primarily to americans. and i just want to point out, that it is something like a $1.40 per person per meal. we're not talking about lobsters and steaks. this is a bare minimum dietary budget. and i just want to say to those charities out there, churches, and other food banks, thank god that you're there, but i do know that they do not have the capacity to meet the food needs of everyone who will find themselves suffering from this shutdown. and there just aren't that many canned goods out there. >> less than ten minutes left in our segment. i did not want to note last night we found out that you will be joining the powerful house ways and means committee. your priorities for that committee in the coming congress? >> well, i've been seeking an appointment on the ways and means committee since 2005. i have seen the programs, the

programs under the jurisdiction of that committee, social security, which supports not only elderly and disabled people, but families. you know, families. >> we'll leave this conversation to go live to president trump, he is attending a round table on border security in mcallen, texas. he is touring the u.s. mexico border today. live coverage on c-span 3. thank you very much. i appreciate it. it is an incredible honor to be here. i've seen so much with reggie and his incredible brother and family. we're with that, you know that, right? you know that. and we're here to make a tour in a little while of the border, and we have fantastic people with us, including our great senators, from the state of texas, and thank you very much,

john and ted, thank you very much for being here. and our lieutenant governor, who's been my friend for a long time, and i also hear your son is doing a very good job. >> working hard every day. >> i hear he is doing a good job. i want to thank all of you for being here. we are going to go around the table and say a few words. attorney general, thank you very much for being here. appreciate it. what a job you've done. big victory you had recently, too. a very important victory. the individual mandate, we're going to see if that holds up, because it should, that was the excuse they had, and we'll see if it holds up, rit? but i think you're going to in great shape. >> i'm honored to be in mcallen, texas, with the heroes of border patrol, and they are heroes, you know, you have so much, border patrol, i.c.e., and law enforcement, generally, you take so much heat, you take so much abuse from people that don't know what they're talking about, i want to just say that you have a friend with this

administration, and you have a friend with me, nobody does a better job, nobody does a better job. [ applause ] >> and i have to add, you have no idea how much you're loved by the public. maybe not by the fake news, but you're loved by the public. beyond belief. and that includes my friend brandon, and brand be, thank you very much,, brandon, thank you very much for being great, you have been getting the word out how important it is, border security, the wall, steel barrier, whatever name they want, but we have to have it, and it is going to happen. to i.c.e. and border patrol and law enforcement, an incredible job you do, and the public loves you. not like. they love you. and i just hope that none of you won for president because you may be the one people that we have a problem with, because you are, you are highly respected in our country, and beyond our

country, we know what you do with ms-13, we know what you do with the gangs, we know what you do with crime, and we also see what you do on the border. boy, i will tell you what. it's tough stuff. but it could be a lot easier for you and you could be spread a lot differently if we had the walls and we'll get it, we'll get it, and i think we're winning the battles in a very big way. so i want to thank you very much for being with us thank you very much. incredible. i want to thank secretary nielsen, and commissioner macklenen for being with us. we made the trip down from washington. and again senator john cornyn has been an incredible champion of what we're doing, very popular man in texas, and i think we're running in two years together, and that's very good for both of us, i hope. i think it is. i think it is my honor, john. i want to tell you.

the people in texas love you. [ applause ] >> and we have another great friend of mine, ted cruz, and he is a friend of mine, except for about four or five months in between. i was telling john that ted and i, on the campaign, we liked each other so much, and i said look, at some time that end, right, ted? but we also, we do joint appearances together and the press would say, whes when is this going to ends? it will happen. ted would say, too, it will happen. we didn't know it would be quite that violent, and the friendship is at least equal to what it was. and i want to congratulate you. i was here, we had that arena of about 22,000, the houston arena, an incredible night, right? and i think we had 109,000 or 106,000 people wanting to come, there were thousands outside, a few weeks before the election, i

said i think he's going to win, i think he is going to win nicely, and i just want to congratulate you. that was not easy. and now he lost and he wants to run for president and i said i thought you had to win to run for president, right? but you did a great job, ted. appreciate it. tex attorney general ken paxton who has led some incredible case, thank you very much. and lieutenant governor dan patrick, a friend of mine for a long time. and i want to thank the governor, he is going on fox tonight and he sends his regards and he is coming into washington, but the governor who had a great campaign, also, he's been fantastic, a big believer in what we're doing so say hello to him, and i'll speak to him later. thanks also to brandon judd and the national border patrol council. so brandon, i've known him from the beginning. and almost before i announced, he was for my ideas and he was for us. he was for me. and i appreciate it.

and i appreciate all you guys coming up last week. it had a big impact. we said to them, what do you want? who knows better than them? he knows better than all of us put together. and that group was fantastic that we had in washington, just a few days ago, and they went on television, and anybody that listened wouldn't even have a doubt about it, so brandon, thank, everybody, we appreciate it, very much. done a fantastic job. the border patrol's rio grande valley sector. who is from the sector? do you have any specific guys here, and ladies? quite a few. now, are you tougher than the rest? are you just tougher than the rest? i don't know. maybe. but i heard special, i heard special -- there they are. come on here a minute. come here.

thank you. [ applause ] that's fantastic. and i've heard so much about all of you and we are going to spend a lilt time in a little while together. i don't know if we're walking or flying but either one is okay with me. we're going to see a lot. thank you for that. and in a few moments the american people will hear from the front line border agents about the tremendous flood of illegal immigration, drug trafficking, human trafficking, a phenomena that has been going on for a thousand years or more, and that you think was something that modern society wouldn't have, and hate to tell you that because of the internet, it's worse than ever before. human trafficking. it's a horrible thing. and much of it comes, it is a world problem, not a u.s. problem only, and they come across the border, and it's a bad thing. and they drive. they just go where there is no security, where due even know, you don't even know the difference between mexico and the united states.

there is no line of demarcation. they just go out. and where there is no fencing or walls, of any kind, they just make a left into the united states and they come in and they have women tied up, they have tape over their mouths, electrical tape, usually blue tape, as they call it, it is powerful stuff. not good. and they have three, four, five of them in vans, or three of them in backseats of cars, and they just drive right in. they don't go through your points of entry. they go right through. and if we had a barrier of any kind, a powerful barrier, whether it's steel or concrete, if we had a barrier, they wouldn't be able to make that turn. they wouldn't even bother trying because they can't go through the points with people. so we would stop that cold. we would stop it cold. and they can't fly in, obviously. for obvious reasons. so we would stop human trafficking. in this section of the world. i think it would stop it 90,

95%, a tremendous percentage would stop. and you also have the criminal gangs coming in. they don't walk through the points of entry. they come where nobody is around. and you are talking about hundreds and hundreds of miles. 2,000 miles, but we need 500 miles of border. one of the things that has happened is, and i was explaining to the two senators, and to dan, in the car, that one of the things that really is happening is without saying it too loudly, and i told them, dan, could you repeat that story, when i say mexico's going to pay for the wall, that's what i said, mexico's going to pay, i didn't say they are going to write me a check for $20 billion or 10 billion, i didn't say they would write a check. i said they are going to pay for the wall, and if congress approves the incredible trade bill that we made with mexico, and canada by the way, but with mexico in this case, they are paying for the wall many, many times over and dan said, would

you do me a favor and say, that and i do say it but the press refuses to acknowledge. it when i say mexico is going to pay for the wall, that's what i mean. and mexico is going to play for the wall. i didn't mean please write me a check, and i mean they're paying for it in the trade deal. and hopefully they understand that. and it still has to be approved by congress. and it is so much better than nafta. it is the worse ever made. it really hurt our country. and now we have the usmc. a and it is a great deal and i think you will see some tremendous improvement for the farmers and the people of texas. law enforcement and professionals at dhs, the men and women in this room have told us what they need to secure our border. these are the people we went to. it is not only the wall or the barrier, it's the equipment for seizing the drugs. we have tremendous equipment

today. it's expensive. but tremendous equipment that when you do drive through, bun one of ports of entry, we have equipment that will be able to detect the drugs. and it's the finest in the world. and we're getting it ready. it's part of what we're asking for it. is not only the wall. and we've taken their recommendations straight to congress. but congress says, you know, as you know, the democrats are holding us up. because they don't want it. they think it is good politically. i think it is a disaster for them politically. but i'm not doing it for politics. i'm doing it because it's right. i'm doing it because it's right. and before, when i left washington, i said they can't have a problem with crime, because the people that are coming in, the criminals, the gangs, the traffickers, the drugs, it's all crime. and the only way you are going to stop it is the way these people are strongly recommending that it be stopped, brandon. so hopefully, i hear we're making a lot of progress, i even

hear certain members of congress, the democrats, are saying we getter get this thing going, this isn't working out too well for us, because nobody is going to win the battle of strong borders and no crime, as opposed to open borders and crime doesn't matter, because that's what they're saying. crime doesn't matter. we have people that have been so horribly hurt, families that have been so horribly hurt, by people that just come in, like it's, just come in to the united states, do whatever they want, many cases they leave and then they'll come back, or in many cases, they stay, and we've done a very good job at the border, considering we're not given the right laws, would he have laws that are so bad, they are archaic and horrible and we don't have the barrier. so your plan including drug detection technology at our port, more officers, far more, more beds to house the influx of

unlawful migrant, medical support, closing the disastrous loopholes that incentivize child smuggling. the single biggest victims of what is happening at our border is children. they are being used by the coyotes. they're being sold left and right. people are grabbing them to get in, because our laws are really lousy, and if you have a child with you, it's easier to get in, these people know it better than anybody, far better than the people in washington, and i think the biggest victims are children, and women. women would be right there with the children. these are the victims. and it's women mostly in terms of the smuggling. and what's going on with that. so we're going to take care of this problem. and to think anybody can even think about fighting it is ridiculous. so we're going to build a powerful steel barrier. they don't want to use concrete. i said okay, we'll use steel, it

is stronger, it is also more expensive by the way, and it is stronger, i'll use steel. it will be stronger. and they said concrete, we don't want a concrete wall, and i said okay, we'll build a steel wall and we'll call it a barrier instead of a wall. i'm okay with that. i don't care what you call it but it's got to be there. democrats have refused to listen to the border agents, and they say this is a manufactured crisis. that's the new sound bite. all over. i turn the television on. i call it the opposition party. the fake news media. and what happens is every network has manufactured crisis. this is a manufactured crisis. every one of them. it's like they, you know, send out to everybody, let's use this sound bite today. so it's a manufactured -- but it's not. what is manufactured is the use of manufacture. it is manufactured by them. every single of the negatives

but they're not winning because it is common sense. it's common sense. they say a wall is medieval. well, so is the wheel. a wheel is older than a wall. and i looked and every single car out there, even the really expensive ones that the secret service uses, and believe me, they are expensive, i said, do they all have wheels. yes. i thought it was medieval. the wheel is older than the wall. you know that? and there are some things that work. you know, a wheel works. and a wall works. nothing like a wall. the government shut down because the democrats will not fund border security. plain and simple. and again, more than just the walls. their open borders agenda threatened all american families including millions of legal immigrants throughout our nation. in the last two years alone, our courageous i.c.e. officers, many of whom are with us, arrested criminal aliens charged with or

convicted of 100,000 assaults, this is in the last year, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. we're deeply moved to have with us reggie singh, whose brother ronil singh, incredible guy, i mean i watched, and i rarely felt worse in watching news of our nation, than watching your family and the love that you have for your brother, i could see that, reggie, the way ha it came through, it came through loud and clear, and there are so many other people who have the same, nobody covers them, when they talk about how unfair, how this, how that, nobody talks about how unfair it is to the victims of these brutal killings, and by the way, over the years, there's thousands of

them. i don't mean hundreds. i don't mean in the teens. i mean thousands of them. and these officers can all tell you about them. and ide eto, if, i'd like to, if i could, because i watched a family, right around christmas time, i watched them summer and i would like to ask reggie, if you could say a few words about your incredible brother and the job he was doing, he was so loved by the people in the department and beyond the department and maybe you could say a few words about your brother, please. >> so ronil singh, originally from fiji islands he always wanted to be in law enforcement. so legally, we migrated to america. to fulfill his dream, to join the law enforcement. after, english is our second language, he worked on that, got his education, applied for a law enforcement agency, and was asked to get his citizenship.

he worked towards that. and he became a cop. canine. corporal canine. and the way he was killed, what my family is going through right now, i do not want any other family, law enforcement person, to go through that. whatever it takes to minimize, put a stop to it, my family fully supports it. at 33 years old, ronil singh was cremated, and i had to pick up his remains. it breaks my heart. and no one should ever, ever go through that, looking at that five-month-old baby, looking for his dad, no one should ever go through that, on christmas day. that's all. that's it. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> we're with you, you know that, right?

[ applause ] >> that was a tough one, too. that was a tough one, for a lot of people. not only the family. for a lot of people in this country, that was a tough thing to watch. also with us marie vegga, whose son border patrol agent javier vegga jr., who is another person who was loved by so many in the department, on the border patrol, we had so many people talking, still talking so much about him, it happened in 2014, he was out fishing with his wife, his parents, and his kids, and marie, i'd like to maybe have you say a little bit about your son, because he is so loved and respected still in this room. please, thank you.

thank you. >> my name is marie vega. we have two sons, my husband and i have, very proud of both of them, both of them marine, harvey, at a very young age, expressed a love for law enforcement, and like the parent that wants a child to grow up, and be something, and be a productive human, we supported him, and he showed interest in the police force, numerous times, he rode with the police officers around our town, surrounding towns. p when he was in high school, he told us that he wanted to be a marine. and of course, it's like, okay, you want to be a marine, you're going to start this, you're

going to follow through, and you're going to finish it, and that's what he did. he became a marine. upon leaving the united states marine corps, he went to college, became a bio med engineer, and almost immediately after graduating, he was offered a job at first respond in kingsville. while working at first respond, because he was surrounded by agents and saw how they worked and still with that love for law enforcement in his heart, he came to me, came to my husband, and said, mom, dad, i want to be a border patrol agent. and of course, again, you know, okay, you want to be a border patrol agent, then you're going to be a border patrol agent, and he became an agent. i always worried about him, you

know, like i worry about our family now, you know, i want them to go to work, be safe, come home to their family safely, and i always, every day, i was scared that i would lose my son. never in my wildest dreams did i ever imagine my son dying at a family outing. it was supposed to be peaceful, fun, you know, fishing, afternoon, and it didn't happen that way. it didn't happen that way, because we had a criminal illegal alien that killed him. he came thinking that he was entitled to one of the two vehicles that we had there. this, no family, like mr. singh says, should go through this.

no one. no one should suffer the loss of a child. a parent should not have to bury their child. we need the wall. and when i say we need the wall, i don't mean just build the wall. there's other things that we need to do, also, we need to enforce immigration laws. we need tougher judges. we need the wall itself. our border patrol agents need to have what they should have, the equipment, the materials they need, to do their job. >> thank you very much. you're 100% right. thank you. [ applause ] >> very proud of you right now. thank you very much, marie.

what marie said is right. more than just the wall. we have to give these incredible people the tools to work with. we're not doing that. politicians in washington are saying, they don't know the first thing about, it they've never been here, they don't know the first thing about what we're talking about. so we're going to hear from a couple of our land owners, a couple of the folks that live in the area, and areas that we're discussing. i think i'd like to start off with our texas leaders, and they are indeed leaders, and say a few words about what we're here for, and what we support, and what's going to happen, and we have no choice, and maybe we will start with john cornyn, senator cornyn, say a few words, please. >> well, thank you, mr. president, for being here. and for hearing firsthand from not only the people who suffered at the hands of the crime that

occurs as a result of people who don't come here to achieve their american dream, but people who come here to cause death and destruction, and human misery. before you, you see, maybe we will have somebody go through some of the things that are in front of us, but i see here, for example, heroin and methamphetamine that's been seized. you see bolt cash, 362,000 dollars, when the drugs are sold, in the united states, they have to get the cash back across the border, to the cartels, and you see the sorts of weapons that are used by the drug cartels and others, and you can imagine the violence that goes along with that. and so when i, when people like ted and i here, our colleagues in washington say that this is a manufactured crisis, we kind of wonder what planet they have been living on, because this is not just about economic migrants, this is about people who exploit the vulnerabilities

in our border, this is about the 70,000 people who died of drug overdoses in america, just last year, a substantial portion of it is from the heroin that comes from mexico, 90% of the heroin that is used in the united states p comes from mexico, and as you point out, the human tragedy associated with human trafficking, sex slavery, modern day slavery, all of that is associated with our inability to control the way we need to control our southern border. so thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> thank you for your concern. and i want to particularly thank mr. singh, and ms. vega for their willingness to come and tell their story, and their courage. >> thank you, john, very much. senator cruz? >> mr. president, welcome back to texas. >> thank you. >> glad to welcome you to the valley. i one of the things you said a minute ago about the men and women here, border patrol and i.c.e. you refer to them as heroes and that is exactly right. these are brave, courageous

leaders. i've been out on midnight patrol with the agents here. and they have a difficult job that they do each and every day. they risk their lives. all of us, mr. singh, our prayers are with your family, the tragedy you endured, nobody should have to endure. ms. vega, we love you, and mr. vegga, is sitting back here as well. and this whole community loves the vega family, and has mourned their son's loss alongside them. illegal immigration produces tragedies every day. human smuggling, drug smuggling, children being abused, women being severalxually abused, opi that are destroyed, last year 72,000 people lost their lives to drug overdoses. more than car accidents in this

country, and much of the drugs are flooding across the southern border. so i just want to commend you for standing up and fighting this fight. one thing there's not a lot of in washington is backbone. and i want to commend you for helping infuse some more backbone in washington. this is a fight the people of texas and the american people want the border secure. they want the federal government to have the backs of the men and women in this room that are risking their lives to keep us safe. and so thank you for highlighting this crisis. when we see politician goes on tv and say the border's secure and there is no crisis, they're ignoring reality. they're ignoring the lives that are jeopardized each and every day. so thank you for leading this fight. >> thank you very much, ted. i appreciate it. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. dan, if you could say a few words, also, i would like to have somebody get up and give us just for the media, a little

definition of exactly what's in front of us, because it looks pretty brutal, this is not a manufactured deal, as you say, this is the real stuff. and this is nothing compared to what they have, this is actually nothing compared to what they have. so is somebody going to be able to explain this to us quickly? good. carlos. carlos, go ahead. please. >> mr. president, thank you. >> thank you, carlos. >> before you here, we see some narcotics that was seized by the men and women of the cbp. as you can see right here, on the two tables, to my far right, and the left mere, these are 117 kilograms of methamphetamine, and four kill gams of heroin that was seized in commercial conveyance made through the port of entry. officers noticed some discrepancies. >> the conveyances were reported to the x-ray technology, and it was during the exam, they were able to identify anomalies

within the conveyance, with the use of our canine detector dogs, we were able to seize this merchandise. right here at this particular one, these are fire extinguishers. these fire extinguishers were intercepted at the port in texas, it was being driven into the united states, and the two fire extinguishers were used in the importation of methamphetamine and heroin. 100 grams of heroin. and then methamphetamine as well. we also have some weapons that were seized at our ports of entry. also with the assistance of our federal partner, and state partners as well. so we have three colt handguns, gold plated. encrusted with diamonds. those were seized at the laredo point of entry. you have an ar-15 that was seized with assistance of our state and local partners, with the task force officers, you have an ak-47, seized by the

officers at the dabo port of entry, going southbound, during a southbound inspection, nervous behavior displayed by the driver, subsequently the officers were able to find the ak-47 hidden in the backseat. you also have a 50 caliber rifle. during the inspection at the port of entry opposite where they use canine, also where they use canine equipment or x-rays, we were able to detect a compartment, that compartment was found in the backseat of a vehicle, subsequently with the assistance of our homeland security vechktiinvestigative p and air marine, there was a surveillance conducted on the vehicle, which went to an undisclosed location, from that location, a traffic stop was conducted, and a 50 caliber rifle was found. now, these three guns that you see are gold-plated handguns. with diamonds encrested.

>> i think that says it all. this is just all recent. this is all very recent. they didn't have to go very far. this is all very recent. okay? >> welcome. we're thankful to have you here. 362,000 dollars. this is a multi-agency seizure. we actually, it was detected by a border patrol station canine handler. what ended up happening, there was a suspected currency smuggler who, through a traffic stop, resulted in further investigation. he gave us consent into his house. canine came in. searched. and this was caught. this suspect was suspected also of marriage fraud. he was an overstay.

he also had multi-thousands of dollars of financial transactions, all illicit activity. 362,000, of many. >> wow, that's something. and the dogs are incredible, aren't they? in terms of finding the drugs, but also they find money and drugs. they find drugs. >> and they find people. >> and they find people. pretty incredible. >> i have some other things i would like to bring forward. >> sure. go ahead. >> absolutely. >> i will start over here. if you will, so the checkpoint north of here, two suspects, they were being smuggled in the trunk of a car. it so happens after records checks were run, one of the suspects had an interpol hit, he was wanted out of spain for murder. here, we've got pictures depicting some seizures of marijuana and firearms.

it just so happened when this multi-agency task force, border patrol included, went to go execute a warrant, the suspects inside the house actually started trying to burn the marijuana and actually tried to throw it throughout the yard, but we were able to successfully get in, seize the marijuana, and make the arrest, as well as other seizures. this here, very sad. your words resonate with me. it is very dangerous. we've got a vehicle that failed to yield to border patrol agents. this vehicle eventually, the driver lost control, and propelled the vehicle on to a pipe gate. a juvenile died in that vehicle. 15 to 16 other subjects seriously injured. all illegally in the united states. here, you're seeing the inside of a horse trailer, where smugglers endangered these folks, that they were smuggling, again, at the checkpoint.

here, this is just a couple of miles from here, from where we're standing, this is a tunnel. this is the second tunnel that recently that we have located. this is an area that we actually have wall. and we actually have some technology and agents. that piece of area was really important to the criminal organization. we are doing such a great job utilizing the right resource in that particular area that they have been so frustrated, they're using other tactics. they're actually digging tunnels. this is about 25 feet long, about two to three feet high. we were fortunate enough that when the station next to us, their boat patrol actually launched in our area, went down. they look for new landings. they look for anything that was different the day before. they were actually able to see, this was very well hidden. but they were so vigilant, they found this. there is no telling what all was

going to come through this if they were successful. here, this vehicle was actually floated across the river with narcot narcotics, floated, on a trailer, with barrels. narcotics in the bed of the truck. narcotics in the cab of the truck. this is technology that we have here in the mcallen area. that group is along the rio grande but on the mexican side, getting ready to cross to the united states. that technology is so important so our agents have time to go over there and deter that traffic. we have large groups coming in. sadly, this is a deceased subject. somebody who probably was trying to cross the rio grande who didn't make it. he died. he drowned. right here, two juveniles from mexico trying to smuggle over

1,000 pounds, here, again in the mcallen area. they actually ran the -- they rammed into a border patrol agent. that's an assault. they were trying to get away. two juveniles, over 1,000 pounds of marijuana. this is a stash house, mr. president. the smugglers don't care. they are treating human beings as commodities. they put them in deplorable situations. sometimes they're in these houses up to eight days, sometimes even more. this is terrible. this is just -- the american people need to understand, like you stated just now, we know better. we know what the cost is to families, to our families, to our communities, to the country. we're here to serve and we're here to protect, not just ourselves and everybody in the country, but even the people being taken advantage of. >> great presentation. thank you very much.

[ applause ] >> i wanted to share with you that our state troopers seized 94 1/2 pounds of fentanyl last year which breaks down to 21 million lethal doses. we talk about our opioid crisis. to those of you who say this is a manufactured crisis, it's a manufactured coverup, by your opposition, we have -- we had 500,000 people apprehended crossing the border from san diego to brownsville last year. more than half in texas and most of those in this sector, between brownsville and falcon dam, we need the wall, we need fencing. we have 54 miles. you are about to build 22 more miles, which leaves 128 miles. on the other side of the border here, ten miles away, mr. president, there's a city of a

million people without a police force. every night, running gunfights between the mexicans and the cart cartels. eight miles from here. anyone who says we don't need a fence or a wall or a barrier or more law enforcement, they are deceiving the american people. you are right, mr. president. we're with you. >> they say it's immoral. what's immoral is all the killing that's taking place by people just walking across. >> deceiving the american people. >> they are. they know better. they all know, it's an indefensible position. even people that aren't into it like we are where we are studying it and working and we want to end it and we can't end it, everybody knows that what we're saying is right. >> the economic impact to the country and texas. we have a million students who don't speak english. that's a tremendous cost to the taxpayer. that's one out of every five. the health care cost and

humanitarian cost. no one should die coming to america. the democrat opposition is creating that situation. >> yeah. i want to thank you. i think a lot of people are getting it. it's not complex. if we don't have a substantial barrier of some kind, you are never going to solve this problem. everybody gets it, whether you are educated in this world or not educated in this world, you don't have to be at all, they all get it. that's why you see congress now, democrats in congress are coming out and saying, we don't like this subject. it was a big article. i won't give your competition the publicity. there was a big article in a very important media outlet that just came out where a lot of the young democrats just elected to office are breaking up and say, wait a minute, our position, the democrats' position of no barrier, no wall, is indefensible. it's going to happen. it's going to happen more and more because it's common sense. mark, will you say something?

you have done a great job. >> i would like to say as you well know, the department of defense is fully supporting the department of homeland security and customs and border security with thousands of service members and we continue to lean forward and support the mission as we look ahead. >> i called on you and i called on the department of defense to come down and help because we had caravans forming. we have another one forming in honduras. we pay them tens of millions of dollars. they do nothing for us. they do nothing. if you think that country is trying to stop, don't believe it. okay? that goes for guatemala, that goes for el salvador. if they want to stop it, they can stop it. they form and they come in through mexico. they break in and you saw what happened. they broke in because they didn't have the wall. i think they're thinking about building a wall on their southern border now. i want to thank the military. they have been incredible. they came up and from day one they worked.

nobody has seen anybody work like that. they put the essentially barbed wire but it's times ten. it was very effective to put it mildly. very effective. without that, we would have been -- it would have been a stampede into our country. i want to thank the military. i know you are still working with us on it. unfortunately, i have to tell you they have another one forming. we will handle that. we are working with mexico. we appreciate that. we're working with mexico very much. attorney general, please say a few words. >> sure. thank you so much for coming to the border. so many people in washington talk about the border as if they know what's going on and they don't come down here. thank you. thank you for your vision, your persistence, your willingness to stand up. i think like no other leader we have had, president or not, you have done more for border security to push this forward. look, we have two stories, horrific stories of people losing their lives.

in texas, unfortunately, you are not the only two families that have suffered. we keep track of statistics related to border security. our state police addressed hundreds of thousands of crimes, hundreds of homicides. so we have hundreds of thousands of stories just like this that have affected real people and our families in texas. thank you for addressing that. we also hear that the narrative is that the wall won't work. if you go to el paso, we put up a barrier there. i think it was under the bush administration. it's over 100 miles long. el paso used to have one of the highest crime rates in america. after that fence went up and separated them, the crime rates are some of the lowest in the country. we know it works. the narrative is incorrect and we have tested it in texas. i wanted to say something about your comments about human trafficking. i started a human trafficking unit my first year in office because was border.

we have the second highest human trafficking rate in the country, over 300,000 people are victims of that crime every year. that's the research. houston is the worst city in america. we're addressing that. border security will clearly have a positive impact on those horrible and horrific statistics. they are affecting our women and children. thank you very much, mr. president. >> what you are saying is interesting. you have a wall or barrier and then you won't. what they do is they walk up, can't get through. they come in and they eventually find an opening. it's the openings where they come in. we don't want to have the openings. we're going to have gates where they come in legally. we don't want to have openings. you will see the crime rate in this country go way down. we're already doing very well in terms of crime rate. it's not being helped by what's going on. we could make it a lot better. i appreciate it very much. thank you very much. brandon? >> absolutely.

mr. president, i came here and this gentleman said he didn't like that 50 cal pointed at his head. he played football at the university of missouri. i told him it wouldn't put a dent in him. >> that's right. he might be able to handle it. >> he was the right person to put that in front of. i appreciate the leadership that you have provided. i appreciate the access that you have given our border patrol agents to our leaders. nobody has ever come down and spoken to our agents as much as the secretary has. we appreciate that. the access that you have allowed our agents with these individual. i appreciate you having senator corner and cruz here with us today. these two individuals played such a huge role in getting a

death declared as a line of duty death. i appreciate you allowing them to be here. from a personal experience as a border patrol agent, i can tell you what barriers do. i started my career in california 21 years ago. we had few barriers. we had illegal border crossings that were out of control. it was the busiest sector at that time. we put up barriers and illegal border crossings dropped ex exponential exponentially. i went to arizona. we were the busiest at that time. we were arresting one small station, we were arresting over 100,000 illegal aliens per year at that station. we built barriers. it dropped from 100,000 down to 20,000. that's how physical barriers work. they work and we appreciate the leadership that you are providing in order to get us those things that we need such as personnel, technology and the infrastructure, which is barriers. thank you very much, mr. president. >> thank you very much.

brandon, it's been -- you sit here listening. it's not a contest. there's no two sides or anything. all they're doing is looking at 2020. they figure they can't win, maybe they can do this or they can come up with some other issue. i can tell you about another couple of issues they are using. because we have had great achievement. i won't consider myself to have that great achievement unless we can straighten out your border. we're working on it. your son and your brother will not have died in vein. they will not have died in vein. very important purpose to all of this. very important. monte, that's a very uncomfortable position. i don't know. i wouldn't want to be in that chair. you are a tough guy. you can handle it. please, say a few words. >> mr. president, first thing is thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to address this situation that we do live on a daily basis. not only us as ranchers or anything, but all the law enforcement agencies.

senator cruz hit it on the head whenever he said you got a backbone. that's why we elected you and wanted you in the white house. we appreciate you not giving up on that. i grew up in the rio grande valley. born and raised down here. my family is third generation down here. 15, 20 years ago, we didn't have this kind of problem. we had a great flow of illegal immigrants coming across, but those people were harmless. they wanted to come for a better life and work. unfortunately, it's not the same thing anymore. there's been many times where we would be out on the ranch or 3:00 in the morning, cold, raining night, have family beat on my back door or on the front porch. i go out there and it's a family in distress. we feed them. we water them. they're asking for help. we are passionate people. that's what we do. we call for help. we get them over there. we feed them, clothe them, whatever we have to do. unfortunately, a few times we have had a few young females

come up that you could tell have been sexually assaulted. they were scared out of their mind. they get led around in the brush for three or four days and get disoriented on their direction and told by their coyotes that houston is right there. this is where you want to go. they paid $3,000 to come across. it's everything they could garnish up to pay these people. they walk ten miles across the border, walk them around in the brush and disappear. they are lost. they are hopeless. they don't know what to do. they say, can you call border patrol for me? my hat is off to you. i see how you work all the time. you are under manned. we got a great sheriff, proud to call him my friend as well. any time we have had any instances -- i lost my father five years ago. when that happened, there was a lot of traffic going on. i didn't live at the ranch at the time. i would have to go out there every night. i was a constant bother to the

sheriff. he was there to help me. these guys, the border patrol right now, their hands are tied. these immigrants, they know it. they know they get over here and they're going to get caught. but they're going to get let go. to me, that's something i think that really needs to be addressed. yes, i agree with the wall. there's farmers and land owners that are on the river and they are upset because of the imminent domain. that brings up a question there as far as all the acreage they are losing with the wall. maybe there is something you can device wise with the owners. we don't want to drill through the middle of your property. let's get closer to the river or something. i think that would probably forgo -- you will see more cooperation with that. >> i agree with you. i think you are right. >> thank you, mr. president. >> the laws are a big problem. they call one catch and release. you catch them and release them. other countries for most part,

you go into the country and they say, excuse me, these people, get out. you have to get out. sorry. nobody tries to get in because they know they can't. with us, we take them through court proceedings. we have to hire hundreds of judges, hundreds of judges. hundreds of judges, you go through a proceeding. they check you in. then they can't do the proceeding because there's 800,000 people now waiting. think of it. 800,000 people, how ridiculous is this? if they set one foot on u.s. property, so to speak, they end up having to go to a trial. so they take the name and they say, you can go now. come back in three years. you have a trial. this is the united states law, by the way. made worse by the ninth circuit. the ninth circuit is a disaster. made worse by -- if you go to the ninth circuit, if you are on the other side of what everybody

in this room is all about -- frankly, what most of the people in the countriy are all about - it's almost an automatic loss. they take a case to the ninth circuit that's nowhere near the ninth sick circuit. we are bucking a bad system. we're bucking a lot of things that are bad. we are apprehending more people than ever before. the laws are really against us. we're doing well anyway. we have to do much better. we can do better if we have a physical barrier. this way we don't have -- even with the bad laws, you have a physical barrier, they couldn't come into our country. >> if i may, mr. president, i married into a law enforcement family. an agent was killed in mexico. it was pretty hard going through that. i feel your pain. we were not that close at first. we became really good friends after that.

after that happened, i don't know how, but the killers when they got -- they went up to d.c., they were allowed to bring their family. put them up on the taxpayer dollar. in front of his parents, paraded them around. it was like a stab in the back for the government that he gave his life for. >> when was that? how long ago? >> that was right last year, when they went to sentencing. >> convicted? >> somebody took the fall for it. i can't say it was the correct person that pulled the trigger. >> bad stuff. >> please. >> thank you, mr. president, for coming to texas and for the rio grande valley. i especially want to thank you for calling this what it is, a humanitarian crisis. when you use that language, it

set bells to ringing. that is what it is. people in my profession see the suffering, the human suffering, brought by drugs, by the arms that are brought across making our communities more violent, the trafficking of women and children especially and boys and young males as well. and the truth that needs to be talked about that is seldom talked about is the amount of underreporting of the crime. when these things happen, in the shadows, people are not always eager to point out the crimes that are taking place. it goes underreported. people in my profession, especially spanish speaking pastors, especially spanish speaking pastors in this sector know firsthand the human suffering, the human toll that's taking place because of the

onslaught. the sickness, the disease, the lack of sanitation that's going on because of the bunch up at the border. people are trying to come in. i want to give a heartfelt thanks. i have had the privilege of visiting with you before. i know your heart of compassion. some don't want to paint you as having a heart of compassion. i know you as a man that does have this heart of compassion, this genuine and authentic -- the fact you called it what it is. it's a crisis and a humanitarian crisis. again, the pastors i'm here representing today salute you and thank you for wanting to bring an end to untold suffering that's taking place on our southern border. thank you, mr. president. >> thank you, pastor. very nice. good to see you again. appreciate it. thank you.