and juarez. let's start with this. my understanding is that through a combination of a variety of policies, the trump administration had effectively shut the southern border to any asylum seekers through both covid protocols and this remain in mexico program, which they kept expanding, which essentially sort of took the border and pushed it back into mexico. and it said you have to stop here before you get to the border, before you can make an asylum claim. between those two things, before the biden administration came in, they had essentially locked down the border, even though they never announced it as such. is that an accurate characterization? >> hi, chris. so great to be on your show. yes, it is an accurate characterization. not only was the border effectively shut down in many respects to unlawful entry,

julia ainsley is with us. and the dean of brown university school of public health. o start with julia and the issue of immigration, the border and this refugee crisis with the unaccompanied minors. mayorkas is on the border today. that's obviously a little bit of public relations. what are they saying to you about this growing problem of essentially holding these unaccompanied minors much longer than the legal limit? >> reporter: well, there's a little bit of finger pointing and there's a lot of scrambling right now. we have dhs needing another agency, health and human services, to get as many beds open as they can to hold the children so they can get out of the border processing facilities. as we reported overnight, there are more than 500 children who have been there in the border processing facilities over ten days. just to recap the conditions there, the reason why there's a three-day legal limit is because often they don't have beds. they sleep on the floor, on mats, given an aluminum blanket. sometimes they barely get outside. lights are kept on 24 hours a day.

nbc's julia ainsley has been reporting on this story for us from the beginning. she joins us now. re facilities meant for adults. are children there because they simply don't have capacity in the other places? >> yeah, that's right. so this is the first step for all immigrants, regardless of their age, border patrol processing facilities. they are meant -- and they were built originally when most of the immigration was coming from adults, single adults, mainly men from mexico. now we're finding families and these unaccompanied children from central america who are coming across the border and not able to get the care they need in these facilities. the legal limit put in place by a judge is 72 hours. but what happens is when the next step in the process, health and human services, becomes overcrowded and as jen psaki just pointed out a lot of that has to do with the reduced capacity under covid the border patrol processing facilities get overcrowded. we saw it in 2019 under trump when they didn't increase their capacity enough when there was a surge under that administration and we

. >> for more, you can check out our conversation with julia ainsley and jacob soboroff who were on theorder. you can get there at pck.tv/theweek. >>> tucker carlson has gotten a lot of flack for what he says on his fox news program. i think there's a much larger, tougher problem. one that you can actually do something about. i'll explain when we come back. something about. i'll explain when we come back this is wealth. ♪ ♪ this is worth. that takes wealth. but this is worth. and that - that's actually worth more than you think. don't open that. wealth is important, and we can help you build it. but it's what you do with it, that makes life worth living. principal. for all it's worth. so you want to make the best burger ever? then make it! that means cooking day and night until you get... (ding)... you got paid! that means... best burger ever. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements— neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain p

to keep them for an extended amount of time and we now know per the reporting from my colleague julia ainsleyare 800 kids that are in border patrol custody for more than ten days. that is not supposed to happen, but what's going on here is there is a bottleneck when it comes to health and human services. health and human services should be taking custody of these kids and they have facilities that are much more appropriate for children, but they aren't able to stand those up quickly enough to stand up with those numbers and the announcement of a new facility just last night and hhs is putting up with another one in paraiso springs. they will tour one of those hhs facilities where these kids should be going. the rush for capacity right now is to stand those up so that we can get kids out of facilities like this one and into the custody of hhs where from there they'll head to a sponsor or a relative, jeff? >> and yamiche, we should say when migrants come to the southern border to claim asylum, they are well within their rights to do that and when president biden says that the trump administrati

julia ainsley who covers the department of homeland security for nbc, ben collins is our expert on conspiracy theories, and clint watt, the author of the book "messing with the enemy." julia, tell us about this threat, what's going on here? >> well, stephanie, we know that the fbi and dhs put out that joint intelligence bulletin to state and local law enforcement warning them that there could be a breach of the u.s. capitol. they say that they have noticed that people are discussing these plans online and they also say that something could happen, acts of violence could happen spontaneously. this is what happens when you get a mob together. right now what we're hearing is that this is really discussions, this is the way our domestic terrorism walls work in this country in the fact we don't really have one that free speech protects these people so far that really it's hard for law enforcement to come in, make arrests or do anything when it's just discussion based. we also heard from the u.s. capitol police saying that they know of a named group, of a specific group with a specific plot. that's

and you know, our colleague julia ainsley has also pointed out that a lot of the challenges at the border actually intertwined with the pandemic because it affects how we can run these facilities. leanne caldwell, let me go to you. we showed a little bit of that video of both mcconnell and schumer testifying at this hearing. to me that underscored that while we have all of these things that we just outlined, plenty of crises the administration has to deal with, if there's one that's really going to push us into new territory in terms of how washington works, it's going to be voting rights. it's incredibly emotionally charged. there is so much at stake. you had both leaders going and talking about it. and again, the central focal point for this is senator joe manchin of west virginia. republicans orchestrated this hearing, it seems, almost to make him the audience of one. what did you see today in covering that? >> that's right, kasie. one of the people that republicans called to testify to oppose this voting rights legislation that democrats are trying to push through is the secretary of

jacob, last night we had julia ainsley on the broadcast. she reported, we obviously have seen the video that was allowed by the government yesterday to our crew on the condition we share it with other networks, but we heard the first kind of transparency with numbers. numbers of young people in u.s. hands. it sounds like we're getting there, like it's been a long, long process. >> the goal, brian, you know as you said is to reduce capacity, to reduce overcrowding and those numbers are fluctuating. at times getting better but then verting back to a crisis capacity. when i think crisis, it's not a national security crisis, it's a humanitarian crisis of too many children held in border patrol stations, whether it's in the rio grande valley or that donna, texas facility, over 1,000% capacity. or this sector here in uma, where it's the second-most-crowded border, over 49% capacity available bed space in these border patrol stations where alejandro mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, says they're no place for children. they're very stra

let's bringin julia ainsley. his appearance is happening a day after he said that border apprehensions are expected to reach the highest level in two decades. tell us more about that. >> reporter: that's right. and actually just as i'm speaking to you, he just got to the topic of that surge at the border. he is talking about everything that his administration -- that this administration is doing at the border, but that because they are not sending back unaccompanied children, they are seeing a surge of those. also a surge of single documents. but right before he spoke, the chairman of the committee bennie thompson said again that this is something that they inherited but that they want to see that children are treated humanely, that the policies under the past administration shouldn't carry forward in any way now. so we expect him to get a lot of tough questions on that as well as questions about what the department is doing to combat domestic terrorism. he did call right wing extremism a lethal and persistent th

julia ainsley, a big thanks to you as well. >>> more countries in europe are hitting pause on using thateneca. that vaccine isn't approved in the united states, but we're going to take a look at the impact the change in europe could have here at home next. not everybody wants the same thing. that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 'cause i do things a bit differently. wet teddy bears! wet teddy bears here! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ you're clearly someone who takes care of yourself. so why wait to screen for colon cancer? because when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. i'll do it. good plan. new projects means new project managers. i'll do it. you need to

. >> nbc's julia ainsley has been following all of the latest developments. she joins us now. so homeland security secretary says please don't come until we're ready. that doesn't really feel like a strategy that's going to have much impact. >> yeah, that's what they're saying. really they're in this tough spot because they want one message to voters who obviously want more humane immigration policies following the last four years but they also don't want to send a message the border is open and everyone should come and really that's not the case. everyone except for unaccompanied children are accepted due to the pandemic where they're expelled back, not allowed into the united states, but the message is still leading more people to come. so they're saying wait until we get things together and ramp up capacity and we can process you in a humane way. of course, that message isn't sinking in. and this morning secretary mayorkas said he expects on the trajectory they're seeing boarding crossings will reach a 20-year record high this year. >> what does process in a humane way mean

let's bring one of the reporters on this story, nbc news correspondent, julia ainsley. so, julia, tell us exactly what happened and what triggers weren't pulled, what wasn't done right before the transition. >> well, mika, we know that in early december, when the transition finally got off the ground, the biden officials asked the then-trump administration if they could go ahead and start the process of opening more beds, in, you know, those aspirational facilities, facilities like the one that gabe got to tour yesterday. because they knew that the numbers were climbing. you could already see the numbers of unaccompanied minors climbing late fall, especially because at that point, a judge had said that the trump administration policy of keeping out unaccompanied children during the pandemic was not lawful. so the numbers were going up. they said, look, we're looking at the data. we know you're looking at this data. you need to start the process now. because it takes a long time before you actually get one of those facilities up and running. instead, they said, they sat o

. >> julia ainsley, we'll read your full reporting on nbc news.com. thank you so much. us if you can. >>> coming up, next, president biden will have a meeting with ireland's prime minister. before the meeting, the prime minister is our guest next on "morning joe" ♪♪ "morning j" oe♪ & doug ♪ . your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. thank you! hey, hey, no, no limu, no limu! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ it all starts with an invitation... ...to experience lexus. the invitation to lexus sales event. lease the 2021 is 300 for $359 a month for 36 month's, and we'll make you're first month's payment. experience amazing. age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. (deborah vo) i was hesitant to get the hearing aids because of my short hair, but nobody even sees them. boost® high protein also has key nutrients (vo) discover the exclusive

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