let me go back to the unaccompanied kids.actor and let me give you my perspective. last year was a difficult year for some of us to address that issue. i know it was very difficult for you. folks on both sides were taking different positions. i have the say, and i've told this one of the reporters from new york or whatever, i said you were very courageous under the pressure and while some people were for it and others were against it, no names mentioned, you stood firm on that. it was difficult for a lot of us on that issue. one factor i'd like to remind everybody here is on kids going back to mexico there was an agreement signed between the u.s. government and mexican back to mexico, there was an agreement that was signed between the u.s. government and the mexican government, that allows the mexican consulate to play a role. so it's really not the cbp officer that makes that decision. they're handed over to the mexican consulates, the mexican consulates will then ask them the question. l they're very protective of their peo

unaccompanied children or children who enter united states unaccompanied by parent or legal guardian without immigration status come into our care when they are referred to us by another agency usually department of homeland security. once dhs identified a minor as unaccompanied child they transfer the child to one of the care provider facilities. o.r.r. currently has approximately 124 care provider facilities in 15 states. in fiscal 2014, orr placed 57,496 children in its care providing facilities, the vast majority came from honduras, guatemala and el salvador. children from mexico accounted for less than 2% of the total and all combined less than 3% from federal agencies. demographic breakdown changed slightly from previous years with an increase in the number of female unaccompanyied thirn and the children under 14 years of age. in previous years approximately 25% of the population was female while in fiscal year 2014 females made one-third of the population. also in fiscal year 2014, approximately 27% of the population was under 14 while in previous years percentage range from 1

she is one of 70,000 unaccompanied migrants. many feel violence and poverty. mackay raina says he wasn't trying to escape violence, she her son. >> we have a better opportunity, especially for the baby, since she was born here. she receives medicaid, and they help to pay for milk >>> a federal law to help protect children allows unaccompanied minors to stay with relatives while u.s. officials evaluate whether they should be departed. while waiting, they are entitled by law to a public education, that is creating controversy. >> if you view it from the viewpoint of helping kids, it's a good thing. if you talk to the local taxpayers who i represent as a schoolboard member. they had no say in any of this. >> donald is a local chiropractor and schoolboard member. the district is changed dramatically since the early '90s. the latin american group was just 2%. american. >> chicken farms are the norm. that is the big industry. we attracted an above average amount of migrant workers than a lot of other districts. >> let's look at the definition. now a new wave is putt

unaccompanied kids this year was 2,121.y the lowest monthly number we've had in quite a while. january 2014 was 3,706. so, through the fiscal year, fiscal year 2015, and i have the exact numbers here. i'd be happen p foy read this with you. it's running about the kids unaccompanied kids, running about 40% lower. i hope it stays that way, but we have to be prepared in the event it doesn't. >> so, in total number what are you talking for year of 2015? >> i know percentages, but what are we talking about? i know february was -- >> last year 2014 total number including the mexican uacs, i believe was 68,000. you take out the i'm doing this from memory now, you take out the mexican children, i believe the total number was about 58,000. i suspect if it stays at the current rate will come in at around 40%, 60% whatever txat number is. again, i have more precise numbers right here. you can do the math yourself. i'd be happy to leave this with you. >> percentages are lower, but you're still talking about thousands of people. >> yeah

let me go back to the unaccompanied kids. let me add one more factor and let me give you my perspective. last year was a difficult year for some of us to address that issue. i know it was very difficult for you. folks on both sides were taking different positions. i have the say, and i've told this one of the reporters from new york or whatever i said you were very courageous under the pressure and while some people were for it and others were against it, no names mentioned, you stood firm on that. it was difficult for a lot of us on that issue. one factor i'd like to remind everybody here is on kids going back to mexico there was an agreement signed between the u.s. government and mexican government and allow the mexican con consulate. they're very protective of their people. they say sure you don't want to file for an asylum. you sure you're not a victim of sex trafficking law, et cetera, et cetera. at that time if they feel satisfied then hand them over which is the social services. there's another component that's involve

there are no clear travel regulations in germany related to unaccompanied young people between 15 and 18. her plane took off at 10 past eight. from istanbul, she took a bus. at the bus station, the trail goes cold. it is where her father is looking for her. once a day he touches base with the rest of the family at home. he tells them about his as of yet fiscal attempts to find her. -- futile attempts to find her. >> we will manage it. we will find her. reporter: with every passing day, the fear grows that she is somewhere in the area either writing herself or married to a jihadist. terry: we will be back after a short break. monika: don't go away. monika: welcome back. nigeria has presidential elections earlier this month and security concerns are weighing on the line -- minds of many including the failure to stamp out militant group boko rom. terry: the insurgency lays thousands dead and threatens to split nigeria. reporter: it is the most closely contested presidential election in nigeria since the end of military rule in 1999. he is seeking a second term. his peoples democratic par

>> the foster care for the unaccompanied children is actually funded by orr. it's not state or county foster care. folks are often confused with that. it's o.r. funded, so they are still in o.r. custody and still in the o.r. care provider network. >> do you run your own program? or is it run through localities? >> they're run through nongovernmental organizations or private organizations, not through the state or county foster care system. >> if i can ask someone. if a mother shows up with three or four children, and, say they have a relative in america and you are detaining the mother and the three or four children, are the -- if the mother wants, can the children be placed with the relative pending her determination on detention? >> i have to defer to the dhs folks. because we don't see the families. >> my understanding is typically that does not happen. the children would stay with the parent or parents with whom they cross the border. >> could it happen? is there any -- >> i'm not aware of it happening. it's possible i'm mistaken. >> i have more questions,

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 remain in dhs custody more than three days we undertook a government wide response to address the crisis which included establishment of unified coordination group that brought assets of multiple agencies to bear on the situation. unaccompan

unaccompanied children, and others who need services and protection. and with u.s.d in school. but vast needs remain. half of syrian children are still not in school. last week tom staal and i saw thousands of them while visiting a camp in the iraqi kurdistan region. it is bursting at the seams with an official tally of 35,000. but far more are seeking services not available in overwhelmed host communities. heroic efforts are under way to educate, feed, shelter and clothe the displaced, but everything is in short supply. more than 8 in 10 syrian refugees live outside of camps, straining host communities across a region that was already economically fragile and politically volatile. syrian refugees are crowded into communities in turkey, lebanon, jordan, iraq and egypt. in lebanon one in four residents is now a refugee. in jordan, housing shortages have doubled rents. schools and hospitals are overcrowded. municipal services cannot keep up, tensions are rising, and beleaguered governments have responded by closing or tightly managing borders. to ease these pressures,

as many of you know, we saw the heartbreaking spectacle of a number of children unaccompanied by any parent attempting to cross the southern border. i met with hundreds of children personally. this year, there was a 42% decrease in the numbers of unaccompanied children from where we were last year. we are through our executive actions encouraging citizenship through greater public awareness for many people to pay for applications by credit card. we are embarking upon pay reform for personnel. we are revamping what we call prosecutorial discretion. we are focusing the use of our resources to deport and remove people who are felons, not families. we want to stop tearing families apart. [applause] we are emphasizing national security and public safety over caring families apart. -- tearing families apart. we have created a new deferred action program for parents, for those who been in this country for years. there are by most estimates, 11 million undocumented immigrants living in this country. the reality is that given our resources, they are not going to be deported any administration

how could throw successful school girls fly to turkey unaccompanied and without telling anybody.went missing their families made emotional appeals. >> please, come home. >> this cctv footage shows them at a bus station in istanbul before a long road journey to the border. we now know that u.k. police had spoken to them, first in december after a school friend of theirs ran away to syria and then in february they gave them letters to ask permission to speak to their girls about their friend. >> if we would have known this wouldn't have happened. we would have stopped them. >> what would you have done? >> yes we just discuss about it and we take the passport away from them. the metropolitan police service issued a statement saying that there was nothing to suggest at the time that the girls were at risk and indeed, their disappearance comes at a great surprise. the girls were spoken to in december 2014 as part of a routine inquirely by the officers investigating the disappearance of one of their friends. the families said that the police could have done more to get the letters dire

have the bill from judge carter which deals with the problem we have of catch and release with unaccompaniednally we have a bill dealing with a sigh of fraud and asylum abuse which was also exposed during this period last summer when the national media was paying a lot more attention but the problem has been going on for a long time but these will stop it. lou: there is so much going on right now when the house idled think i could get to all of those issues. but i do want to ask with dhs funding some discussion that speaker boehner has promised the democrats in the senate a clean bill and he denies that. would you think will happen? we'll recede perseverance -- riis' the perseverance? >> we should continue to maintain our position with the department of homeland security should be funded and the president should be stopped from these illegal actions. the senate would not even taken up for consideration every single democratic senator voted for that. now we send them a rejection of the clean bill to go to congress -- conference. so let's work out differences but they have refused. lou: i am s

from judge john carter which deals with the problem we have with so-called catch and release with unaccompaniedry from countries other than mexico and being treated differently. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> finally, jason chaffetz and i have a bill dealing with asylum fraud and abuse which was also exposed during this period last summer when the national media was paying a lot more attention to this. the problem has been going on for a long time but these bills will stop it. >> congressman, always great to talk with you. thanks so much for being here. >> thanks, lou. >>> a monument to a fallen border patrol agent finally erected on our border with mexico and arizona. arizona officials over the weekend unveiled the statue that honors u.s. border patrol agent brian terry. he was killed in 2010 by an illegal immigrant using a gun that was later tied to operation fast and furious, the justice department-run scandal about which ultimately the attorney general himself was cited for contempt of congress for his failure to be forthcoming. brian terry's statue is located at the renamed brian terry pat

some unaccompanied. so what we're really seeing here is a crisis that cut to the heart on the impact of women and children what i saw was tragic. a mother who had to negotiate the release of her child from boko haram by giving him her clothes, cell phone and money. a second woman who hung her head in shame, and was hunched over. who basically had her 11-year-old daughter taken by boko haram and married to one of the insurgent leaders so the challenge to women and families is really something that is heartbreaking. we forget that what lies behind every statistic lie as very human story. >> how do you prioritize what is happening in the region. it's beginning to improve a little bit the government gaining control of some towns in the northeast where boko haram had dominated, and now they're being pushed back. but as you say you have long-term problems here. you have a million people who have been displaced by this fighting, and the most vulnerable, you described as being women and children with these multi

funds are included to care for at least 150,000 unaccompanied children, and i look forward to hearingm you on the latest apprehension trends for whether the 162 million ting fund is required. i want to commend you for making management reform a top priority. improving decision-making processes and strengthening back ofgs office functions is never easy, yet the department is making progress under your leadership. i am pleased to see many senior level vacancies have been filled. even gao gives dhs positive marks in their latest high-risk report. so thank you and keep up the good work. for all that's good in this request, there are some problems. to begin with, 1.5 billion increase absorbs almost 75% of the non-defense discretionary spending available under the limits of the budget control act of 2013. as a result, i doubt dhs's budget will rise as steeply as the request proposes. within fema, a new $38 million climate change is proposed as well as state and local grant programs. across all dhs components hiring front line personnel is not happening in a timely manner resulting in large

three presidents personally, honduras, guatemala and el salvador and it was at the height of the unaccompanied children problem. we had a very frank discussion in which we talked about the need for enforcement, frankly, for their help to close borders, to prevent people from movering. also in exchange we also had to talk about reducing the incentives for people to want to do that. and they were very frank about that part of it. one of the principle reasons for those departures was the circumstances within which those folks were living. the violence, the fear, the narco trafficking, the criminality, the bad governance, the corruption, all of those pieces. that's why we put this $1 billion request together for you. we're doing it, i think, by a healthy dose of humility and wisdom acquired through mistakes in the past. in other words, how you manage that money, where it goes, what the support system is underneath it, what the transparency and accountability is with respect to how and where it's spent. we targeted three key areas. security, so we will work with police, we'll work with the judicial

>> immediately after a disaster children are vulnerable particularly if they are unaccompanied. but they have been through a massive trauma. don't underestimate the trauma of 340km per hour will have on a child. they are trying to get the children back to a sense of normality. as soon as possible setting up play areas, to gather in a place that is safe and help bring a smile back to their face while their parents start the long task of recovering their home. >> you say in the press release i have seen that a team of socialists are coming in to help you. what advice and expertise are you looking for from them? >> so at the moment we imagine that there will be mass injuries out there. if you imagine a piece of corrigated iron coming through the air at 340 k/hr it will do damage. we'll need helicopters, there'll be food drops. the air plane strips in the islands don't exist or are extremely damaged. landing a plane with aid is changing. we'll need to come up with a practical solution about how to get food to those people quickly. >> nick la crave with save the children. thank you.

last year as many of you know, we saw the heart breaking spectacle of a number of children unaccompanied by any parent attempting to cross the southern border. i personally met with hundreds of children. i'm happy to report that this year, this month, last month there was a 42% decrease in the numbers of unaccompanied children from where we were last year. we are through our executive actions encouraging citizen ship through greater public awareness and permitting people to pay for citizenship applications by credit card. we're embarking upon pay reform for immigration reform personnel and we are revamping what we call prosecutorial discretion.

how could three successful school girls fly to turkey unaccompanied and without telling anybody?t month, after the teenagers weren't missing, their families made emotional appeals. >> we just want you to come home. if you watch this, been a, please come home. mom needs you more than anything in the world. >> this cc t.v. footage shows them at a bus station in turkey's biggest city istanbul before a long road journey to the border. we know uk police had spoken to them. first in december after a school friend of theirs ran away to certain i can't. in february, they gave them letters to hand to their parents seeking permission to take statements about their friend. the girls hid the letters and their families are accusing the police of keeping them in the dark. >> this wouldn't have happened if we knew. we definitely would have stopped them. >> what would you have done? >> we just discuss about it and take away passports from them. >> the metropolitan police service issued a statement saying there was nothing to suggest at the time that the girls, themselves, were at risk and indeed

. >> have the numbers of people coming across the border, mothers and children or children unaccompanied, have they declined as of late or are they still on the increase. >> they have declined, but i think there's a number of reasons for that. i don't have any studies or concrete research on that but one, i know there's a lot more interdictions in mexico. so that the children and families who travelled from guatemala and honduras have been stopped in mexico and there's a lot higher detention and deportation of those individuals in mexico. now, it seems that that's shifting a little bit just from the numbers we've been seeing. also, i think the other issue is just this time of year. it's more dangerous for people to travel. >> uh-huh. >> so what everyone is thinking is what are we going to see in the spring and summer? so maybe detention was a factor but i don't believe it in talking to people, people are afraid they are going to leave to save their lives. >> my concern is it is still commonly in certain policy circles that this policy is working so i was interested in what facts you have

last year as many of you know, we saw the heart breaking spectacle of a number of children unaccompanied by any parent attempting to cross the southern border. i personally met with hundreds of children. i'm happy to report that this year, this month, last month there was a 42% decrease in the numbers of unaccompanied children from where we were last year. we are through our executive actions encouraging citizen ship through greater public awareness and permitting people to pay for citizenship applications by credit card. we're embarking upon pay reform for immigration reform personnel and we are revamping what we call prosecutorial discretion. we're focusing the use of our resources to deport and remove people on felons, not families. we want to stop tearing families apart. [ applause ] we're emphasizing national security, public safety and border security over tearing families apart. we have created a new defer ed we have created a new divert action program for parents, for those who have been in this country for years who have been integrated members of society. there are by most esti

of attendees at the parties is making it difficult for police to keep the building secure with unaccompaniedmany invited by corporate sponsors wandering the hallways and venturing into restricted areas. the board wants to move the receptions to the nearby u.s. botanic garden and limit access to the capitol to members of congress and their guests and staff with offices in the building changes they say would relieve safety security and respectability concerns all in an effort to preserve the building's integrity and esteem. congressional leaders haven't yet made a decision about whether to accept all of the recommendations of the capitol police board, but one source tells us leadership has been mostly supportive of this effort. we also reached out to the concert organizers for their response to this proposal and we haven't heard back yet. >> it's the capitol. you got to be careful, right? >> absolutely. there's lots of marble around there. don't slip and fall in your party going. >> thanks so much. check out our show page at cnn.com/thelead for video, blogs and extras. >>> that is it for "the

and the national guard in texas was sent to our border to help cope with tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors that were flooding in from central america. russia invaded and annexed crimea and had into the ukraine, threatening stability and [putin thoughts about where he wants to put his nukes. they have shot from copenhagen brussels and paris, across africa and south asia in malls museums, grocery stores and even schools. that's not to overlook the starting success of viruses in establishing a safe haven that success of isis -- and success of places him in syria and iraq drawing thousands of foreign fighters, humiliating the iraqi army. nor the fall of the government of yemen, the source of the most serious threats to our homeland over the last few years as iran spreads its influence throughout the middle east and maybe a threshold nuclear state with the blessing of the international community setting off a nuclear arms race in the middle east. of course, all have not gone away from afghanistan to pakistan to somalia and israel and the palestinians where there was a seven-week summer o

last year as many of you know we saw the heartbreaking spectacle of a number of children unaccompanied by any parent attempting to cross the southern border. i personally met with hundreds of children. i'm happy to report that this year, this month, last month there was a 42% decrease in the numbers of unachildren from where we were last year. we are through our executive actions encouraging citizenship through greater public awareness through permitting people to pay for citizenship applications by credit card. we are embarking upon pay reform for immigration enforcement personnel. and we are revamping what we call prosecutorial discretion. we're focusing the use of our resources to deport and remove people on felons, not families. we want to stop tearing families apart. [ applause ] we're emphasizing national security, public safety, and border security. over tearing families apart. we have created a new deferred action program. for parents. for those who have been in this country for years who've in effect become integrated members of society. there are by most estimates something l

last summer when there were literally tens of thousands of individual showing up, some of them unaccompaniedminors on the southern border. i had to make a decision on how to deal with that. not only my state but the country was being impacted by it. and the president asked me to come and meet with him on an airport ramp and i told him i'd be glad to do it mr. president but i want to talk to you about this issue of our border. we met and became abundantly clear to me that he was not going to address this issue. that is when i told him mr. president if you don't secure this border texas will and that's exactly what we did. we sent the national guard to secure the border and that's the point. if you do not secure the border first you can't have a conversation about immigration reform. that's just a fact. you don't trust washington deal with this. i don't trust washington to deal with this until they secure the border. and we know how to do this. we have had a 74% decrease in the number of apprehensions in that 150-mile region of the border by deploying our national guard by putting law enforcem

last year as many of you know we saw the heartbreaking spectacle of a number of children unaccompaniedby any parent attempting to cross the southern border. i personally met with hundreds of children to i am happy to report that this year, this month, last month there was a 42% decrease in the numbers of unaccompanied children from where we were last year. we are encouraging citizenship through greater public awareness to permitting people to pay for citizenship applications by credit card. we are embarking upon a reform for immigration enforcement personnel, and we are revamping what we call prosecutorial discretion. we are focusing the use of our resources to deport and remove people on felons, not families but we want to stop tearing families apart. [applause] we are emphasizing national security, public safety, and border security over tearing families apart. we have created a new deferred action program for parents for those who have been in this country for years, who have become integrated members of society. there are by most estimates something like 11 million undocumented imm

not able to ride your bike unaccompanied. >> in 2010, reed would become the mayor of atlanta.ut back then, as the youngest boy in his family, his teenage brothers were his protectors. >> and i didn't move without my brothers for about a year. >> the bulk of the victims were boys like you? >> you're right. >> your age. >> you're right. >> black boys. >> yes. >> did you personally feel afraid? >> i can't honestly say that i really felt afraid except for at moments. you would have a van slow down and everybody was very mindful of vans at the time. >> people were suspicious of everybody. and they were afraid. and you had children walking the street, car go by, you could see some of them were in fear. >> and for good reason. the murders were about to increase to a body almost every week. ♪ the time of trouble ♪ in the time of trouble >>> coming up, a creature of the night. >> being an ex-news reporter and all nighttime is me. that's the time i'm out most of the time. >> and the mystery within a mystery. >> he walked into the back of the studio and he had horrible scratches on his a

and the national guard in texas was sent to our border to help cope with tens of thousands of unaccompaniedinors that were flooding in from central america. threatening the peace of europe and post-world war ii stability and putin won't stop talking about where to put his nukes. they have shot from copenhagen brussels and paris, across africa and south asia in malls museums, grocery stores and even schools. that's not to overlook the success of isis drawing thousands of foreign fighters, humiliating the iraqi army. nor the fall of the government of yemen, the source of the most serious threats to our homeland over the last few years as iran spreads its influence throughout the middle east and maybe a threshold nuclear state with the blessing of the international community setting off a nuclear arms race in the middle east. old problems haven't gone away from afghanistan, pakistan somalia and palestinians where there was a seven-week summer offensive in gaza. several airliners got shot down with hundreds of people dying. in short, it has been a difficult time in the last year or so. and the

things i have the authority to plan for i will plan for the current budget you see before you unaccompanied children issue, one i know there is difficult issue and controversy around we put in moneys to plan up to 60,000. asked for a contingency fund in case, we don't believe it will -- where there are places i can plan we will. with regard to this issue that's why, while the letter was simple, it actually gets to the core and fundamental. we do not believe we have administrative authorities. if the court makes a decision and i want to always repeat we don't believe the court will decide this way but if the court makes a decision that says and rules for the plaintiff and says that those subsidies are not available the question of, we don't believe we have an authority to undo the damage that would then occur which is subsidies go away individuals can no longer pay, they go off of their insurance. they become uninsured. it drives premiums up in that marketplace. they become uninsured. there is indigent care, it goes up. we don't believe we have authority if the court makes that decision, at

the funding of the department of homeland security, and i remind my colleagues that the issue of unaccompanied children or the president's executive actions did not pose the kind of heinous threat that we're talking about today. i frankly think this is an important discussion and many front line dhs employees will be in essence hindered from their work without the full funding of this committee. i ask you, mr. taylor, just a simple question, that in the midst of your jurisdiction and employees you have under your jurisdiction, without funding for this department. will some of them not be paid? or some of them have to be furloughed or some issue may come up regarding their service? >> ma'am, we're in the process of review inging the procedures for an orderly shutdown. i can't say specifically the number of people since i -- the people who work for me are primarily in the national security arena. there will be an impact in terms of people who are not directly involved in national security, and also i would reinforce a comment i made earlier, they're going to be people who are working, but not pa

epidemic, the national guard in texas was sent to our border to help cope with tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors that were flooding in from central america. russia invaded and annexed crimea and has pushed far into the ukraine threatening the peace of europe and post-world war ii stability while putin will not stop talking about where he wants to produce nukes. terrorists blew up shot beheaded or enslave innocent people from copenhagen, brussels and paris all the way down to nigeria, across africa into south asia in malls, museums grocery stores, and even schools. now that's not to overlook the stunning success of isis and establishing a safe haven in iraq and syria, drawing thousands of foreign fighters, humiliating the iraqi army and spreading its poison throughout a wide region. nor the fall of the government of yemen, the source of the most serious threat to our homeland over the last few years as iran spreads its influence throughout the middle east and maybe a threshold nuclear state with the blessing of the international community setting off a nuclear arms race in the middle east.

funds are included to care for at least 58,000 unaccompanied children, and i look forward to hearingnsion trends for whether the $162 million contingency fund is required. i want to commend you for making management reform a top priority. improving decision-making improving decision-making processes and strengthening back office functions is never easy, yet the department is making progress under your leadership. i am pleased to see many senior level vacancies have been filled. even gao gives dhs positive marks in their latest high-risk report. so thank you, and keep up the good work. for all that's good in this request, there are some problems. to begin with, 1.5 billion increase absorbs almost 75% of the non-defense discretionary spending available under the limits of the budget control act of 2013. mr. secretary, the congress intends to live within the confines of the law even if the administration does not. as a result, i doubt dhs's budget will rise as steeply as the request proposes. within fema, a new $38 million climate change is proposed as well as state and local grant prog

in the current budget, the unaccompanied children issue, one that i know is a difficult issue and there's in monies to plan up to 60,000, have asked for a contingency fund in case the numbers -- where there are places that i can plan, we will. with regard to this issue, that's why, while the letter was simple, it actually gets to the core and the fundamental. we do not believe we have administrative authorities. if the court makes a decision -- i always want to repeat. we don't believe the court will decide this way. but if the court makes a decision that says and rules for the plaintiff and says that those subsidies are not available, the question of we don't believe we have an authority to undo the damage that would then occur, which is subsidies go away, individuals can no longer pay, they go off of their insurance, they become uninsured, it drives premiums up in that marketplace, they become uninsured, there's indigent care, it goes up. we don't believe we have an authority, if the court makes that decision at that level, that we have an authority to do it. and therefore that's why yo

at the peak of our attention to the unaccompanied minors crisis last year, nearly 50,000 children arrived at our nation's southern border. much of our attention in this body was paid to dealing with these children once they reached our borders. these children from noncontiguous border countries not only deserve protection but are required by u.s. law to certain protections. but what about the children who might not have reached our -- the relative safety of our border stations? who knows how many fell victim to traffickers? how many were diverted to other places with even less protection than they might have received in the united states? throughout the past year, we have heard stories about children and young women who never made it to the texas border. we know that criminals have taken advantage of the crisis in central america by enticing families and children who are looking for a way to escape extreme violence. when i visited the rio grande valley last year, i heard heart breaking stories from advocates who all tobacco often saw children and young women fall victim to trafficking. ad

inspections and regulatory activities related to plant and animal imports and transportation of unaccompaniedinor aliens purchase of lease of up tore $7,-- $6,500 for replacement only police-type vehicles and contracting with individuals for personnel services abroad. $8459,650,000 of which $3,274,000 shall be derived from the harbor maintenance trust fund for administrative expenses related to the collection of the harbor maintenance fee pursuant to section 9505-c-3 of the internal revenue code of 1986, 26 u.s.c. 9505-c-3 and notwithstanding section 151-e-1 of the homeland security act of 2002, 6 u.s.c. 551-e-1 of which $35 million shall remain available until september 30, 2016 solely for the purpose of hiring, training and equipping united states customs and border patrol officers at ports of entry of which not to exceed $34,425 shall be for official reception and representation expenses of which such sums as become available in the customs user fee account. exempt such sums to section 130147b f-3 of the consolidated omnibus budget reconciliation act of 1985. 19 u.s.c. 58-c-not to exceed $

and the national guard in texas was sent to our border to help cope with tens of thousands of unaccompanieds that were flooding in from central america. . threatening the peace of europe and post-world war ii stability and putin won't stop talking about where to put his nukes. they have shot from copen haguen, brussels and marchries, across africa and south asia in malls, museums, grocery stores and even schools. that's not to overlook the success of isis drawing thousands of foreign fighters, humiliating the iraqi army. nor the fall of the government of yemen, the source of the most serious threats to our homeland over the last few years as iran spreads its influence throughout the middle east and maybe a threshold nuclear state with the blessing of the international community setting off a nuclear arms race in the middle east. old problems haven't gone away from afghanistan pakistan, somalia and palestinians where there was a seven-week summer offensive in gaza. several airliners got shot down with hundreds of people dying. in short, it has been a difficult time in the last year or so. an

last summer i led a congressional delegation to the border to view the humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied children from guatemala honduras, and el salvador. clearly, concrete cells at border patrol stations are no place for children, which is where they likely would be under the expedited deportation proceedings allowed under this amendment. these young children are fleeing danger and violence in their own home countries. so it is also no answer to require these children to seek asylum in their home countries while being exposed to the very violence that they're trying to escape in the first place. now, this is the portion of the amendment that the senator has eliminated. it still doesn't leave the part about expedited deportation. so let's keep the current law in place that protects these children. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. ms. hirono: we voted for this law, united states of americaly united states of america -- we voted for this law unanimously signed by president bush. the presiding officer: question is on the amendment. all in favor say aye. those opposed

last year as many of you know, we saw the heart breaking spectacle of a number of children unaccompanied by any parent attempting to cross the southern border. i personally met with hundreds of children. i'm happy to report that this year, this month, last month there was a 42% decrease in the numbers of unaccompanied children from where we were last year. we are through our executive actions encouraging citizen ship through greater public awareness and permitting people to pay for citizenship applications by credit card. we're embarking upon pay reform for immigration reform personnel and we are revamping what we call prosecutorial discretion. we're focusing the use of our resources to deport and remove people on felons, not families. we want to stop tearing families apart. [ applause ] we're emphasizing national security, public safety and border security over tearing families apart. we have created a new defer ed we have created a new divert action program for parents, for those who have been in this country for years who have been integrated members of society. there are by most esti