commitment to see to the security of the american people. he brought the whole issue of illegal immigration to the center of the flat debate when he sought this office. we saw a decline in illegal immigration at our southern border in our first year in office. but the reality is because of the lack of reforms, because of the lack of a wall, because of the loopholes in our laws today, we are now seeing a precipitous rise in families and unaccompanied children being driven by human traffickers and cartels, individuals who are exploiting vulnerable famililies, encouraging them to make the long and dangerous journey up the peninsula. you could hear the president say this is a crisis of heart and soul, he feels this passionately. and he left the room today because speaker nancy pelosi said even if he gave her what she wanted she would never agree to the border security priorities that we have on the
she would never agree to the border security priorities that we have on the table, and that was unacceptable. right here. mr. vice president, is the president now closer to declaring a national emergency? will he do it? i know the president s made it clear he s looking at that. he believes he has the authority to do it. but the president s belief and i know it s the belief of these republican leaders as well, is that congress should just do their job. look, politics is the art of the possible. i served in the congress for 12 years. i remember times when there were strong feelings on emotions but eventually leaders came together, sat down with presidents, oftentimes in opposite political parties, they hurt each other s priorities, they negotiated agreement and they moved forward. that s what the american people expect us to do today, but when the speaker of the house comes to the table with the leader of
legislatively but that national emergency declaration is on the table as he tries to get funding for the border wall. now, that meeting that vice president mike pence led on behalf of the administration yesterday didn t produce much progress, that s what representatives on both sides of the aisle are saying. an aide to the vice president said no dollar figures were even discussed when it comes to the wall. only border security priorities. acting white house chief of staff/budget director milk mulvaney emerged from that meeting saying very little progress was made and that he got the sense democrats were there simply to stall. take a listen what he told cnn s jake tapper. i think the president said it s 5.of billion for securing the border wall. we recognize that border crossings are important but certainly a barrier is important. we didn t make much progress at the meeting which was surprising to me. i thought we had come in to talk about terms that we could agree
has had a growing presence in syria since 2012. it has always supported the bashar assad government. and there s no guarantee as to what could happen next. one of the biggest concerns is that isis, which is estimated to have 20 to 30 active soldiers could come out of hiding and make a comeback once u.s. troops lea leave. and after the u.s. withdrew troops from iraq in 2011, isis took over several of iraq s largest cities and was fighting on the outskirts of baghdad within two and a half years. i want to get kasie hunt over here. she s on capitol hill and she s got some breaking news about the pending government shutdown. kasie? reporter: i just spoke briefly with kevin mccarthy, number two in the house right now, the incoming minority leader come january. he used the same language that leaders were using when they came out of the white house, which is that the government will not shut down, but that they will do these border security priorities. add that $5 billion.
there is a of border security priorities that need to be funded that we cannot continue to fund simply on a continuing resolution. that s what we are doing right now. i can t engage in something called new starts, for example. they are new initiatives to spend money on border security and the secret service, cyber security that need to be funded. we want to preserve this program and executive actions. i m confident that many will see it that way. there other vital homeland security missions that need to be funded. we saw the horror in australia. it was someone with clearly mental problems. not isis-inspired that we know of, but there is the lone wolf threat. how serious is the concern that what happened in ottawa would happen in australia and elsewhere in the world could happen here. this is a serious concern of