the rio grande valley in south texas is where agent ram garza works. ram is the he's the acting patrol agent in charge of the rio grande valley sector of the u.s. border patrol. in the rio grande valley where ram works is the epi center of that humanitarian crisis that we witnessed last year. that's because most of the migrants were from the northern triangle of central america were fleeing violence, fleeing economic desperation and fleeing a sense of hopelessness in guatamala, honduras and el salvador. they had to travel the shortest route which runs up the east side of mexico from central america to the texas border. many of the people on that trek did it on top of a train a series of trains, not passenger trains but freight trains. people get on top of the trains and try to hold on for a 1,500 mile trip. some succeeded. some didn't. some fell between the trains, cars and lost their liessments some made it -- lost their lives. some made it to the border. some fell off the train. some got hurt. some got on another train. some did not make it. but many

. >> "good afternoon, welcome to the rio grande valley processing center..." >> it opened this summer in response to an influx of unaccompanied minors from mexico and central america. >> do you think this is an immigration issue or a refugee issue? do you think some of them will be granted political asylum? >> we're not talking about criminals. these are innocent children, fleeing desperate times, whether it's poverty, whether it's violence, whether it's the draw of a better life in the united states. >> the obama administration has made it clear: most of the children will be deported. but they continue to arrive -- twice as many as last year, and 4 times as many as in 2011. >> we've been riding along the border all week and we're seeing some action in this area. we're not far away from the river and from mexico. we see some border patrol vehicles over there and some people on the floor, we're going to go check what's going on. >> border patrol has apprehended another group of undocumented immigrants from central america. one by one, their names are taken, their belongings bagged. in

pregnant female along the rio grande but 1200 miles from el paso to brownsville, you probably leave your county to find prenatal care. no longer. if you live in the rio grande valley and your child selloff a bicycle and had a head injury you probably had to take the child hundreds of miles to find a neurosurgeon. no longer. those specialists have come back into places where health care with sexy russian. no longer. because of policies of the put in place in austin, texas. people responded in a powerful way. the population has exploded. from 2001 to 2014 some 5.6 million people were added to the population of my state. highly -- ird share with you the number of jobs that were created. there were those out there that said you cannot have job creation, population growth, and address environmental issues at the same time. that's funny because during that same. of time, we saw admissions in the state of texas drop. nitrogen levels went down 62%. so for dioxide percent went down -- soulfur levels went down 50%. whether or not you believe in global warming, in the state of texas, the carbon footprint was reduced 9%. my point is not to argue besides, but isn't that what w

back in the rio grande valley, the men captured by border patrol had been taken to a processing center. if they don't have the right papers they'll be deported but first they will be criminally prosecuted for entering the country illegally. >> every single person that gets caught is going to be prosecuted. no matter what, no ifs ands or buts. nstead of picking them up and sending them back to their home country. we now prosecute them hold them in jail and then send them back to the country. >> back here, due process doesn't count for much. it is largely irrelevant whether these grew up in the united states. within hours they will all be labeled convicted criminals. >> the numbers, the huge numbers of prosecution is just skyrocketing. >> what is driving that? money, money. >> they become a number. for law enforcement a success story and for prison industry a profit. ahead of the election powment promisedpromise -- promised a transformation of policy. young immigrants seeking deportation but for most it's not enough. >> we believed that things were going to get better. unfortunately that

. >> "good afternoon, welcome to the rio grande valley processing center..." >> it opened this summer in response to an influx of unaccompanied minors from mexico and central america. >> do you think this is an immigration issue or a refugee issue? do you think some of them will be granted political asylum? >> we're not talking about criminals.

back in the rio grande valley, the men captured by border patrol have been taken to a processing center. if they don't have the right papers, they'll be deported, but first they'll be criminally prosecuted for entering the country illegally. >> every single person that gets caught is going to be prosecuted, no matter what instead of just picking them up processing them and sending them home. now we prosecute them, house them in jail for a while and then send them back to their home country. >> here at the border, individual stories of due process don't count for much. it's largely irrelevant whether these men grew up in the united states or traveled for weeks to escape poverty or persecution. within hours, they'll all be labeled convicted criminals. >> the numbers, the huge numbers of prosecution are just skyrocketing. >> what's driving that? >> money. money. >> they become a number. for law enforcement, a success story. for the prison industry, a profit. ahead of the election, president obama promised a transformation of immigration policy. the department of homeland security has becom

. >> "good afternoon, welcome to the rio grande valley processing center..." >> it opened this summeronse to an influx of unaccompanied minors from mexico and central america. >> do you think this is an immigration issue or a refugee issue? do you think some of them will be granted political asylum? >> we're not talking about criminals. these are innocent children, fleeing desperate times, whether it's poverty, whet

. >> "good afternoon, welcome to the rio grande valley processing center..." >> it opened this summer in response to an influx of unaccompanied minors from mexico and central america. >> do you think this is an immigration issue or a refugee issue? do you think some of them will be granted political asylum? >> we're not talking about criminals. these ar

roads are wet in the rio grande valley as well. >>> flying airport delays likely in boston and new york >>> well it is a crime that a stunned university town the killing of three college students. >> thousands attended a candlelight vigil at the university of north carolina at chapel hill last night in their memory. the fbi has joined the investigation into whether the three young people were victims of a hate crime. abc's tom llamas is in north carolina with more. >> i heard eight shots go off. about three girls or -- more than one girl screaming. >> reporter: this chilling 911 call describes the moments 46-year-old craig steven hicks allegedly shot and killed three muslim college students deah and yusor barakat and the family telling me they were shot execution style. >> she literally told me daddy, i feel he hate us for how we look and dress. >> reporter: he appeared in court charged with three counts of first degree murder of the police say he turned himself in hours after killing his chapel hill neighbors. hicks wife telling us he snapped over a parking situation at their apartment

if you are pregnant fema on the rio grande, you had to leave your county to find prenatal care. but no longer. if you lived in the rio grande valley and your child fell off a bicycle, you probably had to take that child hundreds of miles to find the narrow surgeon. no longer. those specialists have come back to those places where health care was rationed. no longer. he gaza policies they put in place in austin, -- because of policies they put in place in austin, texas. the population is exploded in my home state. from 2001-2014. 5.6 million people were added to the population in that state. i share the jobs that were created. during the same time that we added that many people in jobs there are those out there that said you cannot have job creation population growth and address environmental issues at the same time. that is funny. during that same time, we saw emissions in the state of texas drop. nitrogen oxide limits went down. sulfur dioxide levels went down 50%. ozone levels went down 23%. the total carbon footprint regardless of where you are on the debate of global warming, in the state of >> the carbon footprint was reduced

if you are pregnant fema on the rio grande, you had to leave your county to find prenatal care. but no longer. if you lived in the rio grande valley and your child fell off a bicycle, you probably had to take that child hundreds of miles to find the narrow surgeon. no longer. those specialists have come back to those places where health care was rationed. no longer. he gaza policies they put in place in austin, -- because of policies they put in place in austin, texas. the population is exploded in my home state. from 2001-2014. 5.6 million people were added to the population in that state. i share the jobs that were created. during the same time that we added that many people in jobs there are those out there that said you cannot have job creation population growth and address environmental issues at the same time. that is funny. during that same time, we saw emissions in the state of texas drop. nitrogen oxide limits went down. sulfur dioxide levels went down 50%. ozone levels went down 23%. the total carbon footprint regardless of where you are on the debate of global warming, in the state of >> the carbon footprint was reduced

humanitarian crisis along southwestern border last spring and summer particularly in the texas rio grande valley. as tens of thousands of unaccompanied children crossed the border. in the immediate crisis dhs focused on getting adults and children, many of whom had undertaken a dangerous journey into a safe and secure environment where they could be processed. skipping more for hhs to cover. while some children we mand in custody more than three days we undertook government wide response to address crisis which included establishment of unified coordination group that brought assets of multiple agencies to bear on the situation. unaccompanied children are inherently vulnerable so we placed a high priority on identifying any protection concerns unaccompanied children from contiguous companies who don't present protection concerns -- excuse me under trafficking reauthorization act of 2008 when dhs encounters unaccompanied child from contiguous company such as mexico, the child is screened to identify potential victims of human trafficking and determine whether the child has a fear of persecution i

of unaccompanied children and knows who crossed a narrow area of our southern border into the rio grande valley. in search of a family member and a better life in this country. we responded aggressively with more people and resources on the southern border. beginning in mid-june, the numbers of unaccompanied children crossing the southern border declined sharply. they are now at far lower levels. but, we are not declaring mission accomplished. the president and i are committed to building an even more secure border and a smart strategy to get there. much illegal migration a seasonal. the poverty environments that are the push factors in honduras, bought a mullah el salvador still exist. the economy in this country is a pull factor. it is getting better. there's still more we can should do. we are pursuing a risks based strategy for border security. this means focusing resources where our intelligence and our surveillance tells the threat exists. this is a smart, effective, and efficient use of taxpayer resources. there are more aircraft, surveillance, radar technology and other equipment that o

i'm going to be in the rio grand valley on thursday and friday. me tell you talk to latinos in the valley and a along south texas, they are concerned about the security of their communities, the security of their farms their ranches. >> mostly latinos down there. >> they want the border secured. they want them secured. >> the second issue is we do need to have a guest worker program and finally we need to have a way to resolve the situation of the people who are here illustrate legally and in an orderly fashion. i don't favor sending them back to mexico root them out and so forth. but, do i believe that if you are here illegally you have to surface. you have to -- you have to pay a penalty. you have to pay fines. you have to keep your nose clean. if you want to stay here and work fine. fur finished working and return fine. you go -- you know what? it's a position as a lot of conservatives, i'm a conservative for one that believes that way. so do a lot of others. >> he we will see. we will see how it goes out in the debates huge issue illegal immig

humanitarian crisis along southwestern border last spring and summer particularly in the texas rio grande valley. as tens of thousands of unaccompanied children and adults traveling with children crossed the border. in the immediate crisis dhs focused on getting adults and children, many of whom had undertaken a dangerous journey into a safe and secure environment where they could be processed. skipping more for hhs to cover. while some children remain in custody more than three days we undertook a significant government-wide response to address the crisis, which included establishment of a unified coordination group that brought the assets of multiple federal agencies to bear on the situation. unaccompanied children are inherently vulnerable so we placed a high priority on identifying any protection concerns. unaccompanied children from contiguous countries who don't present protection concerns -- excuse me. under the trafficking victim protection reauthorization act of 2008, when dhs encounters an unaccompanied child from a contiguous country such as mexico, the child is screened to identify p

the current continuing resolution. 90 million for upgrades with video surveillance during the rio grande valley to enhance detection capability 142 million getting through to the election cycle there is a long list that we are precluded from without a full funding bill from congress. >> one of the things that we are confronted with as well as constituents is we all have federal buildings in our communities. after the situation in paris , the secretary ordered an enhanced effort to at the federally protected facilities. with a lack of monday kiver risk of some of those buildings? >> we are continually trying to enhance our security efforts at facilities across the country that we're in charge of protecting and specifics if they could continue that i would have to take it as a question to get back to you. >> mr. smith? >> i would yield my time to recall the from texas. >> that gentleman from texas, i appreciate you coming here i know the difficulty of of the time having spent nine years chasing al qaeda and organizations like that i have difficulty. the men and women in your organizations operate

i asked him to come down to the rio grande valley to see what was going on. he needed to see that so he would understand it. he turned me down. he was on an important mission in dallas to raise money for needy democrats. interesting. he turned me down, and he said i don't do photo ops. i thought that was an interesting response. he chose not to come. at that time, i knew that not going to get assistance from the federal government. that is when i made the decision working with our legislature that we would deploy the texas national guard. that national guard, working with our texas rangers, parks and wildlife wardens, who were not at the border but literally in the river. they are making a difference. the visual presence -- it is just like in a community. if you have an issue of crime or if you have an issue of individual break in the law, if you put a law enforcement presence there it has a powerful impact are you know it will work. i knew it would work. in may and june, we were having 10,000 plus apprehensions a week in that 150 plus region in that southern

the last year that we've had good rain in the houston area southeast texas all the way to the rio grande valley that we still have problems of cost san antonio because it's still in a drought area. how would you describe the current state of drinking water infrastructure in texas? >> i would say for the most perfect for the strong but i think there's a certain disadvantaged community like you are talking about but i think really needs additional resources and there is some hard-hit drought areas in north central texas. in my area i think it needs additional support and in texas it's benefited because we have river authority's come a progressive water development board and people looking at the issue from a lot of different angles. >> texas data provider recently the voters for the constitutional amendment to provide for it because of the problems we had. in 2011 harris county as much of the state was in the grips of the drought during the height due to aging water lines, hardening slagle, hundreds of waterline breakage resulting in billions of countless lost. if you have an economic impact of t

perhaps we should move the white house down to the rio grande valley. after all, there can't be more people climbing the white house fence than there are now. you know when you go down to the valley, and in texas we have a nearly 2,000 mile border, what you hear from people who live there, from law enforcement, local elected officials and by the way from republicans and democrats is secure the border and protect our security it's a basis common sense issue and when it comes to amnesty anyone who's concerned about rule of law, separation of powers, anyone who believes in the constitution should be deeply dismayed. by the president's decree that he will simply ignore federal law. when he unilaterally tried to grant amnesty to millions of voter s voters -- i said voters. what's interesting about the president's approach on this, is it seems like it's always always, always political. before the election, president obama said this election will be a referendum on my policies every one of my policies will be on the ballot. president obama was right. words tha

of unaccompanied children and others who crossed an out area of our southern borders into the rio grande valleysively with more people and resources on the southern border. he can in mid june the members of unaccompanied children climbed sharply and are now a far lower levels. but they are not declaring mission accomplished. the president and i are committed to building an even more secure border and a smart strategy to get there. much of the illegal migration is seasonal. the poverty and violence that are the pushback is in honduras guatemala and honduras to look this good the economy in this country, you pull factor getting better. there's still more we can and should do. we are including border security meaning our intelligence and surveillance tell us the threats exist. this is a smart comic effect and efficient use of taxpayer resources. there are more aircraft, surveillance great technology and other equipment that our experts have determined we need, which we have requested for fiscal year 2015. in december we open a new family facility in texas that will house up to 2400 individuals. we

in the houston area southeast texas and all the way to rio grande valley. but we still have problems out past san antonio. because that's still in a drought area. how would you describe our current state of drinking water infrastructure in texas? >> i would say for the most part it's pretty strong. certain disadvantaged communities like you're talking about that i really think need some additional resources. there's some hard-hit drought areas in my area of central texas that i think need additional support. fortunately -- texas has benefited because we have river authorities, we have a progressive water development board. we have people that are looking at this issue from a lot of different angles. >> texas did provide recently the voters voted for a constitutional amendment to provide for it because of the problems we have. in 2011 harris county, as much of our state, was in the grips of the drought. during the height of the drought due to age water lines, hardening soil, hundreds of water line breakage daily resulting in billions of gallons of lost treat

the area that is really out of control right now, and it is out of control is the rio grande valley. we need strategic fencing there. are we still going to have people coming in illegally because we have a demand for poor workers? absolutely. that's why a guest worker program is so important to border security. we want to have strategic fences, we want to have more assets on the border. we want to make sure good people who want to come here to work can find a work visa come here legally, go back to their home country and then re-enter legally. now, so i think that's key to border security. now, one last point so far we've had local governments evangelical churches the chamber of commerce, very involved. i think also the dynamic has to change a little bit. it can't be only immigration advocates and the industry lobbying congress. i think we need more conservative voices, who support immigration reform. who have no ties with business, lobbying republicans. i think conservative republicans, even tea party alliance conservatives are not going to listen to the chamber of commerce. they ne