it s a policy choice being made on purpose by this administration and it s cruel and inhue mainly. that s an appalling accusation and our men and women fight hard to protect people in our custody every single day. mcaleenan described overworked agents who are exhausted by a flood of migrants. in april, almost 110,000 were apprehended. the biggest monthly total in a decade. 65% were family with over 40,000 schirnl. mcaleenan know migrants know the changes are getting through are better nowadays if you come with a child. smugglers have capitalized on that. they re directly advertising that fact. mcaleenan told the panel that even small stretches of the border wall would help stem the flow of of migration. separately today pushed back on 1.7 miltsd of fencing put you up of $1.57 billion that congress appropriated last year. so that s an incorrect figure. there is far more than two miles that have been built. we are still on track to get
: we have breaking news at this hour on the boarder wall fundin. congress appropriated $1.5 billion last year for border fence construction on the southern border and that money has been used in full to build 1.7 miles of that fence. that s almost a billion dollars per mile and presidential candidate julian castro is back with us. that is what we re seeing as the cost of the trump wall just about a billion dollars a mile. they have built 1.7 miles at $1.57 billion. can you imagine what a waste of money. what a waste of money. if you want to better spend the money and be more effective, we can get to the root cause of why 92,000 people last month came to the southern border and invest basically in the 21st century
national emergency? talk about today. the one-year anniversary of another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in america. that is a national emergency. why don t you declare that emergency, mr. president. i wish you would. but a democratic president can do that. democratic president can declare emergencies as well. meaning a democratic president could choose what constitutes a national emergency in the future. back in the senate, majority leader mitch mcconnell made it clear he had assurances from president trump it will would be signed. it calls for $1.57 billion for borders enough for 55 miles of fencing on the texas border. but there is a provision for homeland security to discuss construction with the local leaders before any of the construction takes place on the wall. this issue wedged the republicans together. spoke to the texas congressman louis gomer who said he is concerned about the it litigatin
harris: i m looking through some of the paragraphs, and the $1.57 billion for the fencing with imitations to address environmental concerns is the first thing that is listed per the homeland security appropriations bill, have the money would be spent. it s fascinating, melissa. we are so far afield from that $25 billion of the president wanted. but if he can get this in other ways, as cat don t ask pointed out, how does that play politically melissa: he says it s a down payment on what is planning to do. you can spend as a way forward. this is the first step of many to come after. the zero was a big problem. kennedy: can add something onto that? i think the president s message of unity of the state of the union he wants to make good on that. he does that by signing this and then figuring out other ways to keep his base happy. i do think seeing that seven-point poll bump after the nadir of the shutdown, that s
paycheck this friday. they may not. what is possible to end this shut down? first of all, the ball is not on in the president s court, it s in his hands. he has to open up government immediately. when he does, we will be able to sit down and engage in fruitful, productive and probably lengthy discussions around immigration reform, including border security. his position is anchored, continues to be anchored in a$57 billion wall. that s not our position and that s not the position of the american people. the american people reject a wall. we ll negotiate around border security, daca, the dreamers, tps, whether we have to increase the number of immigration judges, which we do.