One recent study from FAIR - F-A-I-R - found that illegal aliens are incarcerated at three times the rate of legal residents. Those are the numbers. And if you look at prison population in federal prisons, these federal prisons are - the number is staggering. The number of illegals - far, far, far greater than any proportion of our population. But you don't hear that; you hear like these people are the greatest people in the world.
Just ask the Angel Moms how good are there. Those great Angel Moms who were treated so badly - so badly. (Applause.) Incredible people.
But the simple reality is that every crime committed by an illegal immigrant is a crime that should never have happened in the first place. (Applause.) The border crisis is also a heartbreaking humanitarian tragedy. Vicious coyotes, smugglers, and human traffickers prey upon innocent women and children. One in three women is sexually assaulted on the dangerous journey north.
When I ran for president, my first speech, I mentioned the word "rape." The press went after me; I couldn't believe it. I said, "Will it be like this always?" The answer was yes. It even got worse. From day one, I mention the word "rape." If you look at that speech, that was so innocent compared to what's really happening. That was a very innocent speech compared to the real facts.
Illegal immigration is not compassionate. It's inhumane, unjust, and cruel. (Applause.)
The media fights me on this, but I say it: Mothers who love their daughters, when their daughters are getting ready to make that 2,000-mile trek up through Mexico - and frankly, I wish Mexico would stop them at their northern border, at our - (applause) - I wish Mexico would stop them. Because you know, they have a border. They call it their southern border. It's 2,000 miles down from our southern border. I wish Mexico would stop them.
But they have their own difficulties. Frankly, I understand that. We're working along well with them. And they are doing a lot of things to help us with asylum and other elements of what we're doing.
But mothers, who love their daughters, give them massive amounts of birth control pills because they know their daughters are going to be raped on the way up to our southern border. Think of that. True story, told to me by the Border Patrol. So true and so sad. Think of how evil that is. Think of how bad it is.
Those caravans - you look at those caravans, and some are phenomenal people. But in those caravans you have stone-cold killers. You had the interview done by some innocent person who I think is actually back there now. "And what is it that you want asylum for? Why are you coming to America?" "Uh, murder." She goes, "What?" "Murder."
I mean, what's going on is incredible. And when those caravans are formed, do you think those countries that we used to give a lot of money to - I've cut it way back. I've cut it way back. (Applause.) Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. Do you think they're giving us, as we say, their best and their finest? "Oh, let's send our best people up to America. Let's have our best people go in the caravan so we can give America our greatest people." No, no, no, no. They give us some very bad people. People with big, long crime records. People with tremendous violence in their past. Murderers, killers, drug dealers, human traffickers. They want to keep their good people because they're smart. It's so sad to see how stupid we've been.
Border Patrol recently reported apprehending 7,000 unlawful migrants in a single week on just one part of the Texas border, a couple of weeks ago. Our immigration system is stretched far beyond the breaking point.
To confront this national security crisis, last month I declared a national emergency. A national emergency. (Applause.) And when I see these people - and they're good people - some senators, mostly - I tell you, the House has been fantastic.
The House - you know, backing we've had from the House has really been - I'm talking about in the last short period of time. There's a lot of spirit in the House, and I think in the Senate too, but we're going to have to see because we have a vote coming up.
And a lot of people talk about precedent. Precedent. That if we do this, the Democrats will use national emergency powers for something that we don't want. They're going to do that anyway, folks. The best way to stop that is to make sure that I win the election. That's the best way to stop that. (Applause.) They're going to do it anyway. They'll do it anyway.
I watch - good people, they're friends of mine, "We're very concerned with setting precedent." That's "precedent" not "president." (Laughter.) Precedent. "We're very concerned about setting precedent." I'm very concerned with having murderers and drug traffickers, and drugs and drug cartels, pouring into our country. That's what I'm concerned about. (Applause.)
And the Democrats, they're going to do whatever they do if they get into power, and it won't have a damn thing to do with whether or not we approve our national emergency. Because let me tell you - they don't like it when I say it - but we are being invaded. We're being invaded by drugs, by people, by criminals. And we have to stop it. And we want people to come in, as I said before, but they have to come in legally and with merit. (Applause.)
Previous presidents have used their national emergency power to promote democratic elections in Belarus, to ensure political stability in Burundi, and to defend the sovereignty of Lebanon. And you know what? That's okay. In Lebanon - it's good. Fine. Use it. But we need it right here in our country. We have to use it for our country.
Many emergency declarations have been used to protect people in faraway nations and distant lands. Now we are protecting, finally, our people. You. Our people. (Applause.) And we are proudly standing with the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol and law enforcement. (Applause.)
Illegal immigration is also deeply unfair to American workers and taxpayers, including millions and millions of hardworking legal immigrants. If you care about helping immigrants and care about their success, if you care about reducing poverty and raising living standards, then you must support a safe, strong, and very, very secure border.
We need an immigration policy that helps all Americans thrive, flourish, prosper. We need an immigration policy that's going to be great for our corporations and our great companies. We need an immigration policy where people coming into our country can love our country and love our fellow citizens. (Applause.) And this includes shutting down sanctuary cities. (Applause.)
And we want to end catch-and-release. We catch them, we realize they're a criminal, and we have to release them. Think of this: They come onto our land, they put one foot on our land. We now have to take them through a massive court trial. Who does this? Other countries say, "Get the hell out of here." We have to take them through court.
So we catch them. We talk to them. If they're criminals, or if they're not, we release them. We say, "Come back for a hearing in front of a judge." You know how many judges you need to do this? We have 900,000 people backlogged. That's the good news. The bad news? Nobody shows up. Three percent of the people come back for a trial. It's insane.
Not my fault I inherited this mess, but we're fixing it. (Applause.) We have to end chain migration, and we have to cancel the visa lottery. Every American, no matter where they're born, will benefit from the creation of a lawful immigration system. It is such - you talk about an emergency. Our immigration system is so broken, folks. It's so broken. It's so sad to see. It's incompetent. It's laughed at all over the world.
We have people pouring in from not just the southern border in Mexico. From China. They have a baby on our land. The baby becomes a citizen. "Welcome to the United States" for hopefully 90 years. Okay? And then the parents come in with the baby because the baby is a citizen. This is like crazy. They used to call it "anchor babies" but they don't use that term anymore because it doesn't sound nice.
Our laws are so crazy. But one by one, we're finding ways. You know, they call them loopholes. A lot of our laws - loopholes. Well, I'm finding loopholes to get around the loophole. Okay? (Laughter and applause.) Because our Congress can't act. They can't act. They just can't act.
The Democrats in Congress don't want to touch any of it. Visa lottery - that's where they put in the names; they put it in a lottery, and you pick,
"Oh, here's a wonderful person. Wonderful." You know, he killed four people.
"Here's - here's another wonderful." (Laughter.)
And then they get in and we say, "Gee, that person just came into our country. He just robbed a store and killed somebody." How is that possible? Because they send us the people they don't want. (Applause.) The biggest form of subsidy we give to other nations. Immigration systems that prioritize the admission of those who can support themselves financially and contribute. We want people that can help themselves, that can support themselves. We have people coming in. We support them from the day they come in until the day they die. We can't do that as a country. We can't afford to do that as a country. (Applause.)
Sadly, on immigration and so many other issues, Democrat lawmakers have totally abandoned the American mainstream. But that's going to be good for us in 2020. They're embracing open borders, socialism, and extreme late-term abortion.
AUDIENCE: Booo -
THE PRESIDENT: Weeks ago, lawmakers in New York cheered as they passed legislation to allow babies to be ripped from the womb of their mother right up to the very moment of death. Then, in an act and a statement, the likes of which I don't think I've ever heard, in Virginia, the governor - a Democrat - stated that he would allow babies to be born, to be born outside. He would wrap them. He would take care of them. And then he'll talk to the mother and the father as to what to be done. And if they didn't want the child, who is now outside of the womb - long outside of the womb - they will execute the baby after birth.
AUDIENCE: Booo -
THE PRESIDENT: They will execute the baby after birth. And that's one many people have never even heard of or thought about.
This is a radical agenda by the Democrats. And when you put something up, as was just put up before the Senate, everybody on the Democrat side votes for it.
By the way, I have to say one thing: They're lousy politicians and they have lousy policy. They have policy I could never sell if I wanted to. But - but - big but - they always stick together. And the Republicans don't remember that. (Applause.) Remember that. They always stick together. They vote in blocs. They have 47.
We had a tremendous victory. We were given no credit. I can't go and campaign for all of the people in the House. Too many. And guys like Meadows wins by so many points he doesn't need any help. He doesn't need it. I say, "Mark, do you need any help?" "No, I'm okay." (Laughter.) He'll win by 30, 35. They're okay. These guys - you know a funny thing? The ones that love Trump, the ones that are really the Trumpers - like Meadows, Jordan, Gates, so many of them. I don't want to - I could just name so many. They're the ones that win with that. I mean, it's like they don't even have an election.
It's the ones that sort of - they're a little shy about embracing what we're all about, they get clobbered. They get clobbered. Take a look. Those are the ones that get clobbered. But the good news is they're all starting to find that out.
Just this week, Senate Democrats opposed legislation to prevent the killing of newborn infant children who survive abortions. Virtually every Democrat voted against protecting these precious babies. Every one. They vote in groups.
And we did have that great victory. We won for 51. And two that we didn't like got out. They said they retired. They didn't retire. They were retired. (Applause.) They said, "These two senators have decided to retire." No, no, no. They retired because they had like very little support. Like how about 5 percent? Any percent.
No, we did great. We had 53 we picked up in the Senate. They were going to win the Senate, remember? And I'll tell you, folks, I worked hard. I did 32 big, fat rallies. (Applause.) And those rallies brought us to a tremendous Senate victory so that we can continue onward with our judges and our approvals.
And the fake news back there, they love to say "Donald Trump suffered a big defeat." First of all, we won the Senate, which, frankly, judges - you know, I hate to say it: In all due respect for us, the Senate, far more important. I really worked hard.
But think of it. We won the Senate and we had this, like, tremendous victory. We get no credit at all. Wait until you see what happens. They say, "Donald Trump suffered a humiliating defeat." I said, "I wasn't running." (Laughter.) And one of the commentators - and I appreciate it - one of the shows where they were saying how I suffered a defeat, this commentator said, "Excuse me, he didn't run." You know, not all our candidates were exactly great. Let's face it. You know, you can only do so much.
