Remarks by President Trump After Meeting with Congressional Leadership on Border Security | Eastern North Carolina Now

    But we're very proud of jobs and the job numbers. That was incredible. And I think I'll be even more proud if we can have great border security for the first time in, really, the history of our country. The southern border is a dangerous, horrible disaster. We've done a great job, but you can't really do the kind of job we have to do unless you have a major, powerful barrier. And that's what we're going to have to have.

    So, first, we start with Mike Pence.

    THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. We are nearly two weeks into a government shutdown, but our nation is also in the midst of a crisis on our southern border.

    And today, President Trump convened, for the second time this week, Republican and Democrat leaders from the Congress to address both issues. And we are truly grateful for the candid and constructive dialogue that took place today here, at the White House, with Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer, with our Republican Senate leadership, as well. And we look forward to continued dialogue over the course of this weekend.

    Make no mistake about it: We are in the midst of a crisis at our southern border. Every day, nearly 2,000 people are apprehended or stopped attempting to come into our country that have no lawful claim to be here. Last year alone, 17,000 individuals, with previous criminal records, were apprehended attempting to come across our southern border.

    Every day, all across this country, in a single week, 300 Americans lose their lives to the scourge of heroin addiction. Ninety percent of the heroin in this country flows through our southern border. And the human trafficking that the President just described so compellingly - last month alone, 20,000 minors were brought alone across our border, were interdicted by Border Patrol personnel.


    You heard the President's passion today, here, at the podium. And we all - Leader McCarthy and all the leaders gathered in the Situation Room today - heard the President's passion for the better part of two hours, not just to address a government shutdown but to address border security and this crisis at our southern border.

    And today, President Trump provided the kind of leadership that the American people expect in such a moment. He made it clear that we are committed to achieving border security as we resolve this budget impasse. He made it clear that we are going to build a wall on our southern border.

    As I said, the conversations were constructive and substantive. And at the close of the meeting, the President directed me and Jared Kushner, and Secretary Nielsen, to meet with top-level staff of Democrat and Republican leadership in the House and Senate over the course of this weekend, and see if we could build on the common ground that we identified in the discussions today.

    Our aim will be to find a solution not just simply to end the government shutdown, to provide funding to end the crisis at our southern border, to achieve real border security, and to build a wall on our southern border.

    And, Mr. President, I promise - I promise you, as you promised the Republican and Democrat leaderships today, that we will work earnestly over the weekend. We will work in good faith. The American people deserve nothing less. And we enter this weekend and these discussions hopeful, again, not simply that we will end a budget shutdown, but that we will make, finally, meaningful progress on securing our southern border to prevent the flow of narcotics, human trafficking, illegal immigration that has so beset our country now for more than a generation.

    And with the President's leadership and direction, we'll hope to accomplish just that.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mike. Thank you very much. Kevin?

    HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER MCCARTHY: I came down for the second time this week. Basing on the meeting that we had earlier in the week, I didn't expect the meeting to last very long. It was two hours. This was much more productive than we've had in any other time. I think there's places that we can find common ground.

    The President was very strong what he needs to have happen here. We need border security. We want the government to open. But I found, in our discussion, sometimes it was tough, but there is areas that we can find agreement on. That's when the President interjected that he actually thought what would be best: that he would designate three individuals, with the Vice President being the lead, to work through the weekend, build on this progress, and that each leader would also send. The President was very kind to the Speaker. I think you said she could bring twice as many, right? If need be.

    THE PRESIDENT: Five times as many.

    HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER MCCARTHY: (Laughs.) I know Mitch McConnell, Leader McConnell, is sending down. I'm sending members down, staffers, that can go work throughout the weekend. I know the President said he will call us back next week, and invited us back, as well.

    We want to solve this problem. There is a great need to do it. And we can get it done; it just has to have the will. But I see the will from this administration. I will promise you this: I will work with anybody who wants to move America forward, secure our border, and put this government back open. And I'm making that pledge here, and I hope every other leader will make that pledge as well. And if that means we're staying in the room to get it done, we will stay in the room and get this job done. And there was progress today. I look forward to solving it.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Steve, please.

    REPRESENTATIVE SCALISE: Thank you, Mr. President. And I thought we had a very important and productive meeting today. And what this has always been about is securing the border and keeping America safe. I want to thank the President for the commitment that he's made for over two years now to achieve what many Presidents promised. And we've seen the promises, but it was never followed through with actual law that gets this job done.

    Secretary Nielsen has gone over the numbers, and the numbers are alarming. You know, one of the numbers that jumps out is last year, in 2017, actually. Over 3,700 known or suspected terrorists tried to enter into this country. These are serious numbers, when you see the human trafficking. In 2017, our ICE agents saved over 900 kids. One year alone, saved over 900 kids from sexual assault and human trafficking - things that are happening at the southern border because there's no wall, there's no physical barrier. There's no way to actually control ports of entry.

    If somebody wants to seek asylum, there's a way to do that. There are legal ways to come to this country, and legal immigration has made this country great. We, by the way - America - let in over a million people every single year. By far, the most generous nation in the world. And yet, we have laws that need to be followed to keep Americans safe and to protect the integrity of a system where, right now, there are millions of people who are waiting in line to come to America to seek the American Dream, like Officer Singh did when he sought his chance at the American Dream. That dream was taken. It was taken because we don't have a secure border. We can't let this continue.


    As we work to open the government, let's always keep the focus on what this is about. It's about securing this country. The Secretary of Homeland Security has made it clear what it's going to take to secure our border. President Trump is following through on that commitment to keep America safe. And hopefully, as we work through the weekend, we can get a resolution that achieves all of those objectives.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Steve. Thank you.

    Major, go ahead. Sure.

    Q Mr. President, Senator Schumer came out and said that the meeting, from his point of view and Speaker Pelosi's, was contentious. He also said you said in the meeting - this is him quoting you; I just want to check - that the shutdown could go on for months or even a year, or longer. Did you say that?

    THE PRESIDENT: I did.

    Q Is that your -

    THE PRESIDENT: I did.

    Q Is that your assessment of where we are?

    THE PRESIDENT: I did say that. Absolutely, I said that. I don't think it will, but I am prepared. And I think I can speak for Republicans in the House and Republicans in the Senate. They feel very strongly about having a safe country, having a border that makes sense. Without borders - I've said it many times - we don't have a country. I hope it doesn't go on even beyond a few more days. It really could open very quickly.

    I told them that - bring who you want. We have three people. You can ideally bring three, but you can bring six, you can bring nine, you can bring twelve. And they're going to be working over the weekend. I think it may have been somewhat contentious but I think it was very productive, I have to say that. And I think he said that too.

    Q What was the productive part, from your point of view, Mr. President? Did the Democrats move at all in your direction on funding of a border barrier?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't want to get into that because I don't want to put them in a position where they have to justify anything to a lot of the people that they have to make happy.

    We want to save lives. We want children to be safe. The children are being decimated. And I'm not talking about necessarily children in our country. I'm talking about wonderful children that are coming up from other places, whether it's Honduras or Guatemala, or El Salvador or Mexico, or other places.

    And we have to take care of those children also. We can't let them die on the way up. What's happening to women on those caravans, you're not talking about it, but it's horrible what's happening. If they know it's not going to take place because they can't get through because we have a great border wall, or fence, or barrier, they're not going to come up and you're not going to have the problem.

    At the same time, they can apply to come into our country legally, like so many people have done. And we need people, Major. We have to have people. Because we have all these companies coming in. We need great people. But we want them to come in on a merit basis, and they have to come in on a merit basis. They can't come in the way they've been coming in for years.

    I get calls from the great tech companies, and they're saying we don't allow people at the top of their class, at the best schools in the country, we don't allow them to stay in our country. So they end up going back to China and Japan and so many other countries all over the world, and we don't keep them. They get educated at our finest schools, and then we don't allow them, through a various set of circumstances, to have any guarantees of staying. So we lose out on great minds. We can't do that.

    We have companies that, if we don't change that - and we're working on that, and we discussed that with the Democrats, and I think they agree. We're working on that. But we don't want to lose our great companies because we have a ridiculous policy that we won't accept smart people. So, call it politically correct or not, but we have to let these great, brilliant companies have the smartest people in the world.


    Yes, ma'am.

    Q Mr. President -

    Q Mr. President -

    THE PRESIDENT: Hold it. One at a time, please. Go ahead.

    Q Mr. President, why not reopen the government to create more space to have that broader conversation about immigration reform?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, we think it can go very quickly. No, we won't be opening until it's solved. We think this is a much bigger problem. The border is a much more dangerous problem. It's a much bigger problem. It's a problem of national security. It's a problem of terrorists.

    You know, I talk about human traffickers. I talk about drugs. I talk about gangs. But a lot of people don't say - we have terrorists coming through the southern border because they find that's probably the easiest place to come through. They drive right in and they make a left. Not going to happen. Not going to happen. So we're not going to do that. We won't be doing pieces. We won't be doing it in dribs and drabs.