Scott, I want to
start with you, because last hour
you were saying
basically that you think
that the Biden administration
is allowing this whole thing up
or just not addressing
what's happening at the border
in any kind of effective way.
What do you want President Biden to do?
I mean, again,
the situation at the border is
so appears to be so overrun,
so complicated.
What today can President Biden do?
Well, he said in his statement in
the White House is saying
that they think Republicans should work
with Democrats.
And I agree.
And the Republicans who just took over
the U.S.
House unveiled a framework
for immigration reform in December.
It includes
finishing the barrier system
that started under Trump
that Biden
paused recruiting
and retaining our great Border
Patrol agents.
If you can't detain someone
for the duration of their illegal
stay here, we should turn them away.
Asylum reform, targeting the cartels.
There's an entire framework
that Republicans laid out
just a couple of weeks ago
that they plan to pursue now.
Will the Senate Democrats
pick up on that?
Will the Biden White House
pick up on that?
I want to see Joe Biden
put his money where his mouth is.
He says he wants bipartisan cooperation.
The Republicans have a plan.
They laid it out.
Maybe that's a starting point.
Paul, what's
what are the chances that the Democrats
would go along with how
Scott just phrased it?
Well, Democrats want a solution.
They want at least to address
the problem. Republicans want chaos.
They want chaos at the border
because they believe
it helps them politically.
Ever since
Donald Trump
slithered down that escalator,
they have been demagoguing immigration.
There is a crisis at the border, though.
There is.
And I actually
think the executive branch,
President Biden in this case, doing
everything he can, is plussed up
the Border Patrol.
He said he's adding even more agents now.
They've stopped record amounts
of fentanyl and record numbers of people.
The courts are doing all they can.
In fact, they're doing more
than they're constitutionally
allowed to do.
Even Justice
Gorsuch pointed that out today.
They've gone beyond their role.
Congress has to fix this.
And the reason Congress hasn't fixed
it is the Republicans don't want to get.
I know.
I don't want I don't mean to interrupt.
I just want to address what Scott said.
Scott,
I know the Democrats always say
that, that Republicans
want this as a talking point.
And Republicans always say that Democrats
and I'll show up at the table.
But what about what Scott just said, that
they've laid out this plan
but I don't think Will,
where Democrats go
along with
with continuing that border wall,
would they go along with everything
that Scott just said?
They have
Democrats been working on this for years
and it has been
at every critical juncture,
the Republicans that have tanked it.
Now, look, there's
some hope
it's not coming from the press release
that Kevin McCarthy's aides put out.
It comes actually from the Senate side.
Kirsten Cinema,
who was a Democrat
until about 15 minutes ago,
working with Thom Tillis
in North Carolina, Republican
and it's not comprehensive at all,
but it's a good start.
Here's what they would do
increase border
patrol security,
increase security at the border,
reform asylum,
which is really where a lot of the reason
a lot of these folks are entering,
and then clear a path to citizenship
for these Dreamers.
It's not everything,
but it's a good start.
A lot of Democrats,
Dick Durbin,
the number
two Democrat in the Senate
and others have joined on to this.
The only Republican besides
tell us who I know is on it is Roy Blunt.
And he's going to retire in a few days.
Ron you've
seen this movie many times over.
What are your thoughts tonight?
There's no secret decoder
ring here, Alisyn.
I mean, I've been covering this
since the early 1990 as is Prop one 87.
And the border is a problem
that is at best managed not solved.
But to get a better handle on it.
The ingredients of a solution
have been the same for 20 years.
More money for border enforcement
and more money
for the asylum system
to clean up this huge backlog
in asylum claims.
Some path to legal status
for the people who are here illegally
And then something that deals
with the future flow of workers
after the previous decade 2010 to 2020
was the smallest population growth
in American history.
Except for the Depression.
The Senate passed
that kind of package in 2006
on a bipartisan basis
with Mitch McConnell
among those voting for it
under George W Bush.
The Senate passed that package again
similar in 2013 on a bipartisan basis
under Barack Obama
with Marco
Rubio among others, voting for it
each time.
The Republican controlled
House would not take it up.
And if we are going to find a true
solution that more effectively controls
the problem, those are the ingredients.
It's not like a mystery
or that there's a hidden answer.
In fact,
even when Trump was president,
the Senate Democrats offered him a deal
to finish
his border wall
in return for DOCA legalization,
and it ran aground.
When Stephen Miller, another
in the White House,
demanded cuts in illegal immigration,
even amid the slowest population growth
in any decades except for the Depression.
So we're going to keep banging
against each other, red states
against the federal government, Democrats
against Republicans,
indefinitely, until there
is sort of an awareness
that the only solution is one
that is comprehensive
and you can only get there
with both parties doing it.
Neither side can do this
politically on their own.
Instead, a new Congress starts next week.
I mean,
just because something hasn't
worked for decades
doesn't mean that it won't work
this year.
Is there any appetite for this?
I mean, Ron lays out the kind of mountain
of kind of political will
that would have to happen
for this new Congress to take this up.
And that's because the distance
between where the Republican base is
and what the Democratic base on
this issue are is massive.
And so politically,
there is just no real,
real appetite yet
to find that sense of common ground.
And the people, we should say,
that are hurt most for that
are the actual migrants
involved with the
with the kind of chaotic
ping pong going back and forth a policy.
But we can't.
This is a Republican Congress coming in
that can't agree
on the speaker yet
to to paper over the divisions
within their caucus.
There is what's an issue like immigration
which not only has divisions
among the Republican caucus,
but also among the Democratic one.
It is a
it is a real tough challenge
to see the path forward
for this politically.
I mean, I think back to the Democratic
primary years ago
in 2020 to even nominate Biden.
And it's
not as if those candidates
were laying out
affirmative immigration policies
to the folks point in the panel
they have been running from this issue.
And so that is
because there's not a real political
will there
to do much of anything about it.
Scott,
I want to drill down
on a couple of things
that keep coming up
that people offer as solutions.
And you mentioned it, which is finishing
basically a border wall.
And then Democrats often
talk about legal status for Dreamers.
How do either of those solve
the 1.6 million asylum applications
that are pending right now
that are flooding the system?
It's a seven time
increase in asylum cases over 2012.
Three out of ten of them are children.
How?
Let's start with yours, the border wall.
How does how does that stop
the influx of people
that are coming from countries
like Nicaragua?
Well, with abject poverty and crime,
well, it
doesn't fix the backlog in the system.
What it does do
if you go ahead and complete
the barriers like Arizona governor
outgoing governor Doug Ducey
tried to do it, just stop people
from walking across the border.
I mean, you have people coming in
to the United States
across, you know, places
like the Yuma Gap and Arizona.
So that's one thing.
Yeah, but that's the big problem.
The big problem is the 1.6 million asylum
applications that that
our system can't handle.
I think they're all big problems.
I think the
I think the backlog is a problem,
and I think
the daily influx is a problem.
And I do think
fixing the Dreamers
situation is also a good thing to do.
But that also doesn't address
the people who are showing up
every single day.
So there's multi faceted issues here.
And all of those things,
I think, wind up in the discussion
around a possible deal
because it's what someone wants
or it's it's
the most important thing
for some political constituency.
So you wind up tacking it on.
But it strikes me
that the most important thing
you could possibly do
is stop the influx the day.
Get a handle
on what we have in terms of the backlog
and stop adding to it.
And that,
I think, is the fundamental disagreement
between the parties.
The Republicans
want to put a stop
to everybody coming in
and being added to the asylum backlog.
And the Democrats just say,
well, let's just do the paperwork faster.
And that is a huge gulf between
the two parties.
Paul, wasn't
Scott saying that
he thinks that a wall would help?
Wasn't there a time that Democrats
supported a wall?
Oh, a
wall makes sense in some places,
and it's more ironic in others.
And that's what Mr.
Trump didn't understand,
because he's Donald Trump.
But but Scott
brother,
you're not quite right about this, okay?
I don't want to be mean, but
the wall doesn't stop.
An asylum seeker
and asylum seeker
is someone
who has a new claims,
a well-founded fear of persecution.
So she presents herself to the border.
She's not trying to avoid anything.
She's not stopping at a wall.
She's going to the gate.
She's going to the
to the Border Patrol and saying, Here
I am. Take me in.
And these are people
fleeing murderous
communist dictatorships.
They're fleeing narco traffickers.
Gangs that have taken over in
many of these areas in Central America.
The kind of folks
I mean, you'd have to shoot me
if it was the only way to feed my family,
to protect my children.
From these gangs
or these communist dictators.
So fundamentally, we have
we have to have securing the border.
By the way, liberals have to say that.
Join me, liberals.
We have to secure the border.
Conservatives have to admit
that America needs immigrants
and we cannot turn away.
We're not got ripped children
from their parents anymore the way Mr.
Trump did.
And we can't turn away people who
who are going to get shot if they go home
by either communist dictator.
Yes, I hear you all.
But let's be honest.
And I think Scott's point
is that of the 1.6 million asylum
applications pending,
not all of them will be legitimate
asylum seekers.
I mean, the problem with the glut
and I mean, obviously, people
who are streaming here from Cuba
and Venezuela
have a lot to be afraid of, but
we can't process that.
We don't know if all 1.6 million
are legitimate.
And by the way,
we might not know for years
it's taken because of the backlog.
It's taking like four and a half years
to process some of this,
that it's a four or five year
and a wall won't fix that.
More more asylum judges will
faster adjudication,
maybe even change the standards
right now,
the standard for decades has been
do you have a well-founded
fear of persecution? Yeah.
And that's always been a pretty sensible
standard for America.
But if we're being overwhelmed.
But Congress has to change that.
Joe Biden can't change it
and the Supreme Court can't change it.
Congress has to write a new law
if they want a new.