good afternoon, i m chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. the blame game over southern border, president biden and house republicans are attacking each other as a record number of the u.s. continue to cross border patrol agents are doing everything they can to take care of this situation, but they are completely overwhelmed, completely just overwhelmed with the situation, and it s getting worse. plus, it s what the atlantic calls the english muffin problem. you might not have heard of it, but likely you re dealing with it. why so many americans hate the current economy even though the numbers show it s actually trending in the right direction. and the cdc tracking a surge in covid cases as millions travel for the holidays, what you need to know about the new variant fueling the virus s spread. we begin with the humanitarian crisis growing by the hour on the southern border, a record number of migrant crossings are pushing processing facilities way
to lead talks on how to stem the surge in illegal border crossings. those crossings reaching historic proportions with authorities routinely reporting 10,000 encounter a day. the influx is in border authorities, 10,000 in custody right now. so stretched are resources, customs and border patrol had to close two major railway crossings and other ports of entry so they can shuffle agents to busier points along the border. $43 billion in trailed a year are carried on those two rail lines alone. no telling how politically costly an extended closure could be. with congress on holiday, talks for a comprehensive border package have installed, and with them, hopes for ukraine and israel aid. republicans say funding for those embattled nations must be paired with measures to secure the u.s. mexico border. it s a quid pro quo triggering a backlash who fear an asylum and refugee crackdown could hurt the party among latino voters. joining us now, nbc news correspondent guad venegas who s
disrupting commerce and clearly disrupting neighborhoods, wolf. martin savidge on the streets of chicago for us. thanks. we ll stay in touch. let s dig a little bit deeper right now with our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin, our law enforcement analyst tom fuentes and former federal prosecutor legal analyst sunny hostin. sunny, these protesters demanding the resignation of mayor emanuel. has he lost the confidence of this city in the wake of the fatal shooting of that laquan mcdonald young teenager who was killed? i think there s no question there s a crisis in confidence now in chicago about the mayor s leadership. i mean, there was a poll done commissioned by the insiders, a newsletter published by the illinois observer and 51% of chicagoans say that the mayor should resign. we re hearing more talk and more and more talk about a cover-up of a police shooting for over a year. that s a very, very serious allegation. i mean, the timing though if you think about it, wolf, is curio