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Donald J. Trump
Remarks: Donald Trump Discusses the Border Wall in Alamo, Texas - January 12, 2021
StressLens
8 Topics
10 Entities
Moderation
1 Speaker
Donald Trump Full Transcript
Donald Trump
00:00:00-00:00:17 (17 sec)No StressLens
Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Great honor to be here. We worked long and hard. Please sit down. We've worked long and hard to get this done. They said it couldn't be done, and we got it done. One of the largest infrastructure projects in the history of our country.
Donald Trump
00:00:17-00:01:07 (50 sec)No StressLens
I'm honored to be here in the Rio Grande Valley with the courageous men and women of Customs and Border Patrol. These people are incredible. They're really incredible. I've gotten to know you very well over the last four years. Many of you are friends from all of the work we did in designing the wall. We got it exactly as you wanted it -- everything -- including your protective plate on top. I'd say, "Why did we put that?" And they said, "We need it for extra protection." Climb plate. And we have everything you want. It's steel. It's concrete inside the steel. And then it's rebar -- a lot of heavy rebar inside the concrete. And it's as strong as you're going to get and strong as you can have. But we gave you 100 percent of what you wanted. So now you have no excuses. I didn't want you to have any excuses. [Laughter]
Donald Trump
00:01:07-00:01:29 (22 sec)No Signal (0.643)
And you set records. And we can't let the next administration even think about taking it down, if you can believe that. I don't think that will happen. I think when you see what it does and how it's so important for our country, nobody is going to be touching it. And you are very proud of it, and you're proud of the work you did, because we really designed it together.
Donald Trump
00:01:38-00:02:17 (39 sec)Weak (1.134)
Before we begin, I'd like to say that free speech is under assault like never before. The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration. As the expression goes: Be careful what you wish for. The impeachment hoax is a continuation of the greatest and most vicious witch hunt in the history of our country, and it is causing tremendous anger and division and pain -- far greater than most people will ever understand, which is very dangerous for the USA, especially at this very tender time.
Donald Trump
00:02:17-00:02:44 (27 sec)No Signal (0.997)
And now I'd like to briefly address the events of last week. Millions of our citizens watched on Wednesday as a mob stormed the Capitol and trashed the halls of government. As I have consistently said throughout my administration, we believe in respecting America's history and traditions, not tearing them down. We believe in the rule of law, not in violence or rioting.
Donald Trump
00:02:44-00:03:37 (53 sec)No StressLens
Because of the pandemic -- horrible, horrible invisible enemy -- and despite our tremendous success developing a vaccine years before it was thought evenly remotely possible. Nobody thought it was going to be possible. They said would take five years. "Sir, it will take seven years." All of our scientists were saying -- our advisors, "It will take 7 years, 5 years, 10 years maybe." Well, we did it just like I said we would. And we had it out years and years before they thought it was possible. And we're now delivering it to states, including your state, where your governor and government are doing a terrific job in getting it administered in Texas. And Florida is doing great. Some of them are doing great. Some aren't doing as well, but they have all they can handle. And we get it to them as fast as they need it, and even faster.
Donald Trump
00:03:52-00:04:33 (41 sec)No StressLens
Now is the time for our nation to heal, and it's time for peace and for calm. Respect for law enforcement and the great people within law enforcement -- so many are here -- is the foundation of the MAGA agenda. And we're a nation of law, and we're a nation of order. That is why we're here today, to talk about what we must do to uphold the rule of law in America and how we must continue to support our law enforcement heroes, which is exactly what you are. Do you feel like a hero? Yeah, I think you do. Right? [Applause] You do and you are.
Donald Trump
00:05:02-00:05:26 (24 sec)Weak (1.026)
I also want to thank a tremendous gentleman, a friend of mine, Tom Homan. He's a great American patriot, and he was with us right from the beginning. [Applause] Right, Tom? You knew exactly -- he said, "We need a wall," when they were saying, "No, no, we need drones. We need drones." I said, "Why? So you can watch the people pour into our country illegally?" And I want to thank you very much, Tom. What a -- what a professional job you've done.
Donald Trump
00:05:58-00:06:54 (56 sec)No StressLens
We took on the cartels, the coyotes, and the special interests, and we restored the rule of law. For years, politicians ran for office promising to secure the border, only to get elected and to do the absolute exact opposite. They even promised a wall. If you remember, about 10 years ago, they promised a wall but they couldn't get it built. It wasn't easy getting it built. Getting it financed was tough. Getting it built was even tougher. All the different chains of title and all the different things we had to go through -- very, very complex and very difficult, but we got it done. But they had it years ago. You remember that better than anybody. Right? And they never got it done. They never, ever completed the task. And then, ultimately, the money was sent back to the federal government. Spent, but no wall was built.
Donald Trump
00:07:10-00:08:08 (58 sec)No StressLens
I remember when I first came down, about a year and a half ago: We're under construction, and I started walking, and I'm looking at the wall, and I'm walking and walking. And I'm used to, like, a development project where you could walk a wall. You know, 10 acres, 5 acres, 2 acres, 1 acre. Then I realized that's a long time; that's a big walk. A lot of it -- a lot of the wall you have is incredibly natural. It's -- you have the mountains. You have the rivers. You have some very powerful water areas. You have some areas that are virtually impossible to get by. So we didn't need walls everywhere, but where we needed them -- because it's been so successful that we've added nearly 300 miles. And that's currently under construction. This was our original wish: to get these areas done where it was such trouble. And now we have it. It's either in construction or pre-construction -- an additional 300 miles.
Donald Trump
00:08:08-00:08:35 (27 sec)No StressLens
In every region that we've built the wall, illegal crossings and drug smuggling have plummeted. Absolutely plummeted. In the Rio Grande Valley, crossings have dropped nearly 80 percent. In Yuma, Arizona, illegal entries have been slashed by 90 percent. Nationwide, ICE and Border Patrol have seized over 2 million pounds of fentanyl, heroin, meth, and other deadly narcotics, saving thousands and thousands of lives.
Donald Trump
00:08:47-00:09:26 (39 sec)No StressLens
We removed nearly 20,000 gang members from the United States, including 4,500 members of MS-13 -- probably the worst gang of them all. Through the landmark reforms we've put into place, we have ended the immigration chaos and reestablished American sovereignty. Our most important reform was ending catch and release -- not easy to do; you're dealing with Congress; it's very, very difficult -- which is the functional equivalent of open borders, but even worse: It's catch and release them. It means release into our country, not into another country.
Donald Trump
00:09:40-00:10:06 (27 sec)No Signal (0.953)
Now, instead of "catch and release," we have "detain and remove." It's called "detain and remove." Doesn't that sound better? One of the biggest loopholes we closed was asylum fraud. Under the old, broken system, if you merely requested asylum, you were released into the country. The most ridiculous thing anyone has ever seen. And we were taking in some people that you didn't want to have in your country.
Donald Trump
00:10:22-00:10:40 (18 sec)Weak (1.138)
Under this agreement, if an illegal alien requests asylum, they have to wait in Mexico until their case is heard. They used to wait here. And when they were waiting, they would say "bye-bye," and they'd disappear somewhere into our country, and essentially we'd never find them again, would never see them again.
Donald Trump
00:10:50-00:11:12 (23 sec)Weak (1.113)
I want to thank the great President of Mexico. He is a great gentleman, a friend of mine. And President Obrador -- he is a man who really knows what's happening. And he loves his country, and he also loves the United States. But I want to thank for his friendship and his professional working relationship.
Donald Trump
00:11:12-00:11:28 (16 sec)Weak (1.078)
We actually had 27,000 Mexican soldiers guarding our borders over the last two years. Nobody thought that was possible. And they made it very, very difficult, and that's why the numbers were able to plunge, even during the construction of the wall.
Donald Trump
00:11:28-00:11:57 (29 sec)Weak (1.312)
And, by the way, one of the big elements of the wall that make it so successful is we can have far fewer people working. Now, they can be working on other things -- other things related to crime and drug prevention and a lot of other elements they're working on, because we saved massive numbers of people. And included here we have the most sophisticated camera systems and most sophisticated electronic systems anywhere in the world.
Donald Trump
00:11:57-00:12:21 (24 sec)No Signal (0.481)
We implemented three historic agreements with the Northern Triangle; that's Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Under these critical asylum cooperation agreements, the burden of illegal immigration is now shared all across the region. Now, when an illegal immigrant is arrested at our border, they can be sent to a neighboring country instead of into a U.S. community.
Donald Trump
00:12:35-00:13:08 (32 sec)No Signal (0.92)
They came. They may be murderers. They may be cartel heads. They may be some really vicious people. The countries didn't want them back. And I stopped all payments to those countries. I stopped everything going to those countries. And after it was stopped for about a month -- you remember? -- after it was stopped for about a month, they called. They said, "We'd love to have them back." And I never gave them as much money as they were getting, by the way, but they got some. [Applause] It was amazing.
Donald Trump
00:13:08-00:13:27 (19 sec)Weak (1.227)
And you people know better than anyone: They wouldn't take them back. We'd have planes flying over, loaded up with people that we didn't want here. And they'd say, "Don't ever even think about landing that plane." And they'd take them by boat, and they'd take them by bus, and they wouldn't let them into their countries. And all of a sudden, they say, "Welcome back. We love having you."
Donald Trump
00:13:52-00:14:12 (20 sec)Weak (1.408)
A recent comprehensive report by the Department of Homeland Security and Justice show how effective our reforms have been and how disastrous their removal would be. It would be a disaster for our country. I know they're thinking about removing them. I hope they don't do that. I hope they don't do that. It'll be a absolute travesty for our country.
Donald Trump
00:14:29-00:15:03 (34 sec)No Signal (0.966)
So we have aliens released in our country, many of whom are serious criminals. And we've stopped that. Don't ever start that process again. By contrast, under our policies, 98 percent of aliens that remain in DHS custody are removed. Simply put, if you enter the United States illegally, you are apprehended and immediately safely removed from our country. Without this core principle, there is no border, there is no law, there is no order.
Donald Trump
00:15:03-00:15:29 (26 sec)No StressLens
My administration also instituted vital public health measures on the border. In response to the China virus, under Title 42 of the U.S. Code, illegal immigrants are being promptly removed to protect the health of border agents, other migrants, and local communities, and the public at large. Removing these protections would invite a public health catastrophe of epic proportions.
Donald Trump
00:15:29-00:16:23 (54 sec)No StressLens
As you probably know, in Tijuana, various parts of Mexico, the COVID -- it's got about 24 names I can call it, from "COVID" to "China virus." I can call it the "plague." I call it the "China plague." A lot of different names. But we always call it the "invisible enemy." But the invisible enemy has been very tough on Mexico, and we have areas along the border where we're in great shape because right there, because of that, that we're in great shape. But on the other side, in Mexico, they're suffering greatly with the virus. It's been incredible what we've achieved. And we didn't do the wall because of COVID; we did the wall because of security and drugs and other things. But it turned out that, in the middle of it all, along came this horrible plague.
Donald Trump
00:16:39-00:17:11 (32 sec)Weak (1.367)
We fixed it and we secured it. We empowered our wonderful ICE and Border Patrol to fulfill their oaths and sworn officers. They became sworn officers of the law. And they love their job. It's a tough job. It's a nasty job. They're not paid what they should be paid, to be honest, but we got you up. We got you up. But these are incredibly talented people that could probably do a lot better, in terms of economics, than they do here. But they love what they do, and they love their country.
Donald Trump
00:17:27-00:18:06 (38 sec)No StressLens
We also have, and we had -- but we have them all the time -- we have terrorists from the Middle East coming into our country through the southern border. That was before what you see right here, because it was easier to come into our country through the southern border than it was through airports or any other means. So they'd land in South America, and they'd work their way up, and they'd come into our country. And these are not people from the countries that you would suspect. These are people from some very seriously dangerous places in the Middle East. And the numbers are far greater than anybody would understand. Really far greater.
Donald Trump
00:18:16-00:18:47 (31 sec)Medium (1.696)
No matter our party, we should all agree on the need to protect our workers, our families, and our citizens of all backgrounds, no matter who they are. In particular, if our border security measures are reversed, it will trigger a tidal wave of illegal immigration -- a wave like you've never seen before. And I can tell you that, already, waves are starting to come up from 2,000 and 1,000 and 500 miles away. We see what's coming.
Donald Trump
00:18:47-00:19:01 (14 sec)Weak (1.05)
And they're coming because they think that it's gravy train at the end; it's going to be a gravy train. Change the name from the "caravans," which I think we came up with, to the "gravy train," because that's what they're looking for -- looking for the gravy.
Donald Trump
00:19:01-00:19:46 (45 sec)No StressLens
This will be an unmitigated calamity for national security, public safety, and public health. It would destroy millions and millions of jobs and claim thousands of innocent lives. The policies I put into place are uniformly and strongly supported by the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol. We worked on them together, just like we did on the wall. We worked on the policies together because nobody knows this whole world better than the incredible people right in front of me. To terminate those policies is knowingly to put America in really serious danger and to override the great career experts that have worked so hard -- those from DHS.
Donald Trump
00:20:02-00:20:24 (22 sec)Weak (1.458)
This is an entirely preventable tragedy. It's waiting to happen. The safety of our nation must come before politics. We have many disagreements in the country, but we should all agree: the urgent need to secure our borders, protect our homeland, and allow law enforcement to fulfill its mission without political interference.
Donald Trump
00:20:36-00:21:20 (44 sec)No StressLens
And I'll tell you who else gets it: The Hispanic population of our country gets it. Because not only did I win Texas in historic numbers, but I won border towns, which are largely Hispanic, and people were amazed to see that. And the numbers, they say, were -- the Governor of Texas called -- Greg -- great guy, great governor -- called. He said, "You had numbers that nobody has had since Reconstruction. "Reconstruction" means "Civil War." And largely Hispanic. They understand it better than anybody, and they want law enforcement to help them -- help them live safe lives.
Donald Trump
00:21:20-00:21:48 (29 sec)No Signal (0.915)
The laws that Congress passed must be upheld. To the men and women of ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and all across DHS, law enforcement in general: You have earned the everlasting gratitude of our nation. You have no idea how much our nation loves you and respects you. I don't think you do have an idea, but it's true. I only hope and pray that your voice will be heard, honored, heeded, and respected long into the future.