senator mazie hirono is a democrat from hawaii and the only immigrant currently serving in the senate, having come to the u.s. from japan as a child with her mother and brother. senator hirono, we're going to talk about immigration and child waseparation, but, first, to start with the news of the day, the decision by the supreme court on the president's travel ban. you've had some very strong words, comparing this tthe koramatso decision. chief justice john roberts wrote in the decision that he said ita wholly inapt to liken that to this one toy. is he right? >> i am not the only one making the comparison. in fact, justice sotomayor, in her dissent, also likened this cision to the koramatzo, which was also justified on the basis of national security. that iwhat the president i saying regard his muslim ban-- or ateast that's the argument being made-- even though during the campaign and even after, dee t very plain he was very overt about wanrng to pevent muslims from coming to this country. and they cleaned it up in the third iteration, or fourth iteration, of his muslim ban, but it's

mazie hirono / hawaii (d)the supreme court basically said, mr president you can do whatever the hellou want. and we have to say to him, hell no!the travel b restricts travel from five muslim majority nations as well as north korea and venezuela. in washington alexandra limon. (ken) oakland mayor libby schaaf responded to today's ruling on twitter... tweeting "banning travelers from muslim-majority countries and separating families at our borders does not make us stronger or safer, it makes us weak in the eyes of the world." (pam) the u.s. supreme court decision to uphold the travel ban .... was also denounced today by san francisco supervisors at a rally on the steps of city hall. but kron4's maureen kelly reports .... that was just one of two policies linked to the trump adminstration.. that made city politicians take aim.. the other, the separation of immigrant families at the u-s - mexico border. the supreme court is on the wrong side of history city leaders and members of the immigrant community had previously scheduled the afternoon rally on the steps of city hall to rail the se

hawaii senator mazie hirono. here's a sample of what it sounded like from the republican side today. >> i've had many conversations with many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to see what we could come up with, but the fact is the administration has the authority to fix this immediately without legislation. nevertheless, there is -- well, there are multiple groups working on possible legislative fixes. >> secretary nielsen today said that congress alone has the authority to fix it. >> that is not the case. otherwise, how could the previous two administrations have rejected this approach? that's amazing that she said that. >> that's amazing that she said that. she doesn't mean amazing in a good way. republican senator susan collins of maine talking about the trump administration homeland security secretary. i don't know how the trump administration thought it was going to go when they started wholesale removing children from their parents forcibly against the will of the parents and the children. it's no

joining us from capitol hill, democratic senator mazie hirono from hawaii.today. you have made a parallel of what this looks like compared to dark stages in our history. do you stand by that parallel and what do you think this is doing to the fabric of our nation? >> it was a parallel that was raised by laura bush and i certainly agree with her. when you think about 120,000 japanese americans who were not interned, i say they were incarcerated because they were behind barbed wire with armed guards so what we're doing the little children, tearing them from their parents' arms is very askin to what happened, i would say, to japanese americans and very dark period of our history and so the president continues, mika, to play games with people's lives to get what he wants whether it's the 800,000 daca participants or now the little children at our borders to get what he wants and then -- par for the course -- when he can't come up with a rational explanation he lies about it or blames the democrats or both. he never takes responsibility for the harm that he cause

the democratic address was given by hawaii senator mazie hirono who talked about immigration and health care. our country is currently facing a crisis of

as a matter of fact, to a group of hawaiians gathered together under the leadership of senator mazie hirono, who happens to be the ranking member of the subcommittee which i chair, the sea power subcommittee, and we were able to make the point -- and have been able to make the point at several forums, about what a bipartisan issue this is to protect our country through a strong navy and through the provisions that we will enact in the sea power title. and of course this bipartisan exercise is a very important fulfillment of our constitutional responsibility. it's right there in the preamble -- to provide for the common defense. and that is what our subcommittee has done. the bill this year authorizes $716 billion for national defense. this is an increase from last year when we finally got rid of this notion that we could somehow be a safe and secure nation and have this defense sequestration that had come upon us through our inability to deal with the budget. so last year we authorized and appropriated $700 billion for national defense. this bill would up that a little to $716 billion, and

mazie hirono is an immigrant from japan. the chamber's sole buddhist as well.he said immigrants come here and leave everything behind. also, with all the news on the immigration front, especially in light of the childhood separation issues, plenty of tweets from members of congress met past 24 hours about the administration's actions and also defending the president. a white house democrat in the senate criticizing the president saying first we are going after the stock tickets a must we get our walls, now it is we are taking kids away from their parents a message our wall. enough with the political .ostagetaking already ted deutch, a democrat from florida tweeting about the president, to it is the democrats fault when it comes to the childhood separation issue. he says 230 five republicans in the house, 51 in the senate, let's be clear about something, our current immigration crisis is it about democrats. a couple of treats from roger williams, republican from texas saying by definition, illegal immigrants are criminals. hhs is working hard to find a parent, r

the democratic address was given by hawaii senator mazie hirono who talked about immigration and health care. our country is currently facing a crisis of illegal immigration on the southern border. democrats supported loopholes in our federal laws and have enabled roughly half a million illegal family members to be released into the united states since 2014 at unbelievably tremendous taxpayer expense while the legal -- illegal aliens can only be held for a. 's ♪ -- of days or weeks, it can take years to send them back. ridiculous process. for example, of the removal orders for issued for unaccompanied alien children over a recent two-year timeframe, 90% were done in absentia. they were not there, and they never showed up for the removal hearing. what else is new? the united states cannot have an open border to every illegal alien on the face of the earth. we must have rules. we must have laws and we must enforce those laws. the driving factor in the surge thellegal families is belief there will be no consequence for illegal entry and no likelihood of removal or reprisal. unfortunately o