Remarks by President Trump at Customs and Border Protection Roundtable
Press Release:
Border Patrol National Targeting Center • Sterling, Virginia
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Well, Mr. President, thank you very much for coming to the National Targeting Center. It's my honor to introduce you to some of the men and women who work here and work in executing your mission to protect our country.
THE PRESIDENT: Great.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: As you heard on the watch floor, we have about 70 terrorists a day that we see trying to get here through some method of transportation. That's 500 a week, 2,000 a year. So needless to say, these men and women are very busy every day watching, not just cargo, but passengers and other sorts of traffic.
What we wanted to do today was just go around a little bit and give you a sense of the challenges that we face, and how you, in your recent framework (inaudible) this to Congress, and help us to (inaudible) ways to solve those problems.
As you know, last year, you asked the men and women of DHS, "How can we make our country more secure and what is it that you need to do that?"
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: The framework, we thank you for, and thank you for your leadership. It does just that. We are very confident that the border security measures and the efforts to close the loopholes will give us the tools that we need.
So without further ado, I wanted to turn it over to the Acting Commissioner of CBP, who will tell us a little bit more about the challenges we face at the border.
MR. MCALEENAN: Thanks. Good to see you, sir.
Mr. President, I'd like to set the stage a little bit with our illegal activity numbers at the border from last year, which really tell the story of why we need to continue to invest in border security, as well as closing the legal loopholes in our immigration system.
The numbers that you see here, sir, you can see the arrests at the border of people trying to cross illegally; they dropped dramatically early in your administration after your Inauguration.
The intelligence and interviews we've conducted indicate that that was because concern that the enforcement posture had changed at the border under your leadership.
As you can see, we had a low of about 10,000 back in April of this year. But we've started to see the numbers come up each month, and especially in two significant portions of this population: family units and unaccompanied children.
The other factor we've seen is an increasing number coming to our ports of entry. Not even trying to cross the border illegally, but coming to our ports and presenting and claiming asylum in that route. This is due to the fact that these groups can take advantage of loopholes in our legislation, court decisions, as well congestion in the asylum and immigration court processes that my colleagues here will give you a briefing on.
At the same time, and very concerningly, we've seen a marked increase in hardened smugglers attempting to bring hard narcotics across our borders and into our communities. And we've had increases that you can see here in every category - cocaine; heroin; methamphetamines, significantly; and, obviously, fentanyl - a very significantly potent, synthetic opioid that's involved in so many overdoses in the United States.
The last number I'd like to show you, sir, is we've had a 45 percent increase in assaults on the men and women protecting our border - the law enforcement personnel risking themselves every day to protect our citizens.
THE PRESIDENT: Why is that? Why? How come?
MR. MCALEENAN: Well, we think there's two reasons. One, we've got this increase in narcotics. We've gotten more effective at securing our border, and so we're dealing with a more determined, a more sophisticated, and a more dangerous population with these smugglers crossing, at the same time as we're seeing this increased flow of families and unaccompanied children.
So we really believe these dual trends require investments both in smart border security, like a border wall system, but also closing the legal loopholes that we face in our immigration -
THE PRESIDENT: And where are the drugs coming from? Mostly the cocaine, heroin, meth - where's it coming from?
MR. MCALEENAN: The cocaine is produced in South America.
THE PRESIDENT: Which particular country?
MR. MCALEENAN: In Colombia and Peru, primarily. Trafficked up through Central America or on maritime means into Mexico, and coming across our land border, primarily.
We also see significant heroin production in Mexico, with opium poppy growth in Mexico, then produced.
And then the fentanyl and the synthetics are coming from China, usually through our land border or through mail and express consignment.
Those are the vectors we need to shut down. And it's both between ports of entry with Border Patrol, but also at our ports of entry with CBP officers.
THE PRESIDENT: And what are Mexico and Colombia and these other countries - what are they doing about it? Nothing?
MR. MCALEENAN: Actually, sir, we're partnering closely with these governments to increase their effectiveness. In Mexico, in particular -
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think they're really trying?
MR. MCALEENAN: Well, I think we've had a significant improvement in our dialogue and in our effectiveness with Mexican law enforcement and the military in the last year.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: You've actually just signed the INTERDICT Act, which we thank you for. That's very helpful. And we continue to work with Congress on additional authorities, particularly on the fentanyl issue with the mail.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: So thank you, Kevin.
THE PRESIDENT: That's a big issue.
MR. MCALEENAN: Sure. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Before we turn it over to the Acting Director of ICE, I just wanted to introduce the President to give him an opportunity to give some remarks. And then we'll go back and talk more about enforcement.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, I will. And this is quite a facility. Actually incredible. I'd love the media to take a look at that, and maybe you can show them - unless there's some reason you can't - but it'd be just as an overall glance.
I will say to the press, what I've just seen is pretty incredible. Pretty incredible. Too bad we need it, but we need it. There's no doubt about it.
The National Targeting Center has really - we've really put a lot behind it, and we are going to be putting a lot more behind it. You hear - just from what you've heard right now, it's a very big subject. And it's something, if we don't watch it, it's going to get worse and it's going to get out of control. We're not going to let that happen.
I think one of the keys to stopping the drugs is very tough on the pushers and the drug dealers. I think we can have all the blue ribbon committees with all of our friends and all of the people on the wonderful blue ribbon committee, but I'm not a believer in blue ribbon committees.
I think you need tough - really tough enforcement. And you need to get tough on the pushers, and you have to get tough on the dealers - beyond tough. The tougher the better.
The officials here today each took an oath defend his country or her country. As Congress considers immigration reforms, these are the most important voices for us to listen to, by far. These are the men and women that really know what's happening and that know how to keep America safe. They're real professionals. I was just with them. They're real professionals.
And, again, I hope you can get at least a glimpse of that incredible room.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Yes, it's very nice.
THE PRESIDENT: That is some room with a lot of great people. That's why today we've opened this meeting to the cameras and to the media. I know you don't like to be here, but here we are together. And nobody is going to shout out any questions, I know that.
So I just - I welcome the media. I want the media to hear this because this is a big, big problem, and it takes a big solution to solve a big problem.
The lawmakers can also hear the truth through you. We're going for big funding, and we're going to be expanding these buildings - not only this building, but these buildings.
In their presentation today, you'll hear everyone explain the reforms that they need from Congress, including securing the border - that's also a wall. A real wall, not a little wall like some people said, "Let's just build a little wall." They have them; they don't work. You need a real wall that will work 99.9 percent - securing the border, closing loopholes, ending chain migration, and canceling the visa lottery. I assume everyone agrees with that, right? I know you agree with it, though. I know that for a fact.
These are men and women who are really charged with keeping out criminals, stopping terrorists, interdicting narcotics, and protecting our workers and our taxpayers - protecting Americans.
I want to thank you all for being here. I want to thank you for the incredible job you've been doing. It's tough, and you don't get a lot of backup from Congress or from different parties.
I will tell you, the Republican Party is with you 100 percent. We really want to get this solved. We want strong borders. We want to give you laws. We want to stop the catch-and-release nonsense that goes on. You catch somebody, and you release them. And you know they're bad. You look at the numbers where they're coming from, Kevin. They're coming in - they're pouring in from other - El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, all over. They're just pouring into our country. And we've stopped it, but the laws make it very tough.
If we had the right laws passed in Congress, your job would be -
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Much easier.
THE PRESIDENT: One-hundred percent easier. I mean, it would be a whole different job. But we have jobs where, if you catch somebody, you can't do anything. We have court systems that don't work. We have everything bad, and we're going to make everything good. And that's what we're here for, and that's what we've been working on very hard. And I think with you, Secretary, we're going to get there. We're going to get there fast.
So I just want to let you know that the Trump administration is with you folks 100 percent. You have not been backed up properly, and everybody knows it. For political reasons, for lots of different reasons. But the Trump administration is with you. We're going to clean up our borders. We're going to have great people come into our country. They're going to come in based on merit. They're going to come in for lots of good reasons. But we're going to have great people coming to our - we're going to stop what's going on. We're going to stop it fast, and we're already stopping it to an extent. But we are going to stop it.
And the big thing is we have to stop with the drugs. Because you go down to any law enforcement agency, you go down to the precincts, and you say, what percentage of your crime is drug-related? And it's usually numbers like 70, 75, 80 percent. It's just a massive number.
And these countries are not our friends. You know, we think they're our friends and we send them massive aid. And I won't mention names right now, but I look at these countries, I look at the numbers we send them - we send them massive aid and they're pouring drugs into our country and they're laughing at us. So I'm not a believer in that. I want to stop the aid. I want to stop the aid. If they can't stop drugs from coming in - because they could stop them a lot easier than us. They say, "Oh, we can't control it." Oh great, we're supposed to control it.
So we give them billions and billions of dollars and they don't do what they're supposed to be doing. And they know that. But we're going to take a very harsh action.
So Secretary, you take over. I'd like to hear from the rest of your people.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: Yes, thank you. So, we have just a quick - to follow up on what Kevin said and what you just said, sir - some graphics on how border walls work. That's the bottom line. We've seen it, we have evidence, we know that they work.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: We're going to build you one.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: So we're working with Congress. You've just requested a $25 billion trust fund. We have a very specific and targeted way in which we will use that money to build a border wall system. Just not just that infrastructure, but the technology and personnel that go with it.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
SECRETARY NIELSEN: And then to your second point, we're going to turn over to Acting Director Homan of ICE. As you know, the loopholes that Tom faces, day in and day out, and our officers do is the fact that, once we apprehend somebody, we have difficulty under the current laws and loopholes detaining them and then removing them from the country. And that's going to stop.
THE PRESIDENT: Will this be cleared up by the legislation we're potentially working if we can get the Democrats to approve anything, you know? It's pretty tough. They can't even approve citizenship, okay? They can't approve anything. But if we can get them to approve something, will all of this, which we desperately need for the people in this building and for law enforcement - will this be part of it?
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