Remarks by President Trump at the American Farm Bureau Federation's 100th Annual Convention| New Orleans, Louisiana | Eastern North Carolina Now

    When it comes to keeping the American people safe, I will never, ever back down. I didn't need this fight. This is a rough fight. We're dealing against people who think that if they can stop me from building the wall - again, we've already done a lot of work - but they think that's a good thing for 2020, because they're not going to win.

    They think if they can stop me from building the wall, that's good. This is the reason why they don't want the wall built - because they all know it works. They all approved it numerous times. I mean, Chuck Schumer had his hand up every time this would come up. The senators know this. They're only doing this because of the 2020 election because I said I'll build the wall and I'm going to build the wall.

    And it's only one of many things that I promised. I mean, if you look at - (applause) - I got you the biggest tax cut - beyond the Ronald Reagan tax cuts. ANWR, getting rid of the individual mandate, the biggest cuts in regulations in the history of our country - and we're going further. (Applause.) That might be the biggest reason that our country is doing so much better than other countries and why we're doing so well.


    But they view this as a political thing because this was one of the big things I - I said, "We're going to do tax cuts. We're going to do regulation. We're going to do..." And, you know, we've done most of what we said. One of the - that's a lot of news back there. One of the folks back there said that "He's actually done more than he promised." It's true. I have actually done more than I promised. We've done a lot. Even with the veterans. (Applause.) A lot of veterans in Louisiana.

    We got Veterans Choice. We got Veterans Choice approved, which is pretty amazing. They've been trying to get that for years and years - decades and decades.

    And we got Accountability - VA Accountability. When you had somebody treating our veterans horribly, you couldn't do anything. You couldn't fire them - whether it's unions, or whether it's civil service, or whatever it may have been. But for decades and decades, somebody could do anything they wanted. They can steal, they could abuse our veterans, they can be sadists, they can do whatever they want and you couldn't fire them. And I got Accountability approved. Everyone said you couldn't get that - too much power against it. We got it done, and now we can say, "Jim, you're fired. Get out of here. We don't want you taking care of our veterans." (Applause.) That was a big thing. A lot of help from those people.

    So we got a lot done, but they view the wall as being a big item that, if I don't do it, you know, it's a negative. It's a negative. And I'm not doing it for that reason. I'm doing it because we have to do it. It's common sense. We have to do it.

    If you look at the caravans coming up, if you look at what's going on - you take a look. If we didn't have some of those walls - the military has been incredible. They came up and they built some barriers - they kept thousands and thousands of people from overrunning various sections of our country. We've done a great job at the border, but we need that extra - we need that barrier because you can't do this.

    You can have all the people you want dressed in military. You can have ICE. You can have Border Patrol. If you don't have that barrier, there's not a thing you can do. You know, they all say, "We like technology." I like technology, too. But we can have all the drones in the world flying around; we can have all the sensors in the world, but if you don't have a strong steel or concrete barrier, there's no way you're going to stop these people from rushing.

    Last week - and we have no idea who they are. And you got some - I'm sure - very good ones, but you got some real bad ones.

    Last week, I traveled to McAllen, Texas to tour the border and meet with the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol. These great patriots made clear what they need from Congress and to end this terrible crisis. And we will end it. We will end it. You know, when we have proper security, people aren't going to come, except for the people we want to come because we want to take people in to help our farmers, et cetera. Very important. We're going to make that actually easier for them - to help the farmers. (Applause.) Because you need these people. No, you need these people. We're going to make it easier. (Applause.)

    I mean, I'm glad I told you that because, you know, look, you're in that business and a lot of people don't understand this. You need those - you need people to help you with the farms. And I'm not going to rule that out. I'm going to make that easier for them to come in and to work the farms. You've had some people for 20, 25 years. They're incredible. Then they go home and they can't get back in. That's not going to happen.

    But we're keeping the wrong ones out, okay? We don't want the wrong ones coming into our country. And, for that, it's going to be almost impossible to get in. For the people that work the farms, that have been here, that have gone through this very short but good process, that are going to help our country, it's going to be easier for them to get in that what they have to go through now. So just remember that. (Applause.) I know a lot about the farming world. And, if I don't, Sonny teaches me.

    They explained that there is no substitute for a wall - these are the ICE people and the Border Patrol people - or a physical barrier. There is no substitute. Where a barrier exists, illegal crossings plummet dramatically.

    In El Paso, they had - it was one of the most dangerous cities in the country. A wall was put up. It went from being one of the most dangerous cities in the country to one of the safest cities in the country overnight - overnight. Does that tell you something? (Applause.) And I can give you many examples of that.

    They say it's "medieval" - a wall. It is medieval. So is a wheel. I always say "a wheel." But every time I look out, they all have wheels. You know, they may have gone electric and they may have done lots of different things, but every car I've seen still has wheels. (Laughter.) Wheels work and walls work. You know, there's some things you can't beat. (Applause.)

    That's why we've asked Congress to fund a steel barrier, or whatever you want to call it. This barrier will stop illegal activity, while directing lawful trade, travel, and commerce to our ports of entry. These ports are America's doors, but doors only work when you have strength. We need strength. Right now, we have weakness.

    They're forming a new caravan in Honduras. Honduras is not helping us. They could stop it. We send them hundreds of millions of dollars a year - El Salvador, Honduras, and other places - Guatemala - hundreds of millions, but they don't help us, like so many nations. We help them; they don't help us. We don't even get their votes often when we need their vote in the United Nations. They don't vote for us. Why? Because the wrong people are asking them.


    So those days are over. So I said just before I came - we're looking at a whole plan - why are we sending them money if they're allowing caravans to form right in the middle of their cities? Why are we sending them money? (Applause.) A lot of changes have been made in this country in less than two years, I will tell you that. A lot of changes. And really good changes - changes that people like you, with common sense and smarts, fully understand. And that's why we're liking where we are and the country is changing very rapidly for the better.

    As part of our overall border security plan, we have also asked Congress to approve cutting-edge technology to detect drugs. There's incredible technology today. So when these cars do come in through the ports of entry, you have technology today that's so incredible. We don't use it. We don't have it because our leaders decided not to spend the money. Well, you make it back every month - probably more than that - because the drugs coming through the southern border are destroying the fabric of our country. It's so bad. It's so bad. (Applause.) So we have to stop it. This technology is incredible.

    To fund more agents - we're putting that high on the list - officers, beds. Believe it or not, we're one of the only countries - I say "one," because every time I say something else they'll say, "Oh, well, there was a country that also did it." Somebody comes into our country, they touch one foot on the ground, and we have to catch them. It's called, "catch." We then take their names and we bring them to a court - can you believe this? - and we release them. But, see, we're trying to do "catch-and-hold." "Catch-and-not-release." But you have to release. So we release.

    And they go into our country, and then you announce - these are the laws - then you say, "Come back in three years for your trial." Tell me, what percentage of people come back? Would you say 100 percent? No, you're a little off. Like, how about 2 percent? (Laughter.) And those people, you almost don't want, because they cannot be very smart. (Laughter.) Two percent. Two percent. Two percent come back. Those two percent are not going to make America great again, that I can tell you. (Laughter and applause.) Crazy.

    So we have that and we have chain migration, where somebody comes in, and then his mother comes in, his father comes in, his grandmother comes in, his uncle comes in, his cousins come in. We had a guy - a radical Islamic terrorist in New York - area I know very well - driving down the West Side highway. Beautiful - Hudson River to his right. We built this gorgeous park all along the river. It's gorgeous. People are running; they're in great shape. We ought to all - some of these guys in the front row, they should do it with me. We could run. (Laughter.) Some of my friends over there. Sonny - maybe Sonny and I will go take a jog. (Laughter.)

    But you know what? I'll tell you, these are people that are great people, and they're running and they keep - and this horrible person, going down 60 miles an hour down a highway, decides, "Oh, that's nice. We'll make a right turn." Hits a whole group of people purposely, screaming all sorts of things that they scream. And 8 people died; 12 or 13 were injured.

    Nobody talks about the injured. You know, some of the injured lost legs, lost arms. You know, this is - they say, "Oh, well, 12 were injured." You know, like, injured - you think, like, a headache. No, no. They lost arms. They lost legs. One lost two legs. So 12 were horribly injured. And he's allowed to have his family come here. So they checked, and they said that he had about 22 people came in - chain migration. In other words, because he's here - so a whole group of people come in. And we don't want that.

    We have another one - the lottery. The lottery. We take people from countries through the lottery. Now, this is common sense. Do you think the country is giving us their finest? No, they're not. No, they're not. They're giving us the opposite of their finest. And we have a lottery system. "Oh, let's pick him out. Oh, wonderful." Doesn't work out too well, this lottery system.

    But this is the law. This was passed by Democrats and, I guess, Republicans. You know, maybe they voted - who knows? But these are laws that have to be changed. These are - these are sick, demented laws that we have to change. We can't allow this to keep happening. The people that are sent to our country are not the people that we want. They come in through the lottery. They come in through chain migration. Think of it: This man that killed 8 people and so badly injured 12, they say he's about 22 relatives coming in that are here. And take a look at how well his relatives are doing. It's not a good picture.

    So we have to change our laws. It's very hard because the Democrats don't want to change them. But I hope that common sense and people like this can persuade them, because it's gotten to a point where you have to. We really have no choice. And we're fighting hard. We're fighting very hard for you. We're making a lot of progress, I can tell you that. (Applause.)

    Here with us today is Jim Chilton from Arizona. Jim's ranch runs along the U.S-Mexico border. The deadly - very deadly - Sinaloa cartel, one of the most vicious drug cartels anywhere in the world, runs a major drug trafficking route right through Jim's ranch. Many of these routes used to run through San Diego until the wall was built by us, by me. (Applause.) Sorry about that, Jim. (Laughs.) I think Jim has just got angry at me; he just heard that. Sorry, Jim. Because now, what they did, they went to Jim's ranch. I think I cost him a lot of money. Maybe he won't stand up after all. But it's a very sad situation.

    In the last two years, the cameras on Jim's ranch have captured roughly 1,000 pictures of major drug packers, they call them. For years, these criminals have damaged Jim's property, injured his livestock, and started dozens of fire, which Jim estimates cost more than $2 million dollars in 2017 alone.

    Last June, a Border Patrol agent was checking sensors on the Clinton's - and Chilton's ranch when he was shot multiple times by these sinister drug traffickers. Multiple times. And they don't even think about. By the way, they shoot - it's not like, "Oh, gee, I committed a terrible thing." They don't even think about it. They don't even think. They wake up the next morning and they couldn't care less.

    As Jim has said, "Every time I leave the ranch, my wife doesn't know whether I'll ever return."

    I would like to ask Jim to come up and say a few words. Jim, please come up. Thank you. (Applause.)


    MR. CHILTON: Mr. President, we need a wall. (Applause.) I would say we need a wall all around all the length of the border. We've got to stop the drug packers bringing drugs in to poison our people. And I would say to Speaker Pelosi, walls are not immoral. (Applause.) In fact, I've traveled around the world, and the biggest wall I've ever seen is around the Vatican. Now, you can't tell me that the wonderful priest and officials of the Roman Catholic Church, including the Pope, are immoral. They have a wall. Why can't we? (Applause.)

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jim. (Applause.) Thank you, Jim. And I'm sorry for your problems, but we'll get it straightened out.

    The government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only: The Democrats will not fund border security, our safety, our national security. People come from many countries.