President Trump visits border wall, holds border security roundtable FULL

To meet just said hello to Reggie and I've seen so much with Reggie and his incredible brother and family. You know that, and we're here to make it, to learn a little while of the border, and we have fantastic people with us, including our great senators from the state of Texas. And thank you very much John and Ted, thank you very much for being here. And our lieutenant governor, who's been my friend for a long time, and I also hear your son is doing a very good job. I hear he's doing a good job. So I want to thank all of you for being here, and we're going to go around the table and say a few words. Attorney General, thank you very much for being here, appreciate it. What a job you've done. Big victory you had recently, too. It's a very important victory. The individual mandate, we're going to see if that holds up because it should. That was the excuse they had, and now we'll see if it holds up, right? But I think you're gonna be in great shape. I'm honored to be in McAllen, Texas, with the heroes of Border Patrol, and they are heroes. You know, you have so much Border Patrol, ICE, and law enforcement generally. You take so much heat, you take so much abuse from people that don't know what they're talking about. I want to just say that you have a friend with this administration, and you have a friend with me. Nobody does a better job. And I have to add that you have no idea how much you're loved by the public. Maybe not by the fake news, but you're loved by the public beyond police. And that includes my friend Brandon, and Brandon, thank you very much for being so great. You've been getting the word out how important it is: border security, the wall, or the steel barrier. They can have any name they want, but we have to have it, and it's gonna happen. But law enforcement, ICE, and Border Patrol, incredible job you do, and the public loves you. The public, not like they love you. And I just hope that none of you run for president because that will... you may be the one person that we have a problem with, because you are highly respected in our country and beyond our country. We know what you do with MS-13, we know what you do with the gangs, we know what you do with crime, and we also see what you're doing at the border. Boy, I'll tell you what, it's tough stuff, but it could be a lot easier for you, and you could be spread all that differently if we had the walls. And we'll get it, we'll get it. I think we're winning the battle in a very big way. So I just want to thank you all in particular for being with us. Thank you very much, fellows. Thank you very much, really incredible. I want to thank also Secretary Nielsen and Commissioner McAleenan for being with us. We made the trip down from Washington. And again, Senator John Cornyn has been an incredible champion of what we're doing and a very popular man in Texas. And I think we're running in two years together, and that's very good for both of us, I hope. I think it is. I think it's my honor, John. I want to tell you the people of... And we have another great friend of mine, Ted Cruz. That he is a friend of mine, except for about four or five months. Before I was telling John that Ted and I were in the campaign, we liked each other so much. And I said, look, at some time that'll end, right, Ted? But we just... we actually would do joint appearances together, and the press would say, when's it gonna end? It'll happen, Ted would say, it'll happen. We didn't know we'd be quite that violent, but then the friendship is at least equal to what it was. And I just want to congratulate you because I was here. We had that arena with about 22,000. That was the Houston arena. That was an incredible night, right? And we had, I think, 109,000 or 106,000 people wanting to come. They had thousands outside. And that was a few weeks before the election. I said, I think he's gonna win. I think he's gonna win nicely. And I want to just congratulate you. That was not easy. And now he lost and he wants to run for president. And I said, I thought you had to win to run for president, right? But you did a great job, Ted. We appreciate it. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who's led some incredible cases. Ken, thank you very much. And Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who's been again a friend of mine for a long time. I also want to thank the governor. He's going on Fox tonight, and he sends his regards, and we're gonna either see him later. He's coming into Washington. But the governor, who just had a great campaign also, he's been fantastic and a big believer in what we're doing. So say hello to him, and I'll speak to him later. Thanks also to Brandon Judd and the National Border Patrol Council. So Brandon, I've known him from the beginning, almost before I announced. He was for my ideas, and he was for us, he was for me. And I appreciate it. I appreciate it. All your guys coming up last week, they had a big impact. We said to them, what do you want? Who knows better than them? He knows better than all of us put together. And that group was fantastic that we had in Washington just a few days ago. And they went on television, and anybody that listened wouldn't even have a doubt about it. So Brandon, thank everybody. We appreciate it very much. Done a fantastic job. The Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector. Who is from the sector? Do you have any specific guys here from... and in ladies, quite a few now. You tougher than the rest? Are you just tougher than the rest? I don't know, maybe. But I heard special problems. But there they are. How are you? Come on over there. That's fantastic. And I've heard so much about all of you, and we're going to spend a little time in a little while together. I don't know if we're walking or flying, but either one is okay with me. We're gonna see a lot. But thank you for being here. In a few moments, the American people will hear directly from our frontline border agents about the tremendous flood of illegal immigration, drug trafficking, human trafficking. A phenomenon that has been going on for a thousand years or more, and that you think was something that modern society wouldn't have. And I hate to tell you that because of the internet, it's worse than ever before. Human trafficking is a horrible thing, and much of it comes... it's a world problem, not a U.S. problem only. And they come across the border, and it's a bad thing. And they drive, they just go where there's no security. You don't even know the difference between Mexico and the United States. There's no line of demarcation. They just go out, and where there's no fencing or walls of any kind, they just make a left into the United States. And they come in, and they have women tied up, they have tape over their mouths, electrical tape, usually blue tape as they call it. It's powerful stuff, not good. And they have three, four, or five of them in vans, or three of them in back seats of cars, and they just drive right in. They don't go through your points of entry. They go right through them. And if we had a barrier of any kind, a powerful barrier, whether it's steel or concrete, if we had a barrier, they wouldn't be able to make that turn, and they wouldn't even bother trying. They can't go through the points with people, so we would stop that cold. We would stop it cold. And they can't fly in, obviously, for obvious reasons. So we'd stop human trafficking in this section of the world. I think it would stop 95% of it. A tremendous percentage would stop. And you also have the criminal gangs coming in. They don't walk through the points of entry. They come where nobody's around. And you're talking about hundreds and hundreds of miles, 2,000 miles. But we need 500 miles of border. One of the things that has happened, and I was explaining to the two senators and to Dan in the car, that one of the things that really is happening, without saying it too loudly, and I told them, Dan said, could you repeat that story? When I say Mexico is going to pay for the wall, that's what I said. Mexico's going to pay. I didn't say they're gonna write me a check for $20 billion or $10 billion. How would you... they're gonna write a check? I said they're gonna pay for the wall. And if Congress approves this incredible trade bill that we made with Mexico and Canada, by the way, but with Mexico in this case, they're paying for the wall many, many times over. And Dan said, would you do me a favor? Say that. And I do say, but the press sort of refuses to acknowledge it. When I say Mexico is going to pay for the wall, that's what I mean. Mexico's paying for the wall. And I didn't mean, please write me a check. I mean, very simply, they're paying for it in the trade deal. And sometimes I'd say that so hopefully people will start to understand. Now, if the deal doesn't get approved by Congress, which would be hard because it's so much better than NAFTA. NAFTA was a horrible trade deal, one of the worst ever made. It really hurt our country. But now we have the USMCA, and it's a great deal. And I think that you're gonna see some tremendous improvement for the farmers and for the people of Texas. So law enforcement professionals at DHS, the men and women in this room, have told us what they need to secure the border. These are the people we went to. It's not only the wall or the barrier, it's the equipment for seizing the drugs. We have tremendous equipment today. It's expensive, but tremendous equipment that when you do drive through one of the ports of entry, we have equipment that will be able to detect the drugs, and it's the finest in the world. And we're getting it ready. It's part of what we're asking for. It's not only the wall. And we've taken their recommendation straight to Congress. But Congress, as you know, the Democrats are holding us up because they don't want it. They think it's good politically. I think it's a disaster for them politically. But I'm not doing it for politics. I'm doing it because it's right. I'm doing it because it's right. And before, when I left Washington, I said they can't have a problem with crime because the people that are coming in, the criminals, the gangs, the traffickers, the drugs, it's all crime. And the only way you're gonna stop it is the way these people are strongly recommending. So hopefully, I hear we're making a lot of progress. I even hear certain members of Congress, the Democrats, are saying, we better get this thing going. This isn't working out too well for us. Because nobody's gonna win the battle of strong borders and no crime as opposed to open borders and crime. Doesn't matter because that's what this is. Crime doesn't matter. We have people that have been so horribly hurt, families that have been so horribly hurt by people that just come in like it's like just come into the United States, do whatever they want. In many cases, they'll even then they'll come back, or in many cases they stay. And we've done a very good job at the border considering we're not given the right laws. We have laws that are so bad, they're archaic and they're horrible, and we don't have the barrier. So our plan includes drug detection technology at our ports, more officers and agents, far more, more beds to house the influx of unlawful migrants, medical support, closing the disastrous loopholes that incentivize child smuggling. The single biggest victims of what is happening at our border are children. They're being used by the coyotes. They're being sold left and right. People are grabbing them to get in because our laws are really lousy. And if you have a child with you, it's easier to get in. These people know it better than anybody, far better than the people in Washington. And I think the biggest victims are children and women. Women would be right there with the children. These are the victims, and it's women mostly in terms of the smuggling and what's going on with that. So we're gonna take care of this problem. And to think anybody can even think about fighting it is ridiculous. So we're gonna build a powerful steel barrier. They didn't want to use concrete. I said okay, I'll use steel. It's stronger, it's also more expensive by the way, but it's stronger. So we'll go to steel. Now people should be happy. They said concrete, we don't want a concrete wall. I said that's okay, we'll build a steel wall. I like it better, if you want to know the truth, Ted. And we'll call it a barrier instead of a wall. And I'm okay with that too. I don't care what you call it, but it's got to be there. Democrats have refused to listen to the border agents, and they say this is a manufactured crisis. That's a new soundbite all over. I turned on the television, you know, I caught the opposition party, it's called fake news media. And what happens is every network has a manufactured crisis. This is a... every one of them. It's like they send out to everybody, let's use this soundbite today. So it's a manufactured... what is manufactured is the use of the word manufactured. It's manufactured by them. Every single one of the negatives. But they're not winning because it's common sense. It's common sense. They say a wall has been evil. Well, so is the wheel. A wheel is older than a wall. And I looked at every single car out there, even the really expensive ones that the Secret Service uses, and believe me they are expensive. I said, do they all have wheels? Yes. Oh, I thought it was medieval. The wheel is older than the wall, you know that. And there are some things that work. You know what? A wheel works. A wall works. Nothing like a wall. The government shut down because Democrats will not fund border security, plain and simple. And again, more than just the walls. Their open borders agenda threatens all American families, including millions of legal immigrants throughout our nation. In the last two years alone, our courageous ICE officers, many of whom are with us, arrested criminal aliens charged with or convicted of 100,000 assaults. This in the last year, 30,000 sex crimes and 4,000 violent killings. We're deeply moved to have with us Reggie Singh, whose brother Ronald... Ronald Singh, an incredible guy. I mean, I watched, and I've rarely felt worse in watching news of our nation than watching your family and the love that you have for your brother. I could see that, Reggie. The way it came through, it came through loud and clear. And there are so many other people who have the same. Nobody covers them, you know. When they talk about how unfair, how this, how that, nobody talks about how unfair it is to the victims of these brutal killings. And by the way, over the years, there's thousands of them. I don't mean hundreds, I don't mean in the teens, I mean thousands of them. And these officers can all tell you about them. And I'd like to, if I could, because I watched a family right around Christmastime, and I watched them suffer. And I'd like to ask if Reggie maybe you could say a few words about your incredible brother, the job he was doing. He was so beloved by the people in the department and beyond the department. And maybe you could say a few words about your brother, please.

That was a tough one, too. It was a tough one for a lot of people, not only the family, for a lot of people in this country. That was a tough thing to watch. Also with us, Marie Vega, whose son, Border Patrol agent Xavier Vega Jr., who is another person who was loved by so many in the department, on the Border Patrol. We had so many people talking, they're still talking so much about him. It happened in 2014. He was out fishing with his wife, his parents, and his kids. And Marie, I'd like to have you say a little bit about your son, because he is so loved and respected still in this room. Please.

Very proud of you right now. Thank you very much. What Marie said is right. More than just the wall, we have to give these incredible people the tools to work with. We're not doing that. Politicians in Washington are saying, oh, you know, they don't know the first thing about... they've never been here. They don't know the first thing about what we're talking about. So we're gonna hear from a couple of our landowners, a couple of the folks that live in the area and areas that we're discussing. I think I'd like to start off with our Texas leaders, and they are indeed leaders, and say a few words about what we're here for and what we support and what's going to happen. And we have no choice. And maybe we'll start with John Cornyn. Senator Cornyn, say a few words, please.

Dan, if you could say a few words also. I'd like to have somebody get up and give us, just for the media, a little definition of exactly what's in front of us, because it looks pretty brutal. This is not a manufactured deal, as you say. This is the real stuff. And this is nothing compared to what they have. This is actually nothing compared to what they have. So is somebody going to be able to explain this to us quickly? Good, good. Carlos, please, just go ahead.

Yeah, okay. Well, I want to thank you, and I think a lot of people are getting it now because it's very simple. It's not complex. If we don't have a barrier, a very substantial barrier of some kind, you're never going to be able to solve this problem. And everybody gets it, whether you're educated in this world or not educated in this world. You don't have to be at all. They don't get it. That's why you see Congress now, Democrats in Congress are coming out saying, hey, we don't like this subject. That was just a big article. I won't give your competition the publicity, but there was a big article in a very important media outlet that just came out where a lot of the young Democrats just elected to office are breaking up and they're saying, hey, wait a minute, this our position, meaning the Democrats' position of no barrier, no wall, is indefensible. And it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen more and more because it's common sense. What would you say something, please? You've done a great job, Mr. President.

Okay. And I called on you and I called on the Department of Defense to come down and help because we had a caravan storming. We have another one forming, believe it or not, in Honduras. And we paid them many tens of millions of dollars. They do nothing for us. They do nothing. And if you think that country is trying to stop it, don't believe it. Okay? And that goes for Guatemala, that goes for El Salvador. If they want to stop it, they can stop it. But they form and then they come in through Mexico. They break in. And you saw what happened. They broke in because they didn't have the wall. And I think they're thinking about building a wall on their southern border now. But I want to thank the military. They've been incredible. They came up and from day one they worked. Nobody's seen anybody work like that. And they put the essentially barbed wire, but it's called barbed wire at times ten, and it was very effective, to put it mildly. Very effective. Without that, we would have been... it would have been a stampede right into our country. So I just want to thank the military. I know you're still working with us on it. And I'm unfortunately, I have to tell you that they have another one forming, and we'll handle that as it happens. And we're working with Mexico. We appreciate that, but we're working with Mexico very much. Attorney General, please say a few words.

Thank you very much. What you're saying is interesting because you'll have a wall or a barrier, and then what they do is they walk up, kick it through, they come in, and they eventually find an opening. And it's the openings where they come in. And we don't want to have the openings. We're going to have gates where they come in legally, but other than that, we don't want to have openings. And you'll see the crime rate in this country go way down. And we're already doing very well in terms of crime rate, but it's not being helped by what's going on. We could make it a lot better. So I appreciate it very much. Thank you very much. Brendan, Mr. President. I can't hear it. This big gentleman right here, he said he didn't like that. He might be able to handle it. He was the right person for them. I appreciate the leadership that you've provided. I appreciate the access that you have given our virtual agents to our leaders like Secretary Nielsen. Nobody has ever come down and spoken to our agents as much as Secretary Nielsen has, and we appreciate that. We appreciate the leadership that Commissioner McAleenan has provided and the access that you have allowed our agents with these individuals. I appreciate you having Senator Cornyn and Senator Cruz here with us today. These two individuals played such a huge role in getting Xavier Vega's death declared as a line of duty death. Without their leadership, that wouldn't happen. And I appreciate you wanting them to be here. From a personal experience as a Border Patrol agent, I can tell you what barriers do. I started my career in El Centro, California, 21 years ago. We had very few barriers. We had illegal border crossings that were out of control. It was the busiest sector at that time. We put up physical barriers, and illegal border crossings dropped exponentially. I then went to Naco, Arizona. We were the busiest station at that time, 2004, 2005. We were arresting at one small station over 100,000 illegal aliens per year. We built physical barriers. It dropped from 100,000 down to 20,000. That's how physical barriers work. They work. And we appreciate the leadership that you're providing in order to get us those things that we need, such as personnel, technology, and the infrastructure, which is barriers. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Thank you very much. And Brendan, it's been... you just sit here listening, it's like not a contest. There's no two sides or anything. And all they're doing is looking at 20/20 and they figure they can't win. Maybe they can do this or they can come up with some other issue. I can tell you about another couple of issues they're using, and because we've had great achievement, but I won't consider myself to have that great achievement unless we can straighten out your border. And we're working on it. And your son and your brother will not have died in vain. I can tell you that. They will not have died in vain. It's a very important purpose to all of this. Very important. Monty, I agree. That's a very uncomfortable position. I wouldn't want to be in that chair, but you're a tough guy. You can handle it. Please say if you would.

Okay, I agree with you. I think you're right. And the laws are a big problem. You know, they call it catch and release. You catch them, you release them. You know, other countries, for the most part, you go into the country and they say, excuse me, these people get out. You have to get out. Sorry. And nobody tries to get in because they know they can't. With us, we take them through court proceedings. We have to hire hundreds of judges. And you get hundreds of judges. You go through a proceeding. They check you in, then they can't do the proceeding because there's 800,000 people now waiting. 800,000 people. How ridiculous is this? If they set one foot on U.S. property, so to speak, they end up having to go to a trial. So they take the name and they say, you can go now, come back in three years. You have a trial. This is the United States law, by the way, and made worse by the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit is a disaster. Made worse by the Ninth Circuit. If you go to the Ninth Circuit, you're on the other side of what everybody in this room is all about, and frankly, what most of the people in the country are all about. It's almost like an automatic loss. It's like an automatic book. They take a case to the Ninth Circuit that's nowhere near the Ninth Circuit, that has nothing to do with the Ninth Circuit. So we're bucking a bad system. We're bucking a lot of things that are bad. And we're apprehending more people than ever apprehended before. But the laws are really against us. And we're doing well anyway. But we have to do much better. And we can do only better if we have a physical barrier. Because this way, we don't have them even with the bad laws. If you have a physical barrier, they can't come onto our country. Mr. President, I also married into a law enforcement family. Agent Hyneman, Zapata, the CAG killed down in Mexico. You know, it was pretty hard going through that. And I kind of feel y'all's pain. We weren't all that close first, but we became really, really good friends after that happened. I don't know how, but the killers when they got sentenced, what went up to DC, they were allowed to bring their entire family and put them up on the taxpayers' dollar in front of his parents, just paraded them around. And it was like a stab in the back, you know, for the government that he gave his life. And it just... when was that, sir? That was right out last year when they finally went to sentence. So convicted somebody took the fall for it. I can't say that it was the correct person who pulled the trigger. Yeah, that's too bad. Stuff. Yes, pastor, please.

Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you. Can we... sure.

A little while we'll be there. That's great. One of the things that Dan Patrick suggested, which I thought was very interesting, was give the state of Texas a relatively small amount of money, they'll build a wall themselves because they want to build it right. And I thought that was not the worst idea I've ever heard. Although I still think I can do it cheaper than you. I still think I can do what I do. I like the idea, and we're gonna look at a couple of ways of doing that where you guys get it up. You do things very well in Texas, and I like that idea. So we'll take a look. And Dan, could I ask you to say a few words?

Great job. You're working hard. I will tell you that she's working hard. Every time I speak to her, she's in a different location, usually along the border. And you and the secretary and everybody else, we appreciate it very much. And we're getting there. I think we're making a lot of progress. And I have to say that my most sacred duty as president is to defend the people of our nation. That's whether it's from foreign nations or all of order. It's all defending our people and defending them properly and strongly and really rightly and justly. And that's what I'm doing. And it would be a lot easier for me not to do this. It would be a lot easier not to say anything and let this go on. It should have been taken care of 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago. It should have been taken care of. I've seen all the speeches made by all the presidents and a lot of people that worked under the presidents, and you say, what happened? Nothing happened. They were going to build this wall in 2003 and 2006. They were gonna build it 20 years ago. They would have built it forever. And little sections got built. And I will say we've done a lot of renovation. We have a lot of new wall going up where we took down wall because it was in such bad shape. I put new wall up. We've done a lot of work. But we have work to do. So I hope that the Democrats get together and work on a problem that is truly... it's compassion. It's everything. It's also national security. Just like it's a foreign country. It's a foreign world in many cases. It is a foreign country. We're under attack. And we're certainly under attack by criminal gangs, by criminals themselves, by the human traffickers, and by drugs of all kinds. Much of it comes through the southern border. And if we can do a really great job, and we will, of putting up the barriers, putting up the walls, putting up the fences, putting up everything that we have planned, fixing what's good but isn't working so well anymore because it's decrepit, it's old, it's torn up from years of abuse and all of the things that happen, we will have done a great service. And you know, somebody was saying that moving the embassy to Jerusalem, I got it done. Every president talked about it for many, many years, for decades. They talked about it. They campaigned on it in every instance. They campaigned on it. They never got it done. Same thing here. Same exact thing. I got that done, and we're gonna get this done too. And this is really the defense of our country. And this is compassion, Pastor, very much. It's compassion. It's compassion for our people. And we don't want to have situations like Reggie had and his family where he lost a brother who was special, or like Marie had with your son who was... I mean, they still talk about your son as being such a great young man. We don't want that. We don't want that. So we're working very hard. We're going to get it done. We are really on the right side of an issue. And I think, actually, I know you don't see it yet, I feel about things, I think the other side is starting to get it. And maybe I'm wrong, but I really believe the other side is starting to understand what's going on. They're on the wrong side of a very important issue. We're gonna have it taken care of. I want to thank everybody. And you're right, John, the mayors and all the representatives have done such a great job. And some of you I know, I'm sure I'll get to know the rest of you. But especially, I want to thank Marie and I want to thank Reggie for being here. And I want to thank all of the people, Border Patrol, Brandon, thank you very much. Border Patrol, ICE, and law enforcement for being here. We are with you 1,000%.