Wednesday morning at 7 00 eastern. Join the discussion. President trump met with a Bipartisan Group of congressional leaders at the white house to negotiate a deal , on Border Security and immigration enforcement, including protections for socalled Daca Recipients ahead of a march deadline. Daca is the Obama Era Program which gives protection for 700,000 young immigrants, but President Trump said would end in march without congressional action. Thank you very much everyone for being here. Im thrilled to be with a distinguished group of republican and democratic lawmakers from both the house and the senate. We have something in common wed like to see this get done and you know what this means. Were here today to advance bipartisan Immigration Reform that serves the needs of the american families, workers and taxpayers. Its daca. Weve been talking about daca for a long time. Ive been hearing about it for years, long before i decided to go into this particular line of work, maybe we can do something. We have a lot of good people in this room. A lot of people that have a great spirit for taking care of people we represent. That we all represent. For that reason, any legislation on daca, we feel, at least a strong part of this group feels has to accomplish three vital goals and chairman will be submitting a bill over the next two to three days that will cover many of the things and obviously that, if it gets passed, it will go to the senate, and they can negotiated. We will see how it all turns out. But i feel that having the democrats in with us is absolutely vital, because it should be a bipartisan bill. This should be a bill of love, truly. It should be a bill of love and we can do that. But it also has to be a bill where were able to secure our border. Drugs are pouring into our country at a record pace. A lot of people coming in that we cant have. Weve greatly stiffened as you know, and fewer people are trying to come in, but we have tremendous numbers of people and drugs pouring into our country. So in order to secure it, we need a wall, we need closing, enforcement. We have to close enforcement loopholes, give immigration officers and these are tremendous people, the Border Security agents the i. C. E. , agents, we have to give them the equipment they need, we have to close loopholes and this does include a very strong amount of Different Things for Border Security. I think everybody in the room would agree to that. Its a question of amounts but i think everyone agrees we have to have Border Security. I dont think anybody that says no. Second, it has to be a bill to end chain migration. Chain migration is bringing in many, many people with want and often it doesnt work out very well. Those many people are not doing us right and i think a lot of people in the room and im not sure i can speak for everybody but a lot of people in this room , want it see chain migration ended. We have a recent case along the west side highway having to do with chain migration where a man ran over, killed eight people and many people injured badly, loss of arms, loss of legs, horrible thing happened and then you look at the chain and all the people that came in because of him. Terrible situation and the other is cancel the lottery program. They call it visa lottery. I just call it lottery, where countries come in and they put names in a hopper. Theyre not giving you their best names. Common sense means theyre not giving you their best names. Theyre giving you people that they dont want and we take them out of the lottery, where they do it by hand, they put their hand in a all. Probably what is in their hand is the worst of the worst. They put people that they dont want into a lottery and the United States takes those people and again, going back to that same person, he came in through the lottery program. They visited his neighborhood and the people in the neighborhood said oh my god, we offered with this man, the rudeness and horribleness of the way he treated us right from the beginning. We dont want the lottery system or the visa lottery system. So those three things are paramount. These are measures which will make our communities safer and more birth. These reforms are some and by the overwhelming majority of americans, from every standpoint, from every poll. They are being requested by Law Enforcement officers as well. I had the big meeting with i. C. E. Last week. I had a big meeting with the Border Patrol agents last week. Nobody knows it better than them. As an example, on the wall, they said sir, we desperately need the wall. We dont need a 2,000 mile wall. We dont need a wall where you have rivers and mountains protected, but we do need a wall for a fairly good portion. We also, as you know, it was passed in 2006 a similar thing, a fence, very substantial fence was passed but unfortunately, i dont know, they never got it done but they need it. So im appealing to everyone in the room to put the country before party, and to sit down and negotiate and compromise, lets see if we can get something done. I really think that we have a chance to do it. I think its very important. Youre talking about 800,000 people and youre talking about lots of other people are also affected, including people that live in our country, that is from the security standpoint. So maybe the press can stay for a little while and a couple of folks can make statements and i dont mind the statements. We want to have this as a very open forum. I will say, though, that i really do believe democrat and republican, the people sitting around this table want to get something done in good faith and i think were on our way to do it. This was an idea we had last week. I was sitting with some of our great republican senators and we all agreed on everything. It was a great meeting, david, right . We had a great meeting. Tom, it was perfect. And i said yeah, but wed like to get some democrat support, what do they say . Lets have the same meeting but lets add the democrats and thats what weve done and i think were going to come up with an answer. I hope we are going to come up with an answer for daca, and then went to go later on, will work on that further down the road. Nick, perhaps youd like to say a few words. Thanks, mr. President for inviting us. On september the 5th you challenged us. You challenged congress. You said were going to end daca, not replace it. As of today weve not done that. We face a deadline of march 5 which you created which your elimination of daca and we know that in the meantime there have been efforts underway. Senator graham and i sat down with a Bipartisan Group of senators. We have worked long and hard, many hours have been put in to into it, and we feel that we can put together a combination of the future of daca as well as Border Security, that there are elements youll find that democrats support when it comes to Border Security. We want a safe border in america,. We want a safe border in america, period. Both when it comes to the issues of illegal migration put also when it comes to drugs and all these other areas. Now i will say that there is a sense of urgency thats felt by many of us when it comes to this issue. There are many of these young people who are losing the protection of daca on a daily basis as a march 5, 1,000 a day as of march 5, 1000 of them are day will lose protection. 900 of them are members of the u. S. Military, 20,000 of them are school teachers. In my state of illinois and city of chicago there are 25 of them , in medical school who cant apply for a residency if they lose their daca status. So lives are hanging in the balance of our getting the job done. Weve got the time to do it in a matter of days, literally of days. We can come together and reach an agreement. When that happens, i think good things will happen in other places and well see some progress here in washington. President trump i agree with that. I very much agree with that. Tom cotton, would you like to say anything . Thank you for inviting us all here and im glad to be here. With democrats and house members as well. I think on this issue theres a lack of trust and has been for many years, lack of trust between republicans and democrats, lack of trust among republicans. Most fundamentally a lack of , trust between the american leaders,d our elected on a not delivering a solution for many, many years about some , of these problems. I hope that this meeting can be the beginning of building trusts between our parties, between chambers because i know for a fact all the republicans around the table are committed to finding a solution and i believe all the democrats are as well. So i think it is a good first step in building the trust we need for a good bill, mr. President. That will be the objective, as you stated providing daca , protection and securing our border. Thank you for the invitation. President trump thank you. Mr. President thank you very , much for having us down here. I agree with tom cotton that the American Public is very frustrated with us. President tr. One of the reasons theyre frustrated with us because we continue to couple things on which we have large agreement with things which we do not a great. With things on which we do not agree. This is a perfect example of that. 86 of the American People in the most recent poll are for one of the reasons theyre frustrated with us because we ensuring, as you have said, not providing for daca protected kids to go to a place that they dont know, they didnt grow up in and its not their home. Theyre americans. They dont have a piece of paper that says that they are americans, but they are americans. And it aims to me, mr. President , but if were going to move ahead in a constructive way that we take that on which we agree passively. The American Public will be pleased with all of us if we do that. Just as in september you recall we did the extension of a cr, no , drama. We were all for it. You for an leaders, matt and we came to an agreement and we passed that cr. In my view we can pass, we can pass the protection in the, what i understand your position is, procedurally it was not done correctly. You then, as derek has said, challenged us, to pass it correctly. If it is put on the floor, mr. President , i believe it will have the overwhelming majority in both the house and the senate. Sen. Graham thinks it will have a substantial majority in the United Senate as well. That i think is the first step, tom, to creating some degree of confidence. Democrats are for security at the borders. I want to state that emphatically. There is not a democrat that is not for having secure borders. There are obviously differences however, mr. President , on how you affect about you just. Indicated that yourself and you indicated this would be a first step and then we continue to talk as were talking today about how we best secure the , border. There are differences of opinion and within your party and within our party. So i would urge that we move forward on protecting the daca protected individuals, young people, young adults as you pointed out in one of your statements, who are productive parts of our community. That we protect them and get that done. And then, because i think everybody around the table, as you pointed out is for security, and then the issue is going to be out do we best affect that Border Security. So i would urge us to move as senator durbin has urged us to move on the daca students. As a matter of fact, the speaker i think today but maybe yesterday, said we need to solve , the daca issue and we need to solve it in a way that is permanent, not temporary and i agree with him on that issue. Interestingly, when you say that, president obama when he signed the executive order actually said, he does not have the right to do this so you do have to go through congress and you do have to make it permanent. Whether he does it or doesnt, lets assume he does it, you said that was a temporary stop gap. We dont want that. We want to have a permanent solution to that and i think everybody in this room feels that way, very strongly. What happened to mr. President , i think, is that the Senate Passed a comprehensive immigration bill and did not consider the house. So we did not reach those issues. Very frankly on Border Security, mr. Mccaul the chairman of the committee reported out a unanimous Security Solution which we been included in the bill, that we filed on comprehensive Immigration Reform, so i think we can reach an agreement. President trump i also think that after we do daca and i believe we should be able to be successful, i think we should look in terms of your permanent solution and to the whole situation with immigration. I think a lot of people in this room would agree to that also. Well do it in steps and most people agree with that, i think. Even you said, lets do this and then we go phase two. Kevin, what would you like to say . Show less text Kevin Mccarthy thank you for bringing us together. You have the house, the senate, both parties. I like the exchange of ideas and i think everybody has a point here. The one thing i dont want to have happen here is what i saw in the past. There were 4 bills passed on Border Security years ago that never got finished. Immigration bills passed that we are right back at the table with the same problem. Lets make a commitment to each one and most importantly to the American People that when we get done and come to an agreement that were not back at this , problem, three, four years from now. That is why yes, we have to do daca, i agree with you 100 but , if we do not do something with the security, if we do not do something with the chain migration, we are fooling each other that we solved a problem. You know how difficult this issue is. So lets collectively, were here at the table together, ill be the first one to tell you, were all going to have to give a little and ill be the first one willing to. But let us solve the problem, let us not tell the American Public at the end that it is all, when it is not. President trump i think a good starting point would be, bob goodlatte, food has done the bill, and i understand, you are ready to submit it. Youre going to take that and youll submit and theyll negotiate and congress and the house and it goes to the senate, theyll negotiate, both republican and democrat but it could be a good way of starting, if anyone has an idea different from that but i think turning in the house, might be good. You are ready i think you are ready to go. I would like to add the words merit in to any bill thats submitted because i think we should have merit based immigration like they have in canada, like they have in australia, so that we have people coming in that have a great track record, as opposed now, to beare doing honest with you. I think merittaste should be absolutely added to any tell him if it has to do with that bank. I think it would be popular. I think the American Public very much wants that. Bob, where are you with the bill . I think tomorrow chairman , mccaul and congresswoman sally and were the chairman of the 2 committees, and the chairman of the two subcommittees are , going to introduce a bill that addresses the daca concerns. Addresses the daca concerns. Let me thank you mr. President , and i was an immigration lawyer before i was elected to congress i want to thank you both for campaigning on securing our borders and the interior of our country but also on , addressing daca in a way that makes sense. Dont do it ad hoc. Do it through the congressional process. So youve challenged us and we should step up to that challenge and were going to do it in a bipartisan fashion but we have to put our best foot forward and were going to do that with this legislation. Its going to address daca in a permanent way, not a temporary shortterm thing. Were going to address the border enforcement pane security enforcement and security, and of the wall. Enforcement and security, and of the wall. We are going to address Mitch Mcconnells bill, we are going to address into your enforcement , but not everything the administration had on its list. Were going to address a chain migration. Were going to end the visa lottery program. Were going to address sanctuary cities and kates law. We think it is a good bill that will both address the two things our speaker told us right after you made your decision, which is we have to address the problem , we have with the daca kids being in limbo as dick durbin described it. I agree with that. But we also have to make sure that this does not happen again. President trump and to hear, the democrats have said a lot of things you have got to talk to us about it. I just felt that this is something long overdue. You have a meeting and say this is what we want and wed have a meeting this has been going on for years. And i thought at this maybe ill point, just lock the doors and wont let anybody out until they come and agree. Michael, do you have something to say about the bill . Ive been in congress for 7 terms. I have been trying to get this border secured for seven terms in congress to my and i think this is a bipartisan issue. Daca is a bipartisan issue. We have an opportunity before us to get this done for the American People. When it comes to chain migration and the lottery system, we saw two recent terror attacks in new york that were the result of this i think failed immigration policy. We like to see that fixed for the American People along with as bob talked about sanctuary , cities. You and i talked about this extensively so we think that our bill, our house bill, will be a good starting ground for this negotiation. And i too would like to commend you for bringing everybody together. What we dont want to see happen is for the conditions for daca to occur again. We want to get security done so we dont have to deal with this problem five more years down the road. So thank you, sir. President trump there are so many points of agreement and a lot of it is common sense, and i really think will come out bury well. David, do you have something to say . My observation is three times in the last 11 years well intentioned people, some of them in this room attempted to , do what were starting to try to do today and we failed and i think the difference is they are and their mission ended up in an effort that became too comprehensive. My encouragement for all of us is to do what dick is trying to do and limit the scope of this and i like the idea that both sides have pressure to solve the but i think the bigger issue here is not just that daca issue but what can we , do to start the path to the steps that solve this problem, for several issues. There are social issues, political issues, Economic Issues about our workforce that have to be addressed. But limiting this to the Legal Immigration side and combining the balance between various solutions on daca, d. R. E. A. M. Ers if it gets in the conversation as well as Border Security and , chain migration. I think therein lies the balance of a good deal that can be done and i agree with dick. I dont think its going to take long to get it done if we lock ourselves in a room and make it happen. President trump i think you are right. Would anybody have any rings to say prior to the press leaving . Mr. President , i just have one comment. Senator cotton mentioned that lies are hanging in the balance. As we come up on the march deadline. Those hanging in the balance are our military. They need the equipment and the funding to do whatever they need to do to keep us safe, and we should not be playing politics on this issue to stop our military from getting the funding that they need. I think we have the right people in the room to solve this issue. The deadline is march 5. Lets roll up our sleeves and Work Together on this. Those who need us right now before the january 19 deadline is our military and lets not play politics with that. Lets give them what they need to keep us safe. President trump thank you, i think a lot of people would agree with that. We need our military. We had wars, right, lindsey. We need our military desperately. Our militarys been very depleted. Were rebuilding and building it up quickly and negotiating much better deals with your pervayers and with your manufacturers and with your equipment makers much , better than it was before. I look at boats that started off at 1. 5 billion and theyre up to 18 billion and theyre still not finished, in this case a particular aircraft carrier. I think its outrageous. So we are very much agreeing with you. I would like to follow up on that, no democrat does not want to make sure that the military is funded properly. Four years, we had an agreement between mr. Ryan and senator murray speaker ryan, that we would understand that our militarys critically important, but we also understand that our domestic issues whether its education, whether its health care, whether its the environment, whether its transportation and infrastructure, theyre important as well. Both the defense and nondefense sides of the budget are hurt when you have a cr because they cannot plan and they cannot let contracts that they dont have any money to do so. So very frankly, i think ms. Mc sally is correct. But what we ought to have done over the last six months particularly when we did the , september and we gave 90 days is to reach some agreement on , what the caps are going to be, the murray ryan agreements were eight parity, we believe that is very important. So we can get to where we should get and want to get there, but we ought to have an agreement based upon what the last elco senator, we do have to take politics out of the military, we need to that military. With all the other things we talk about, we wont be here if we dont have the right military. We need our military and we need it stronger than ever before and were ready to do it but we have to take politics out of the military. One thing that i think we can really get along with on a bipartisan basis, maybe i am stronger on this than a lot of the people on the republican side that i will tell you, we have a great support from the republicans is infrastructure. I think we can do a great infrastructure bill. I think well have a lot of support from both sides and id like to get it done as quickly as possible. Yes, john. Mr. President i too want to , thank you for getting us together. You will made the point last week when republicans were meeting with you why are we continuing to have of these meetings just among ourselves when what we need to do to get to a solution is to meet as we are today as youve insisted on a bipartisan basis. But part of my job is to count votes in the senate. Thisu know, you hosted Leadership Meeting at camp david this weekend, and i believe that and majorityker leader mcconnell made it Crystal Clear that they would not proceed, with a bill, on the floor of the senate or the house, unless it had your support. The picture that we need to be looking through the lens at. Only what can we agree to among ourselves, on a bipartisan basis, but what will you sign into law . We want to get to a solution here, and we realize that the clock is ticking. One of the reasons i am here, check must know the, is that. Normally you do not have a president coming to this meeting, normally would have democrats and republicans, and nothing would get done. I hear so march about earmarks, the old earmarks system, how there was a great friendliness, when you had earmarks. But of course, they had other problems with earmarks. But maybe all of you should start thinking about going back to a form of earmarks [laughter] because this [laughter] because this system this system, no. Well, you should do it and im there with you, because this system really lends itself to not getting along. That was an earmark system and maybe we should think about it and we have to put better controls because it got a little bit out of hand. Our system right now the way its set up will never bring people together. I think well get this done, daca. I hope were going to get infrastructure done in the same way, but i think you should look at a form of earmarks. I see lindsey nodding very happily yes but a lot of the pros are saying if you want to get along and if you want to get this country really rolling again, you have to look at a different form because this is obviously out of control. The levels of hatred, im not talking about trump. You go pack throughout the 8 if you go back throughout the eight years of obama and before that, the animosity and the hatred between republicans and democrats. I remember when i used to go out in washington and id see democrats having dinner with republicans and they were best friends and everybody got along. You dont see that too much any more, with all due respect. You really dont see that. Whens the last time you took a republican out to dinner . [laughter] ] you dont see it, so maybe, totally different from this meeting because well get daca done, i hope well get daca done and well all try very hard, but maybe you should start bringing back a concept of earmarks. Its going to bring you together. Youre going to do it honestly. Youll get rid of the problems that the other system had and it did have some problems. One thing it did is it brought everyone together and this country has to be brought together. Ok. Thank you. Yes, lindsey. 6 40, i am well, at going to go to Menendez Office and hes taking me to dinner at 7 00, and he is buying. He didnt know that. Hes buying. Youre all welcome to come. [laughter] bobs buying. We can get bipartisan agreement when the other guy buys. I think its a very important thing because our system is designed right now that everybody should hate each other , and we cannot have that. You know we have a great , country. We have a country thats doing very well in many respects. We just hitting a new high on the stock market again. And that means jobs. I look at the jobs, i look up us stocks, the 401 k s, i look at what is happening. When police come up to me and they say thank you youre making , me look like a financial genius, literally, meaning about them and their wives never thought that was possible. Right . The country, the country is doing well in so many ways but theres such divisiveness, such division and i really believe we can solve that. Right . The country, the country is i think this system is a very bad system in terms of getting together and im going to leave it up to you but i really believe you can do something to bring it together. Ive been doing this for ten years. I dont think ive seen a better chance to get it done than i do right now, because of you. Johns right. Im not going to support a bill if you dont support it. Ive had my head vetoed out a i amat out a bunch, and still standing. I am lindsey graham, you name every name you want to give to me thats been assigned to me. Im still standing. The people of South Carolina want a result. How could i get elected . Ive been for a pathway to citizenship for 11 Million People because i have no animosity toward them. I do not want crooks, i dont want any bad hombres. I want a meritbased immigration system to make sure we can succeed in the 21st century. Im willing to be more than fair to the 11 million. I dont want to do this every 11 years. I think thats a smart decision but a hard decision. We passed three comprehensive bills out of the senate with over 65 votes. They go to the house and die and im not being disparaging, this is tough politics. If youre a Republican House member, turning on the radio. To my democratic friends, thanks for coming, the resist movement hates this guy. They dont want him to be successful at all. You turn on fox news and i can hear the drumbeat coming. Right wing radio and tv talk show hosts are going to beat. Beat the crab out of us, because it is going to be amnesty all over again. I dont know if the republican and Democratic Party can define love. But i think what we can do, is do what the American People want us to do. 62 of trump voters support a pathway to citizenship for the aixa kids if you have strong borders. Created an opportunity here, mr. President , and you need to close the deal. President trump thank you, lindsey. Its very interesting because i do have people that are lets just, to use a very common term very far right and very far , left. Theyre very unhappy about what but i really dont believe they have to be, because i think this sells it off. When you talk about i think this sells its self. When you talk about comprehensive Immigration Reform, which is where i would like to get to eventually, if we do the right bill here we are not very far away. Weve done most of it. If you want to know the truth, dix if we do this properly, daca, youre not so far away from comprehensive Immigration Reform and if you want to take it that further step, ill take the heat. I dont care. I dont care. Ill take all the heat you will want to give me. Ill take both the heat off democrats and republicans. My whole life has been heat. I like heat in a certain way, but i will. You are somewhat more traditional politicians than me. Two and a half years ago i was never thinking in terms of politics. I am a politician, reform and if you wanted to go that final step, i think you should do it. If you want to study earmarks tu people have been doing it, many of you, all your lives. Ill take all the heat you want. But youre not that far away from comprehensive immigration get together and do something, i bring us all together so we all think you should study it. Chuck, did you have something to say . i would like to talk about the reality of the whole situation and take off from what cornyn and graham have said of the necessity of you working with us and youre doing that by having this meeting and other meetings as well, but weve always talked in the United States senate about the necessity of getting 60 votes and thats pretty darn tough but if we would write a bill that you dont like, and eu veto it were talking about a 67 vote , threshold twothirds in the , United States senate. So thats the reality of negotiating in good faith and getting something you can sign. The second reality is the march 5 date thats coming up, because if we dont do some good faith negotiation and make progress and get a bill on the floor of the United States senate, our leader is going to have to bring up either the house bill, or the bill that the malaise have introduced in the United States senate and well have a vote on , it and those people that dont want to vote to legalize daca kids are going to have to explain why that they havent wanted to protect the Vulnerable People that were all here talking about. Were talking about everything except doing something for the daca kids. I would vote for a path to citizenship, which isnt very easy for me but i would do it just as an effort. Theres certain things that weve got to guarantee that were going to do. President trump chuck, thats got to be brought up. I believe that will be brought up. Its incentive for people to do a good job. That whole path is an incentive for people and theyre not all kids they are not all kids you have 39, 40yearsold in , some cases. But it would be an incentive for people to work hard and do a good job, though that could very well be brought up. We are talking about legalizing people here that didnt break the law because their parents who broke the law brought them here and we ought , to be talking about what we can do for the people that had nofault of their own and get the job done and not worry about a lot of other things that were involved in, and that means that we have to make sure that we tell the American People, when we are taking this step, that we are something that all of the people of great too, you know. President trump mr. President , let me just say, i think dickon i agree i and i agree. With what Chuck Grassley just said. President trump thats hard to believe. When was the last time that happened . We need to take care of these daca kids and we all agree on that. 86 of the American Public agrees on that. With all due respect, bob and mike and lindsey, there are some things that youre proposing that are going to be very controversial and will be an impediment to agreement. President trump but youre going to negotiate those things . Youre going to sit down and say we cant agree here well give you half of that. Youre going to negotiate. Mr. President comprehensive , means comprehensive. President trump now we are talking about, we are talking but comprehensive. Tosident trump if you want go there, it is ok. Mr. President many of the , things that are mentioned ought to be a part of the negotiations. Take it a step further, you may. President trump ill have to rely on you. You may complicate it and you may delay daca somewhat. President trump i do not want to do that. You said at the outset we need to phase this. The first phase is with chuck and others. We have a deadline looming and a lot of lives hanging. We can agree on some very fundamental and important things together on Border Security on chain, on the future of diversity visas. Comprehensive, though, i worked on it for six months with Michael Bennett and a number of, bob menendez, we do not have six months to put it together. But how long it took the last time. You mentioned a number of factors that are going to be all, rsy President Trump but youre going to negotiate. Maybe well agree and maybe we wont. Its possible we wont agree with you. There should be no reason for us not to get this done. Chuck, i will say when this group comes back hopefully with an agreement, this group and others from the senate, from the house comes back with an agreement. Im signing it. I will be signing it. Im not going to say, oh, gee, i want this or that. Ill be signing it. Because i have a lot of confidence in the people in this room, that you are going to come up with something really good. Senator, would you like to Say Something . I would. As you know, we tried for comprehensive Immigration Reform in the senate. It was on the floor. There were a number of amendments. It got a lot of attention in the Judiciary Committee and then the house didnt take it up. I think there needs to be a willingness on both sides and i think, i dont know how you would feel about this, but id like to ask the question, what about a clean daca bill now with a commitment that we go in to a comprehensive Immigration Reform procedure like we did back when kennedy was here . Major, major a effort, and it was a great disappointment that went nowhere. Nowhere. I remember that. President trump i have no problem. I think thats basically what dick is saying. Well come up with daca and then we can start immediately on the phase two which would be comprehensive. Would you be agreeable to that . President trump yeah, i would. Go ahead. I think a lot of people would like to see that. President trump but i think we have to do daca first. Mr. President you need to be , clear, though. I think what senator feinsteins is asking here, when we talk about just daca, we dont want to be back here two years later. I think that is what youre saying. He is saying something different. President trump what do you think i am saying . I think youre saying daca without security. President trump are you talking about security as well . Well, i think if we have some meaningful comprehensive Immigration Reform, thats really where the security goes. ,f we can get the daca bill because marge is coming, and people are losing their status every day let us all be honest. Security was voted on just a few years ago and no disrespect, theres people in the room on the other side of the aisle who voted for it, if i recall. Senator clinton voted for it. So i dont think that comprehensive. I think thats dealing with daca voted for it, if i recall. At the same time. I think thats really what the president s is making. Its kind of like 3 pillars. Daca, because we all want to do it, Border Security, so that we are not all that here, and chain migration. It is just three items, and Everything Else is comprehensive, so that it does not get moved to the side. President trump and lottery. Add merit, if you can. Add meritbased. I dont know whos going to argue with merit based. Who can argue with merit based. Diane, go ahead . Do you really think that there can be agreement on all of that quickly to get daca passed in time . To ask mr. Mccarthy a question, do you really think there can be agreement on those three difficult subjects that you raised, in time to get daca past and to ask mr. Mccarthy a question, do you really think there can be agreement on effec leaderhave heard from mcconnell, and speaker ryan, who said they will put the bill on the floor if the president agrees to it. As getting to the room, i havent seen us be this close and having this discussion in quite a few years, so i think, yes, we can make this happen. We all know it. Weve done it before. You and i spent a long time, we did one of the most difficult things in California Water and i believe we can get there and we we did one of the most difficult things to do in california, water, and i believe you can get there. We can keep working each day on this. President trump i think what were all saying is well do daca and we can start comprehensive Immigration Reform the following afternoon, ok. Well take an hour off and then well start. But i do believe that. Because once we get daca done if its done properly with security and Everything Else, if its done properly, we have taken a big chunk of comprehensive out of the negotiation and i dont think its going to be that complicated. We need to be very clear, though. In my opinion well be right , back here either five years or 30 years, whatever. The chain migration is so insidious, it is the fundamental flaw in the immigration policy in the United States. If any conversation about duck thats being held without consideration, i believe in Border Security as well, but if any conversation about that is going to be held, it is not going to go anywhere in the United States senate. If we think well divide one side versus the other thats not going to happen on this issue. President trump chain migration has taken a very big hit over the last six months. People, for instance, the man on the west side highway that killed the people and so badly wounded. It is so incredible, when they talk about wounded. They dont say that arms are off and legs are off. One person lost two legs. Nobody talks about that. Eight died, but they dont talk about the 12 people that have no legs, no arms, all of those things i am talking about everybody. I really believe that when you talk about the subject that were all mentioning right now, i think they had, how many came in . 22 to 24 people came in through him, he was a killer. Hes a guy who ran over many people. Eight died. Ten to 12 are really badly ill or injured. Oh i really think that a lot of people are going to agree with us now on that subject. I do not need is a big 70 of americans want the immigration policy to be the family, the Nuclear Family and the workers, 70 . Chain migration has taken a very big hit in the last year is whats happening. If you look at these killers, whether you like or not were , looking at these killers and then you see 18 people came in, 22 people came in, 30 people came in with this one person that just killed a lot of people. I really dont believe there are a lot of democrats that are going to be supporting chain migration any more. Mr. President should we have , the Homeland Security secretary i just want to try to make sure we are all linking. The reason Border Security is so important to have as part of is that it does not solve the problem, if we can apprehend people, but we cannot remove them. So we need the law system which , is some physical infrastructure as the president described, personal technology technology, wed have to close those legal loopholes. The effect of that is this incredible pull up from Central America that just continues to exacerbate the problem. Border security has to be part of this, or we will be here again in three, 4, 5 years again, or unfortunately commerce in her. The other point i would just make is the president asked dhs, he asked the men and women of dhs, what do you need to do your job . Congress and the American People have entrusted to you the security of our country. What is it that you need . The list we have provided is what we need to do our mission that you asked us to do. Its not less than or more than. It is what we need to close those loopholes to protect our country. So i would just encourage everyone, much more eloquently than i can describe, all the reasons we are committed to helping the daca population but to truly solve the problem, it has to be in conjunction with Border Security. President trump jeff . I would just echo what had been said by some here. For those of us who have been through comprehension reform. That was seven months, every night negotiating with staff on weekends, and a lot of people we are talking about a lot of things we talked about, on Border Security and some of the interior things have tradeoffs. And we made those during that process. I dont see how we get there before march 5. President trump that is why were making a phase two. We do a phase one which is daca and security and we do phase two which is comprehensive immigration and i think we should go right to it. I really do. We do one and we then do the other, but we go right to it. Yes . I think its important to thank you for your flexibility , and your leadership. So i think what were nationally all have to do is have the same willingness, and a little bit of flexibility to get this issue done and obviously i will want to do a lot more than daca but the urgent thing now for obvious reasons are these young men and women who we have to deal with first and foremost. And to his there are two issues point, which we keep hearing , that isyone agrees to dealing with these individuals on a permanent real solution, and Border Security. It so i dont see why we shouldnt be able to do that and im hoping that would then lead us to centersenator cottons point, lack of trust. If we can get Border Security and deal with these individuals, if we can get that done, then i think, my gosh, it all opens up to do a lot more things in the future for the American People. Mr. President . I just want to reemphasize what secretary nielson said. It is so important to understand when you talk about border , security, if you apprehend somebody at the border but then you cannot send them back outside the United States even though theyre unlawfully present in the United States you have not solved this problem. Because theyre then released into the interior of the country and the problem persists and that sends a message back to wherever they come from. President trump i agree. And you know what well . Well negotiate that out. I agree. Henry . Thank you, mr. President. I agree with my good friend mario in the sense that if we , focus on daca and Border Security, i think we can address this. Issues of chain migration and the other issues should be looked at. In the second phase, but i say this again with all due respect to both democrats and republicans, being from the border i always get a kick out , of people that go down spend a few hours there, they think they noelknow the border better than some of us that have lived there all of our lives. Let me explain this. For example, if you look at the if you are worried about drugs, look at the latest dea report more drugs come through the ports of entry than in between ports but were not even talking about ports of entry, number one. Our bill does. Im just saying, im just saying, ports. Lets finish this and some of us have been working this longer than some of the folks. Number one, if you look at the 11 or 12 million undocumented aliens, 40 of them came through visa overstays. So you can put the most beautiful wall out there its not going to stop them there. They will either come by plane, boat or vehicle itself. That is in our bill as well. And i know. The other thing that we have to you talk to your Border Patrol chief, or the former Border Patrol chief, i have asked them how much time does the wall buy you . They say a couple minutes or a few seconds. This is our own Border Patrol chiefs that have said that. Not mine. [crosstalk] trump without the wall, you couldnt have Border Security. All you have to do is ask israel. Look what happened with them. All right, homeland appropriations, your chief was there and the former chiefs have all said that. Now the other thing is, they did not do a good job if you look at mr. President if you look at where , the walls are at right now, this is where the activity is, where the walls are at right now. President trump we have massive miles of area where people are pouring through. Now, one of the good things because of our rhetoric or because of the perceived, my perceived attitude, fewer people are trying to come through. Thats a great thing. And therefore, i mean, our numbers have been fantastic, maybe for all the right reasons. Let me finish my thought. I want to ask you that were playing, you saw the game last night. A good game last night. President trump very good game. Were playing defense on the 1 yard line. It is called the u. S. Border. We spend over 18 billion a year on the border. If we think about playing defense on the 20 yard line, if you look at what mexico has done, they stopped thousands of people on the southern border with guatemala. We ought to be looking at that. President trump we stopped them. We stopped them. You know why . Mexico told me, the president told me, everybody tells me, not as many people are coming through their southern border because they dont think they can get through our southern border, therefore, they dont come. Thats what happened with mexico. We did mexico a tremendous favor. We put in appropriations. We always give everybody, every other nation gets money but ours. President trump we are always looking for money. It would give our money to other nations. Mr. President , if they are playing defense instead of playing defense on the 1 yard line, if you look, this is your material. We know where the stash houses are at. We know where the hotels are at. We know where they are across the river. Why stop, why play defense on the 1 yard line . All i am saying is if we focus , on daca, we can work on the other things separately. On sensible Border Security, listen to the folks that are from the border. President trump you folks are going to have to come up with a solution. And if you do im going to sign , that solution. We have a lot of smart people in this room. Really smart people. We have a lot of people who are good people, big hearts, they want to get it done. I think almost everybody, i can think of one or two i dont particularly like, but thats ok. [laughter] President Trump no, i think everybody. Everybody wants this to happen. Im trying to figure that out. But everybody wants a solution. You want it, henry, and i want it. I think we have a great group of people to sit down and get this done. In fact, when the media leaves, which i think should be probably pretty soon [laughter] but i will tell you i liked , opening it up to the media, because i think they see more than anything else, were all similar age, not the same page, and henry, i think we can really get them been done. Why dont we ask the media to leave . We appreciate you being here. Reporter is there any agreement without the wall . Trump no, that would not do it. We need it. We need the wall. And i will tell you this. The i. C. E. Officers and Border Patrol agents, i had them just recently up. They say if you dont have the wall, in certain areas, obviously, that arent protected by nature if you dont have the wall, you cant have security. Just cant have it. It doesnt work. Part of the problem we have is walls and fences we currently have are in very bad shape. Theyre broken. We have to get them fixed or rebuilt. But, you know, you speak to the agents, and is up to all of them. I lived with them. They endorsed me for president , which they have never done before. The Border Patrol agents and i. C. E. , they both endorsed trump. They never did that before. And i have a great relationship with them. They say, sir, without the wall, security doesnt work. Were all wasting time. Now that doesnt mean 2,000 miles of wall because you just , dont need that because of nature, because of mountains and rivers and lots of other things. But we need a certain portion of that border to have the wall. If we dont have it, you can never have security. You can never stop that portion of drugs that comes through that area. Yes, it comes through planes and lots of other ways and ships. But a lot of it comes through the southern border. You can never fix the situation without an additional wall. We have to the existing wall that we are ready have. Reporter you would not support what senator feinstein asked you, which would be a clean daca bill . President trump a clean daca bill to me is a daca bill where we take care of the 800,000 people. There are actually not necessarily young people, everybody talks about them being young they could be , 40yearsold, 41yearsold, but theyre also 16yearsold. But i think to me, a clean bill is a bill of daca, we take care of them and also take care of security. Thats very important. I think the democrats want security, too. I mean, we started off with steny saying we want security also. Everybody wants security. And then we can go to comprehensive later on. And maybe that is a longer subject and a bigger subject, and i think we can get that mazie hirono mr. President all the immigrants , serving in the United States senate right now, i would like Nothing Better for us to get to comprehensive Immigration Reform. What im hearing around the table right now is a commitment to resolving the daca situation, because there is a sense of urgency. Now, you have put it out there that you want 18 billion for a wall or else there will be no daca. Is that still your position . President trump yes, in fact i would build it for less. Somebody said 42 billion. This is like the aircraft carrier. Started off at 1. 5 billion and now at 18 billion. No, we can do it for less. We can do a great job, a great wall, but you need the wall. And im now getting involved. I like to build under budget, ok. I like to build under budget, ahead of schedule. Theres no reason for 7 years also. I heard the other day, please, dont do that to me. [laughter] President Trump seven years to build a wall we can build a wall in one year. And we can build it for much less money than what theyre talking about. And any excess funds, and well have a lot, whether its, its still under budget and i built ahead of schedule. Theres no reason to ever mention seven years again, please. I heard that, i said i wanted to come out with a major news conference, tom, yesterday. No, it can go up quickly. It can go up effectively, and we can fix a lot of the areas right now that are really satisfactory, if we renovate those walls and those fences. Whether it is 70 million, or whatever it is, President Trump there are large areas where you dont need a wall because you have a mountain and a river. You have a violent river, and you dont need it. Ok. Reporter it seems to me not much has actually changed in terms of your position at this particular point. I think my positions are going to be what the people in this room come up with. Reliant on the people in this room. I know most of the people on both sides, have a lot of respect for the people on both sides, and what i approve is going to be very much rely ntd on what the people in this room come to me with. I have great confidence in the people. If they come to me with things that i am not in love with, im going to do it, because i respect them thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. You know, i did one of her last shows. She had donald trump, before politics, his last week. The last week. She had donald trump and my family. I like oprah. I dont think shes going to run. I dont think shes going to run. I know her very well. President trump i think comprehensive will be phase two. I think, i really agree with dick. I think we get the one thing done and then we go into comprehensive the following day. Mr. President. President trump i think it will happen. Thank you all, very much. I hope we gave you enough material. This should cover you for about two weeks. [inaudible conversations] following the white house immigrant meeting with President Trump, lawmakers spoke with reporters on the daca og
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