Transcripts For MSNBCW Meet The Press 20140707

political landscape this year. >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with david gregory. good sunday morning on a holiday weekend, a lot going on. this humanitarian crisis on children crossing the border is a staggering problem and so are the numbers. check this out, more than 50,000 children have been caught since october 2013. that is more than double the year before just to give you some sense of how desperate the situation is. our miguel almaguer joins me from murrieta, california, a town that's been a flash point in this story so far. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. this is the holding facility in murrieta. it is a flash point, a symbol that galvanized two opposite sides. these are the faces of the desperate and scared, just some of the now thousands of unaccompanied minors packed into 100 temporary shelters dotted across the country. >> go back home! >> a group of them greeted with anger, some called hate as protesters turned away busloads of california families after they were illegally caught crossing the border. a journey, this author says is perilous. >> the children are coming, they don't have any money, they come any way they can, gripping the sides and tops of the freight trains through mexico. there are bandits alongside the rails who will rob you and rape you and sometimes kill you. >> she would know. she's made the journey spending three months riding on and off riding freight trains up the length of mexico researching for her book "enrique's journey." >> i think americans have no idea what these children are fleeing, the level of violence. they have to leave. they have been threatened many times by narcos, they have to leave or they will get killed. >> reporter: for women, young mothers like esperanza, the trip is just as dangerous. thank god nothing happened to me. with her 6-year-old son she traveled by foot from el salvador before she reached the texas border. i thank god immigration caught me and we're okay. i wanted a better life for myself and my son. for so many here now, the question is what does the future hold for these families. the mayor of murrieta, the town with protesters greeted those buses. >> how come now, how come so many. i think what's happening is down in a less desirable area of the world, you have a lot of crime, poverty, and people are trying to flee to the greatest nation in the world. can't blame them for that. >> in a letter he sent to the president, long blames washington for what's happening in murrieta. >> people are at a boiling point. they are tired of inefficiency at the federal level. >> reporter: on this fourth of july weekend, the nation that asked the world to give us their tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free finds itself in a crisis where the problem is growing but the answers are not. this morning there are no children at this facility, but the mayor says that will change. they expect waves of children to arrive here in the coming days. when that happens, protesters say they will be back. david. >> miguel almaguer for us this morning. thank you so much. here now is the secretary of homeland security jeh johnson. mr. secretary, welcome to "meet the press." >> good morning, david. >> you heard the mayor of murrieta, why now, why so many. is part of the answer the administration through some of its executive actions have said, in effect, if you come, we're going to let you in? >> first of all, david, the reason we're seeing this influx has to do primarily with the conditions in the three central american countries they are leaving from, the push factor. >> it's doubled, though. how many could it be, 90,000 this year? >> honduras is in a really bad place right now. el salvador, guatemala, the push factor is what is driving this recent influx. in addition, we know that the smuggling organizations, the criminal smuggling organizations are putting out a lot of disinformation about supposed free passes into this country. they are going to expire at the end of may, at the end of june. just give us your money and we'll get you into the country by the end of the month. it's like a used car salesman saying it will expire at the end of the week. >> that's not all the information. it will expire that allows some of the children to stay. >> that's what we keep stressing. the deferred action program is for kids who came to this country seven years ago. it's not for anyone who comes to this country today, tomorrow, yesterday. the legislation that the senate passed, which provides for an earned path to citizenship provides for those in the country in 2011, not for those coming here -- >> how many -- the numbers again. a year ago it's 26,000. it's doubled that. could it get up to 90,000 this year? >> i believe we're going to stem this tide. >> my question is how bad could it get? how many more are we going to see? people want to know the challenge you face. >> i believe we'll stem this tide. >> you don't believe the numbers will go up is what you're saying. >> the numbers are definitely. >> certainly go up from where we are. they have already doubled this year and we're sitting here in the summertime. >> they have gone up. i believe we'll stem this tide. with regard to the adult population, we're coming here without their kids. we have dramatically reduced turnaround time from 43 days to four days. with regard to adults who are bringing their children, bringing on additional detention capacity, we're turning that population of people around quicker. and with regard to the children, very definitely there are special considerations with the children. we keep reminding people of the dangers that your lead-in points out, to climbing on board top of a freight train. i've spoken directly to kids on the border who told me they have held on for days and hours to the top of the freight train literally holding on for dear life because they risk falling off and dying. we keep reminding parents of the dangers of sending your children unaccompanied on this journey, this long 1,000 mile journey and that there are no free passes once you get here. daca is not available for these children. >> deferred action plan. not available for these children. >> it's for the children who came here seven years ago. >> say you're not stemming the tide fast enough. the bottom line is, what happens now? are you prepared to deport these children, young mothers we're seeing in miguel's speech? are you prepared to deport them? >> our message to those who come here illegally, our border is not open to illegal migration, and we are taking a number of steps to address is, including turning people around faster. we've already dramatically reduced turnaround time, deportation time for the adults. we're asking this week for a supplemental from congress to build on -- bring on additional capacity and we're cracking down on the smuggling organizations. >> even for the children, we're talking about 50,000 so far this year. do they need to be deported, or i've seen some reporting suggesting more than half of them could end up staying with families in america. >> the law requires when dhs identifies somebody as a child, unaccompanied child, we turn them over to health and human services. but there is a deportation proceeding that is commenced against the child. now, that proceeding can take some time. so we're looking at options, added flexibility to deal with the children in particular. but in a humanitarian and fair way. >> i'm sorry, i have to -- it sounds like a very careful response. are they going to be deported or not? this is the bottom line. i know there's a process they have to go through. will most of these children that we have seen in this desperate situation stay in america, or will they be returned to their homes in central america. >> there's a deportation proceeding commenced against illegal migrants, including children. we are looking at ways to create additional options for dealing with the children in particular consistent with our laws and our values. >> i'm trying to get an answer to will most of them end up staying, in your judgment? >> i think we need to find more efficient, effective ways to turn this tide around generally and we've already begun to do that? >> what does that mean? are you saying it's impractical to deport all of them that are here now? >> i'm saying we've already dramatically reduced the turnaround time for the adults, and we're in the process of doing that for the adults with the kids. we're looking at additional options for the kids in particular. >> to deport them or settle them here in america? is the goal of the administration to settle as many of these kids in america as possible? >> the goal of the administration is to stem the tide and send the message unequivocally -- >> what about if you're here now. what is the goal of the administration to settle them in america or deport them back to situations that might be even life threatening? >> there is a deportation proceeding pending against everyone who comes into this country illegally and is apprehended at the border. >> when you look at the protests in murrieta, you see that anger. do you see that as hate towards illegal immigrants, prejudice, or do you understand frustration with the federal government, with the inability of congress to pass immigration reform, to drain our resources for a community, what do you see? >> i look at it, and it is unfortunate to see that type of hostility directed at women and children on a bus, frankly. i do not believe that that band of individuals that you showed in your lead-in reflects murrieta, california, and it certainly does not reflect the response we've seen across the southwest in general. >> does it reflect frustration at the government? you're the head of the department of homeland security, for not doing more to protect the border, enforce nation's laws with regard to turning migrants away who are coming illegal illegally? >> the broader response across the southwest has been very different in places like mcallen, texas, arizona where the city governments, the population at large, faith-based organizations have really stepped up to support the border patrol to do the humanitarian thing here. the media is focused on that band of individuals in murrieta, california. i don't think that even reflects the sentiment in murrieta, quite frankly. >> is the priority that we have to do right by these children or do we have to find a way to clamp down on the border? >> well, there's the issue. we have to do right by the children. i have personally encountered enough of them to know we have to do right by the children. at the end of the day in the final analysis, our border is not open to illegal migration and we will stem the tide. >> does the president need to go to the border? should he visit when he goes there this week? >> the president can't be every place he'd like to be or even should be. i know the president receives daily updates from lisa monaco, his homeland security adviser on the white house staff, cecilia munoz, domestic policy council director and myself. i have regularly briefed the president in oval office meetings and we're doing a principle's level meeting tomorrow morning. >> the broader issue of immigration reform, what the president is going to do without congress, because congress is not going to get anything done. what is the one thing he'd like to do on his lemone to address the millions of illegal immigrants in the country now? >> fix our broken immigration system. >> he can't do that by himself. what can he do by himself? >> there are a number of things that the president and i within the confines of existing law can do to fix the broken immigration system and we will. if congress doesn't act, we will. >> can you give me a concrete example of something you're doing? >> for one thing, we need to fix the secure communities program. this is a program where we work with local law enforcement to facilitate the transfer of undocumented who are in local jails. the program, frankly, has gotten off to a bad start and we need to fix that program. i think the overarching goal of security communities is a good one, but it needs a fresh start. that's one thing, among a number of them, that we're contemplating doing. >> another thing threat from overseas, al qaeda, isis, the growing threat in iraq, syria, isis making significant gains and airport security is tightened around the world. in a moment i'll discuss that with you, mr. secretary, and whether similar measures might be taking place in airports here. let me turn to my colleague jim maceda as london heathrow airport with the latest on what he's seeing there. jim. >> reporter: hi, david. heathrow, of course, is one of the busiest airports, a prime terrorist target. while heathrow officials don't give any details on new precautions, passengers going on u.s.-bound flights are saying they have seen more explosive swab tests, especially on electronic devices, laptops, cell phones and the like, and on their shoes as well. some passengers said those physical pat-downs seem more frequent these last few days. overall they are saying it seems to be taking twice as long to get through security. but you don't see any increased armed police patrols in or around the buildings behind me, those terminals, which would suggest that the focus is on preset disguise bombs that current scatters might not expect. u.s. intelligence say al qaeda bombmakers have perfected. some explosive experts say they are taking the threat very seriously. frighteningly say current airport security techniques are not yet in place to deal with it. here is what a couple of experts told us. >> it's not particular difficult to disguise a bomb. to disguise it so it canning through all the tracks potentially even, for example, take a laptop. you need to switch it on for it to work. you've got to really start changing the inside of it. even though it goes through a scanner, looks like a laptop, works like a laptop, but actually it's a bomb. >> after the shoe bomber, we saw people's shoes coming off. after that liquid and gels restricted on aircraft. we always react and that is what is wrong with the system. we shouldn't base our response on deploying technology and say oh, my gosh, there's a new device that existing technologies can't identify. >> david, so far passengers we've talked to here are largely understanding. they say they don't mind arriving an hour or even more earlier if it makes their flight safer. david, back to you. >> jim maceda in london. jim, thank you so much. secretary johnson, the question so many americans have, flights coming into the u.s. facing tougher security screening, are we going to see that again here domestically? >> david, our job is to try to anticipate the next attack, not simply react to the last one. so we continually evaluate the world situation. we know that there remains a terrorist threat to the united states. aviation security is a large part of that. so this past week, i directed that we step up our aviation security at some last point of departure airports coming into the united states. this is not something to overreact to or overspeculate about, but it's something we felt was necessary. we do this from time to time. we ratchet it down from time to time. >> what about inside the country domestic flights? do you think it's time to ratchet up those screens? those precautions? >> we continue to evaluate things. the screening we have domestically from one domestic airport to another is pretty robust as the american traveling public knows. in this instance we felt that it was important to crank it up some at the last point of departure airports and we'll continually evaluate the situation. >> we're adequately safeguarded be it as best we can against al qaeda or isis threat that has developed domestically. >> i believe we've taken appropriate measures to deal with the existing situation and not unnecessarily burden the traveling public. >> the islamic state of iraq and syria has a lot of money, it has a lot of foreign fighters. what kind of access does it have to europe and the united states in terms of being able to pull off an attack? >> obviously we're concerned any time a terrorist organization acquires territory, picks up capability. and as i said, the terrorist threat potential out there still remains. a lot of it centers around aviation security, which we continually monitor. >> secretary johnson, thank you very much for your time. >> david. >> thank you very much. i want to turn back to immigration, turn to the political side. aisle on that crisis. i'm joined by congressman from idaho. withwelcome back. >> thank you for having me on your show and good morning. >> you've heard from secretary jeh johnson from homeland security, got to do right by the children, he said. that's got to be a bottom line ideal for the united states government. is that how you see it? >> i do not. as i was listening to secretary johnson's interview, the first half of his interview, i kept thinking you need to change your slogan at the beginning of the show, instead of sunday, "meet the press." if it's sunday, it's another administration official making things up on "meet the press." it's really shameful. >> what did he make up? >> he made up a lot of different things. if you look at what he said, he said the number one reason these kids are coming to the united states is violence in the central american countries. the reality is the violence in the central american country has existed for a long time. the level of poverty has existed in the central american countries over a long period of time. over the last few years you've seen an increase in the number of children coming to the united states. he said he's going to be able to stem it and it's not going to reach between 60 and 90,000 children. that's not going to happen. the lemone administration estimates are that it's going to be about 60,000 to 90,000 this year. it's going to increase 150 to 200,000 next year. these are their lemone estimates. now they come on national tv and say they are doing everything they can to stem the flow but their number one priority is to actually make sure we do right by these children. the thing this administration needs to do is immediately deport these families, these children. i know it sounds harsh, i know it sounds difficult, but they are creating a crisis at this time that's actually going to harm these children. these children, as your lemone reporting says, these children are going to come through the border. they are going to come from central america. many of them are being raped, many of them are being harmed. this is an outrageous thing that is happening to these children. we need to take a strong stand against what's happening and these illegal cartels. >> for those hearing you are saying but you do sound harsh. that as a practical matter deporting these individuals, many of them children, to get back to central america may not be realistic, nor is it in keeping for what it means to be america. for a lot of american countries think if they are fleeing something more awful, we've got to find a way to deal with this in a more humanitarian way. just as we have more than a million illegal immigrants that have to be dealt with in a way other than just deporting them. >> americans are great people. i believe they are willing to deal with 11 million people. if we feel there's going to be border security. right now the frustration you see in murrieta, the frustration you see all throughout the united states, is because they feel this administration is doing nothing about border security. if we can feel safe in our homes, in our homeland, if we can feel we actually are going to be able to stem the flow of immigration, i think the american people are very nice people. >> first of all, the frustration is not just with the administration. it is congress, house republicans that blocked reform that came over from the senate that you opposed. it is also the issue of the law that is the law of the land that was passed under the previous president that makes it a different way to treat those illegal my grants coming from central america as opposed to mexico. they have to be brought in and detained and put through these proceedings. that is the law that congress passed. >> that's a good point. in 2008, the law was passed. i think we need to change that law. we shouldn't be treating the children from central america any different than we treat the children from mexico and canada. i think that is something i will join the administration in doing. i don't think we should be doing that. i think you need to realize that in 2008, the law was changed. in 2009 there wasn't a huge major change in the number of children that came to the united states. in 2010 there wasn't a huge change. in 2011 there wasn't a huge change either. as soon as the administration in 2012 decided to do dhaka, which is deferred action program, that's when the number of children started moving up. that's because these criminal cartels in central and south america started advertising there was a free pass. i agree with secretary johnson that these children should not be allowed to stay. even in his statements today, he wouldn't even answer your question whether we were going to deport these children or not. the best, safest message that we can send to central america, if you want to let central american families they are not going to be able to -- shouldn't be bringing their children to the united states is by sending these children back in a humanitarian way. we can do it safely, we can do it efficiently. >> congressman labrador, thank you very much for your views and being here this morning. >> thank you. coming up here, why are three female supreme court justices, all the women on the supreme court, so angry about an important ruling on thursday. our roundtable will be here to discuss the impact on president obama and obama care, a busy week in politics. astonishing video of new leader of isis. coming up why a former leader says the iraqi government must go to solve this crisis. >> announcer: "meet the press" is brought to you by boeing, where the drive to build earlier in the debate about immigration in this country we tackled one of the key questions that divides both sides. it is, should those here illegally be given a path to citizenship. we tackled this. two experts on opposite sides making their case. head to our website to see it, nbc "meet the press".com. let us know by quoting or tweeting make the case. back with the roundtable in 60 seconds. they're cloudy. 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"f". the performance marque from lexus. our political roundtable is here and so much to discuss even on this holiday weekend. political director chuck todd. the first time on the table montenegro from telemundo and carol ryan political editor for "new york times." welcome to all of you. chuck, from secretary johnson, i think an ambiguous response to what they are going to do and how exactly we got here. >> it's been that way. it was that way in the white house briefing. you could not get a straight answer out of the administration. you couldn't get them to say, should the president's image be used to send the message in central america. to say, hey, don't send your kids here. this isn't going to happen. ambiguity with you, do you want to increase deportations. afraid to say that because of politics. immigration, separate from the issue debated in washington but conflated obviously back and forth. i think part of the problem is an administration on one hand has immigrant rights groups wanting them to expand some of the executive orders, dreamers, da confirm a thing, dreamers for parents. deportation, they don't want to say it. >> is america really the country that says give me your huddled masses? on immigration we're split on that? >> yes, it is. the issue with undocumented minors is making it more difficult. i do believe majority of american people would support immigration reform if it is done in the correct way. >> we're a longways away from immigration reform. we're dealing with exploding crisis on our border right now. >> not only that, i think one of the issues is it has not been well explained. what is going on in central america, honduras, guatemala that make children -- children don't start walking away from their homeland for any reason. this is something that's been occurring since 2009. there is violence in that country. let us remember that the united states did deport a large number of gang members, for example, back to el salvador. what did we think was going to happen? a lot of it has to do with our lemone policies. we have given these nations money. those moneys have not gone to what they were supposed to have gone to, so the people feel hopeless. is one more thing to add to that, the backlog, current backlog in immigration. if you're a parent and got here and was able to fix your immigration situation and petitioned for your wife or child back in 1997 maybe. if you look at the visa process right now, they still may be in 1992. so people get desperate and they become impatient, so they make this treacherous -- >> they make this treacherous journey. >> you look at the politics of this, raul labrador saying we have to deport these people. sblgt johnson wouldn't answer the question, are you going to deport them or not. if the administration wants more power to deport them right away. >> it's hard to maintain am big utah chuck just talked about. they are going to send up a bill for $2 billion extra to help solve this problem. he previewed there's going to be an expedited process on the return. that's going to be a problem on the president's left in congress. they are going to wonder what do you do with an executive order to counterbalance. it's a delicate balance. they need to be critical to the president without alienating demographic. they have not been good at doing that. you can criticize coyotes, administration, when you go after the kids and their mothers that's a long-term problem for the administration. >> to say family values don't end at the rio grande, that seems like a long time ago in politics. >> it certainly does. the president is now saying more broadly he's going to take on the issue of overhauling immigration and that the congress has failed. think about how intense that's going to be going forward given the expectations from the left forecasts latino groups are that he can make significant changes in the lives of millions of people. anything he does is going to be so provocative especially given congress and the court's resistance to him using his executive powers. it's going to be a very, very challenging journey. >> what do you say when you look at these protests? what do you see? is it prejudice, intolerance, the drain an inflow like that can represent. >> i think it's all of the above, everything you mentioned. i think a lot of people are afraid. i think a lot of people are still trying to recover jobs and think the immigrants are coming here to take their jobs. i think basically a lot of it has to do with -- it's provoked by inaction of congress. if maybe this would have been tackled years ago, we would not be seeing this. >> but we're not going to get to that for a long time. >> it is an indictment of the system that we go from crisis to crisis. if you're talking about the economy, if you're talking about immigration, the congress doesn't deal with broad questions on this. it's not capable of it. it deals with crisis after crisis. it's no way to govern on an issue. >> this is not in my backyard. we've had americans protesting, immigrants groups shipped around this country for decades. bill clinton lost a case for governor arguably because he agreed, allowed jimmy carter to send mary alito boat lift cubans to arkansas in a similar situation to murrieta. this is not a unique issue. we've had americans protesting new immigrants bused around, shipped around this country for a long time. that part isn't new, it's how is the administration going to explain it. how do they give the local communities an idea there is an end date here, this is temporary, who these people are. part of the problem the administration has had tuckly in murrieta, there's not a lot of information about what are they doing, how long are they going to be here. >> let me suspend time talking about something more difficult, religious views, contraception, politics. after the hobby lobby, wheaton college case, president obama sent a tweet out, which gives you some insight how he views this politically in the midterm election year. the tweet was throw back to last week when a woman, not her boss, made her lemone decisions about her health care. again, religious exceptions on the part of businesses or a college, they don't have to provide certain kinds of contraception, this becomes a ready made political issue now. >> it is a political issue. one of the most interesting kind of fascinating dynamics you saw this week after the hobby lobby case, many people were reading the hobby lobby case as the court saying the administration had come up with an alternative for religious groups to -- there was a path for women employees to get contraceptive coverage. the decision or order on thursday really seemed to be showing these deep and very profound vigs within the court. and basically the court was saying wheaton college does not even have to comply with what the administration said to provide contraceptive coverage. so you're seeing these really raw feelings on the court and very unusually kind of fears from women members. >> it was a very narrow ruling. the wheaton ruling was essentially we're not going to impose the hhs rule into there's a decision on the broader accommodation you're talking about. they haven't decided on this issue. what they are talking about is religious freedom restoration act, which says you have to have the least intrusive means to achieve these purposes. the court looked at this and said this is not the least intrusive means. the real question is, is the broader religious efforts the path to take here. the president has decided on that and doesn't want to preview. >> the question is can you find a way to get contraception to women who want it through the insurance companies as a way to get around people who have religious -- >> obviously that's what the fix would be. lets go to the raw politics of this. used to be social conservative movement hoped quietly for losses on supreme court, it gave them a political reason for existing, somebody to campaign for, beat up on the courts. what's fascinating for hobby lobby how exciting democratic campaigns are running on. we have something on the left. the swing vote is when it's white women of basically 40 to 55 if you want to id the exact demographic group. these are the women that in 2010 they were leaning republican at this time. this time it hasn't been. it starts with the contraception ad campaign that the obama campaign -- >> this is ultimately about obama care, too. does it stifle your religious objection, it is for obama care who want to make that argument. >> the decision is a political sword, opens a pandora's box what happens after that. not only that, you hear people saying not only will it affect obama care but another way for people to begin thinking about how they obtain health care. maybe it's not through their job. maybe it's through government health care systems. i just think that the ruling is, like i said before, is opening up a pandora box of difficulty. >> thank you. we'll hear more at the end of the program in a couple minutes coming up here on this july 4th weekend. our harry smith meets a man whose mission is to find all kinds of history, including inventions that are now part of every day life. inventions that are now part of every day life. >> this is a replica of the really... so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 dollars a month? yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close. introducing at&t mobile share value plans... ...with our best-ever pricing for business. actually it can. neutrogena® ultra sheer. nothing outperforms it. nothing feels cleaner. its helioplex formula provides unbeatable uva uvb protection to help prevent early skin aging and skin cancer. all with 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[ male announcer ] tweet an expert and schedule a callback from any device. introducing the xfinity my account app. we've already talked about the terrorist threat coming from iraq and syria, the very latest on that now the islamist militant group known as isis teming to consolidate the borders, caliphate or islamic state they forld this week. i'm joined with andrea mitchell on that. good morning, andrea. >> thank you, david. the terror groups elusive leader, abu bakr al baghdadi is so confident he and in a mosque in a video. president obama doesn't want to order airstrikes as long as widely disparaged president maliki is still in charge. this weekend maliki said he will not step aside. earlier i talked with the crisis and how it threatens to spread with tony blair, now an iraq envoy. >> we're seeing insurgents from isis taking more and more territory and holding territory, border with syria virtually erased, onto lebanon, a regional threat. first of all, would this have happened if the united states had armed the moderate rebel forces a year ago or longer and not let isis metastasize the way it has. >> i argued action in syria a couple years ago. i think it was justified. i honestly don't think you can say what might or might not have happened. i think what's important is it deal with the situation we have now. having been through all these types of decisions myself when i was in government, i know how difficult they are. i think you've got one basic problem, which is this extremism. it's rebuilt itself in syria, came back over the border in iraq. we've got in the short-term to push them back as hard as possible. i think the president is right to send help to the iraquis to help syrian opposition, moderate syrian opposition. in the longer term we're going to have to get a strategy for the middle east that identifies correctly the problem, which is this extremism and bears down on it wherever we can, however we can with the allies we have in the region. >> we've increased our intelligence. we're prepositioning for the potential of airstrikes. but the president and others are really reluctant to use air power to support maliki. they don't want to take sides in this sectarian debate. >> sure. >> so far maliki has been sectarian. he's not been the government governing all of iraq. >> i'm afraid the two issues that are most connected with this are the way that this group was able to overrun a part of syria, take control, build up and rearm and refinance themselves there in syria and then come over the border. the other aspect is the sectarianism of the maliki government. i think the u.s. is absolutely right and would do so with the community to leverage its support, to say to prime minister maliki either he has to change or the government has to change. very important in this ayatollah in iraq, very important for the future. >> with that signal from ayatollah sis tani to put more pressure. doesn't it have to go for it to be the country we know it. >> it is much easier for united states and others to help if there was a government in iraq that was genuinely inconclusive, the support of ayatollah advertise tani and would demand support in extremism. >> i know you've written saddam hussein did not cause conflagration, if we had not moved, great britain and others, wouldn't iraq be a very different place? >> it's hard to judge. obviously if you would ask some of the kurds, genocide, the area excluded from government, excluded from their rights of worship, they would probably say no. if you ask the people in baghdad who had the terrible time over the last few years, they would probably say yes. however, the purpose of what i'm saying is not a shuffle off responsibility, i have full responsibility for what we did. the important thing is to realize, this is a long-term problem. its root cause is in this extremism. these regions were never going to be sustained. we removed the one in iraq but the people removed the other ones. in the end the question is how do we help the region and can we help the region to a future in which this toxic mix of religion and politics is taken out of the situation and people are allowed to have the type of government that a majority of people in the middle east want. >> many, especially in his lemone country, now blame blair for joining george w. bush and invading iraq in the first place in 2003, which they say as a root cause of the current crisis. as you just heard, blair has no apologies and no reports. david. >> andrea mitchell thank you very much. closer to home american muslims are concerned about it as kevin tibbles found when he visited dearborn, michigan, outside of detroit, a city that muslims make up more than a third of the population. it's this week's "meeting america." >> reporter: dearborn, michigan, is the home of the american automobile. it is also home to the largest muslim population in the nation. the city's vast and impressive islamic center of america, the iraqi-born imam sounds the warning against religious extremism. >> i'm worried about my original country, which is iraq. i'm worried about this country, my second country, the united states. it's not a foreign issue. once they have their lemone state, they will launch attacks against us again. >> reporter: as people go about their lives, they are touched, even horrified by the seemingly unchecked violence in the middle east. still, this is middle america. and what could be more american. >> aly center field. other ali, other field. >> reporter: kids obsessed with the national pastime. their parents, too. despite the home grown game they love, she says she and her family are made to feel like outsiders in america. >> people look at us and give us stares and glares. they look at us as if we're not really american. we're not blond, blue eyes. >> reporter: she's usa to the core, born and raised in dearborn. this year she celebrates independence day during the holy month of ramadan where muslims fast from dawn till dusk. >> my culture is fourth of july. i celebrate ramadan. i had an all american meal, meat loaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. how much more american can you get brf in dearborn they proudly remember their roots but are building their future as americans. at the lava lounge, the son of a taxi driver epitomize the american dream. >> this country gave me more than any other country could give me. my manager from business school harvard pushed me to work hard. >> across town at linda's home they prepare for breaking the fast. >> this the drink we have when we break our fast. >> at this very american field on this very american weekend, there is plenty to celebrate. >> you need to have a culture. if you have no culture, you have nothing. our family is diverse because it has the best of both worlds. >> for "meet the press," kevin tibbles. >> thank you, kevin. coming up here, harry smith with fourth of july is coming, and that means this, this, and definitely this. so if you're looking to buy a car, don't wait because the savings have already begun. just make sure before you buy to go to truecar.com or use the truecar app for guaranteed savings. happy fourth of july. crest gaand the other, a crestwhitening toothpaste.. here's what they thought. i can't tell if the paste whitened. well the whitestrips worked. yeah. the paste didn't do that. crest whitestrips work below the enamel surface, to whiten 25x better than a leading whitening toothpaste. crest whitestrips. the way to whiten. lactaid® is 100% real milk? 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[ female announcer ] lactaid®. 100% real milk. no discomfort. and for more 100% real dairy treats you'll 100% enjoy look for lactaid® ice cream and lactaid® cottage cheese. and for more 100% real dairy treats you'll 100% enjoy but it started to fade when i lwashed it with my old stuff. luckily i found tide plus color guard. now our colors stay amazing just like my little guy. i'm 17 mom. tide plus color guard. longer lasting color. this, and definitely this. and that means this, so if you're looking to buy a car, don't wait because the savings have already begun. just make sure before you buy to go to truecar.com or use the truecar app for guaranteed savings. happy fourth of july. we are back. fireworks, baseball and hot dogs, that's what independence day is made of, of course. it's also about remembering history. so on this july 4th weekend, our harry smith has the story of an author who made an unusual career finding american history in every day places. >> reporter: as the world walks by, two men have a conversation in midtown manhattan. >> so we're at about 6th avenue and west 52nd street. tell me what happened here on april 3rd, is it 1973? >> the guy on the right is andrew carroll, the man he's speaking with is andrew cooper. cooper invented the cell phone and made the very first call from this spot. >> this is a replica of the original. >> exactly what it looks like. weighs 2.5 pounds. had a battery life of 20 minutes. as you notice you couldn't hold it up for 20 minutes. >> because it's so heavy. >> reporter: andrew carroll wants us to know that history didn't happen long ago and far away. no, quite often we are closer to it than we can imagine. he started a project called "here is where." >> this is the park, where in 1925, the young busboy was working, langston hughes. >> he was a busboy in this hotel. >> he noticed a gentleman, lindsey, famous american poet dining there. surreptitiously he put his poems on the table. >> reporter: carroll finds history in every day places, every day people. he's the man who asked folks to start sending him wartime letters. that turned into a best selling book. >> one of the first received may 2nd, 1945, written by horace evers, with his unit. >> reporter: they had stumbled into adolf hitler's private apartment. sergeant evers found hitler's private stationary and wrote down what he had seen days before at dachau. >> a very powerful letter. >> not from commanders or academics but from those who lived it and those who love them. >> i won't forget opening a letter from a woman, dear andy, i'm sending you the letters from vietnam. i just want somebody to know who he was. that line always saad with me. >> carol is still collecting letters. we were there when dustin and nicole gave him theirs, letters exchanged during dustin's 15 months in iraq. >> when the letters would come, i'd open them up. it gave me the opportunity to connect with him. >> you could see the person. you can see the quirks in it, the way she writes, dots her eyes. >> it was the foundation of our relationship. >> really? >> it really was. i don't think we would be here today if we didn't write those letters. we would have grown apart, instead we grew together. >> she insists history not made by others but by us. we will soon embark on 50 state search for more letters, more history. for "meet the press," harry smith. and you can learn more about andrew carroll's finding history project by going to our website, "meet the press" at nbc.com. the big question, should the children who have already krfd the border be allowed to stay. as this heats up search "meet the press." that's all for today. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." here now, some of the best of the july 4th fireworks displays from around the country. on the streets of detroit someone is hunting and killing young women two at a time. >> we have four homicides, of which a serial pattern is developing. >> the first set of women were found on december 19th, dead in the trunk of a car on promenade street. >> it was extremely brutal. >> i'm just tired of us losing our children. >> lurking in the online ads for sex. >> is this kim? >> and luring the unsuspecting to a rendezvous with death. >> hey, how are you doing? >> while pimps and hustlers sell young women on a promise of protection. >> let me holler at you for a minute. >> somebody that's involved in this business should be able to protect anybody that gets down with them. t

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