Remarks by President Trump at Customs and Border Protection Roundtable
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: Because we just don't have the right laws.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: No. We have to close these loopholes. We cannot keep the border secure without them.
THE PRESIDENT: But it's all included. It's got to all be included, right?
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Yes, sir.
So Director Homan, would you like to tell us a bit more?
MR. HOMAN: Yeah. First of all, I want to say thank you, Mr. President, for the 20,000 men and women of ICE.
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Tom.
MR. HOMAN: For the American heroes sitting behind you, we thank you for letting us do our job.
Our 45-year low on border crossings is not a coincidence. That just shows you that when we're allowed to enforce law, we're going to have an impact.
As the Commissioner said -
THE PRESIDENT: You have a 45-year low in border crossings?
MR. HOMAN: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: That's a great number. But we're still unhappy about it, right? I'm very unhappy. I'm very unhappy. Think of it. A 45-year low in border crossings and I'm unhappy about it. But that's impressive nevertheless. But you'll do much better, good luck. (Laughter.)
MR. HOMAN: So as the commissioner said, we've made a lot of progress this year. There's some things holding us up, as the Secretary - there are loopholes, there are certain judicial decisions that prevent us from doing our jobs.
The two numbers that the commissioner spoke of that I've seen a recent increase are two populations: the family units and the children. So, let's talk about the children first. There's a law called the TVPRA - Trafficking Victims Act - had great intentions to protect children from trafficking. However what that law has done - the criminal organizations have exploited that law.
So, if you're a child from Mexico, and you enter the country illegally after you're screened through for trafficking, once we ascertain - the border patrol ascertains you're not a victim of trafficking, they can be immediately returned to Mexico. However if you're from Central America, and you are apprehended by the men and women behind you, and you're not a victim of trafficking, we can't remove them quickly. They have a whole judicial -
THE PRESIDENT: Because the laws are no good, right? Our laws.
MR. HOMAN: Our laws need to be fixed.
THE PRESIDENT: What about their laws where they don't take them back? Because you also have countries that won't -
SECRETARY NIELSEN: We're going to talk about that in a little bit as well.
THE PRESIDENT: It's another problem.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Yes, it is.
MR. HOMAN: We'll talk about. We've made great progress this year, but what we want is changes to these loopholes so we can treat all the children the same. Because once you release a child from Central America that's going to claim asylum, most of them, once they get to court - if they get to court, if they show up at court - most of them don't get asylum, so they're released in the community and very few of them are ever removed because they're in the wind.
THE PRESIDENT: What percentage show up to court?
MR. HOMAN: I can tell you about 3.5 percent of UACs apprehended by the Border Patrol were eventually removed. So that shows you that's a huge loophole.
And we talk about family units. There's other decisions in the state of California - once again, our favorite 9th Circuit - who says we can only detain family units for a couple weeks. Well, that's the price of doing business.
If you're a family and want to come to the United States illegally, you'll be detained by ICE for a couple weeks, you'll get your vaccinations, you get your three squares a day, only to be released in the community. Most will not show up in court, and for those who do show up in court -
THE PRESIDENT: And how many eventually go out?
MR. HOMAN: They all go out.
THE PRESIDENT: No, they get out.
MR. HOMAN: The judges order we cannot detain them over 20 days. So they get released -
THE PRESIDENT: So many of the people never leave the country.
MR. HOMAN: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: They get lost in the country and that's it.
MR. HOMAN: Absolutely. So we need to address those court decisions.
THE PRESIDENT: I mean, I'll just tell you for the media, this doesn't make sense at all for anybody. This was made up by people that don't know what they're doing. And this isn't like this in other countries. You try staying in Mexico. You go and do things in Mexico - they throw you out fast.
You look at other countries, they have strong controls. We have no controls. And a lot of it is Congress's fault, and we're going to get it changed.
Go ahead, Tom.
MR. HOMAN: And because of these loopholes, it continues to drive more illegal immigration. It entices more families and children to come.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah
MR. HOMAN: And it's just not about enforcing the law, sir; this is about saving lives. Children are dying, families are dying, they're dying at the border. The border tried over 2,000 saves last year, people that were in dire straits. People are dying.
We saw the tractor-trailers incident. If we don't fix these loopholes, we're going to entice others to make that dangerous journey. So it's just not about law enforcement, it's about saving lives.
The second challenge I want to talk about are detention challenges. I just said, you don't want - we certainly don't want to get back to catch-and-release. However, because of these loopholes, we are at catch-and-release.
THE PRESIDENT: But you have it now. So how bad is it, catch-and-release? Like, forget it, right?
MR. HOMAN: For family units and UACs, it's bad. That's why we need these loopholes fixed.
As far as other detention - let's talk about detaining adults. Let's talk about detaining criminals.
I'm not fan of non-cooperative jurisdictions; you may have heard that. We got jurisdictions in this country that choose politics over public safety. They will release a criminal alien back into the public. Releasing a public threat back into the public is just bad policy. And they like to -
THE PRESIDENT: We're talking about sanctuary cities?
MR. HOMAN: Yes, sir. Sanctuary cities do a lot of things. None of them are very good.
First of all, it's a public safety issue. When you release a public safety threat back into the community, they're going to reoffend. Most of them will reoffend. Anybody can google recidivism rates and see that.
The sanctuary cities like to say they're protecting immigrant communities. These criminal aliens are going to go back into the very communities they live in. They're going to victimize those very immigrant communities.
So they're not - they're not protecting immigrant communities. And by not allowing the men and women of ICE to take custody of a dangerous criminal in the safety and security of a county jail, that means our officers have to go knock on a door. They have to go to a place of business to arrest somebody - a criminal public safety threat - on their turf, where they have access to who knows what weapons. Very unsafe for the men and women of ICE.
And also, since we have to go down to a home or to a place of business to arrest this criminal alien that the county won't let us arrest, we're going to find others. For those - again, for those jurisdictions to say we're protecting immigrant communities, number one, you're putting a danger back into the community. Number two, there's going to be more ICE officers in your community who are not allowed to work in your jail.
For these communities that want to say ICE should focus on public safety, then help me. Let me in your jail. If you're really serious about - if you're really serious about -
THE PRESIDENT: As soon as we get the new legislation passed that you - that everybody is talking about - if it happens, because, you know, it's a big question as to whether or not it's going to happen - and we have a March 5th date, so we'll see.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: And we're dealing with both sides, but, you know, could very well not happen, which is incredible. But if we do get that, will we have most of the things that you need in terms of detention, release, everything else?
MR. HOMAN: If we can have Congress act on a sanctuary city, if we can have them act on our detainer (inaudible) and make detainers legally viable - for instance, give the sheriffs the immunity, the protection; if they honor our detainers, the U.S. government will protect them. Most of the sheriffs - I've talked to the National Sheriff's Association, I've talked to the Major County Sheriff's Association. The police officers in this country support us. They want to honor the detainers. They just need legislation, so -
THE PRESIDENT: See, these are things you can't even negotiate. I mean, you can't negotiate this with the Democrats, because this is stuff for safety. And it's not like, "Oh, gee, let's, you know, work a halfway deal." You have such bad - you have such bad procedures. You're forced to do everything that you people were taught not to do, when you think about it.
So there's not a lot of negotiation on this kind of thing.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: No, we have to close - we have to -
MR. HOMAN: And two final points, sir. The last thing I'll say about these non-cooperative jurisdictions: They, again, entice illegal entry. If they do not think that alien-smuggling organizations in Central America and Mexico are not using sanctuary cities as a selling point - they're saying, "Look, we can get you to San Francisco for this much money, and we'll get you to one of these places where you can even get arrested for committing a crime, and they're not going to help ICE take you into custody."
Now, I'll leave you with this one thought: This room is full of law enforcement officers that know how to fix this problem. We saw the 45-year low. We have the willpower; we have the knowledge in this room. We just need the willpower of Congress to make some tough decision to give us what we need to fix this problem once and for all.
I've been doing this for 34 years. We got to stop kicking this can down the road and fix it.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you maybe the closest now because the attitudes are with us? Because of this administration - I mean, I'm with you 100 percent. Are you now closer? Because you've had some administrations who wouldn't even think of this stuff.
MR. HOMAN: Absolutely. We got an administration now and a President who will let us do our job. We've enforcing the laws enacted by Congress. We need Congress to make a few changes, close some loopholes, and we can fix this once and for all. I think the American people -
THE PRESIDENT: But this is all being put in the legislation that what we're doing now.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Yes sir. They're proposing your framework -
THE PRESIDENT: It's one big, beautiful proposal.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: It is.
THE PRESIDENT: And that's it, right?
SECRETARY NIELSEN: That's right.
THE PRESIDENT: And we're not negotiating?
SECRETARY NIELSEN: No. We are not.
THE PRESIDENT: Not this kind of stuff. Not law enforcement, right?
SECRETARY NIELSEN: No.
THE PRESIDENT: Because there's nothing you can negotiate.
MR. HOMAN: (Inaudible) Mr. John Cronan sitting next to me, Department of Justice, have stepped up.
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