and in those lonelier outposts. were there attempted illegal crossings there? brandon: absolutely. we have attempted illegal crossings everywhere. we have it on our coastal borders, on our northern borders, our coastal borders. on our southern border. obviously we have more on the southwest border because it cost less to come up in mexico than what it does to fly into canada and then cross across the northern border. as we do a better job on the southwest border, we can expect see more illegal immigration on the northern border, which is actually what we have been seeing. host: ashland, ohio. gary, good morning. caller: good morning. i got three questions i would like to ask. number one, what is the ideal population of the united states? number two, what is the cost of illegal immigration to the american citizen? and number three, what is the cost of legal immigrants to the american citizen?

brandon: i would love to be able to answer that question, but i'm a law enforcement agent. we don't deal with the cost aspect of it. what i can tell you about -- what i am an expert on is border security and how we can secure our border. i mean, those are absolutely good questions and questions that need to be addressed. i'm just not the one to address them. host: you are the president of the border patrol council. when did you get elected? brandon: i was just elected again for another term yesterday. but i have been the president for the national border patrol council for the last seven years. host: you balance that with, you are a working agent as well? when you are finished this weekend, after meeting with president trump, it is back to work next week? brandon: i am, yes. i spent a good deal of my time representing our agents and in uniform patrolling the border. host: we will hear from mel in salt lake city, utah. democrats line. mel. caller: yeah, thanks for c-span.

right off the bat, i know trump cuts legal immigration. so there has to be more illegal immigration. and you guys have it totally wrong. now the one guy that called before me about sensors and cameras, let's go that route. walls are totally not needed nowadays. and you guys got it all wrong. 8h a coyote, i don't think so. effortsll us about what you see daily in terms of technology. what new technologies are being introduced? guest: we have gone the technology route. we have gone the technology route. we were enamored with technology. it helps us detect people. that is what it does.

if that's not help us apprehend people. it is a mixture of both. we want drones flying in the air. you have to have personnel and infrastructure. you can't complete a puzzle unless you have all of the pieces. technology is one piece of the puzzle and we will work on that. pictures of some that have blown down in the breeze. as we are building those walls -- that is not a finished wall. yes, some things like that will happen. you put the wall back up. you finish the construction.

we have never had a finished wall low down because of wind. host: susan in glenwood, illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to commend you for your service and congratulate you on your another term as president. in illinois and for over arizona, can you tell the american public what would happen if all the wall, all the restrictions on the border were removed? what would happen to our nation as a consequence of the action of the radical left? is if weat i can say did not have the border patrol, yes, people would be coming across. we have the laws and the border

patrol. as you pointed out we apprehended in 2019 almost one million people that crossed illegally. if you have those laws and a million people are crossing illegally, i would hate to imagine what would happen if we did not have any loss. -- laws. we enforce the laws congress passes. we do not go out and decide what we want to do. all we are there for, law enforcement officers, border or municipal law enforcement enforce the laws passed by whatever authority passes those laws. host: how frustrating is it to see congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform over the course of now two decades? guest: it's extremely frustrating. i go back to the immigration reform and control act of 1986. the problem was there was a legalization piece and

enforcement piece. they gave a legalization piece but did not follow through on the enforcement piece. because i did not follow through, it gave rise to the illegal immigration we saw. because of that we've had to double the border patrol on three separate occasions because of the number of people that were crossing our borders illegally. anytime you intensify -- i will go back to that. if you intensify crime, it is going to take place. we have laws in this country to protect the american public. thatly, it is the laws

>> at the time i said you do not run for second place. said, the second half of my conversation is that i would be honored to stand in service of the nominee of my party. if that nominee decides that they would like for me to serve as the running mate and potentially the vice president, i would be honored to do so. saturday, former georgia gubernatorial candidate stacey abrams discusses political activism and voting rights. you can see her remarks beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern.

>> senator elizabeth warren took her campaign to arlington, virginia. she talked about the economy, campaign finance law, and the green new deal.

>> so i'm here today to ask you two things. the first one is to ask you to get in this fight with me to help build an america that doesn't just work for the rich and powerful, but works for everyone. [applause] sen. warren: and second, i'm here to ask for your vote. [applause] sen. warren: here's the deal. i got your back, you can count on me, i will count on you. [applause] sen. warren: now, this has been some presidential primary already. we have been going at this for about a year. some people got in a little later than others. michael bloomberg came in. on the billionaire plan. just by yourself a nomination. i want to point out that a video just came out yesterday. michael bloomberg is saying that the 2008 financial crash was

caused because the banks were n't permitted to discriminate against black and brown people. i want to be clear about this. that crisis would not have been averted if the banks had been able to be bigger racists. and anyone who thinks that should not be the leader of our party. [applause] i sen. warren: have been in this fight for a long time. since i was a little girl.

my daddy had a lot of different jobs. he ended up as a janitor. my mom worked minimum wage at sears. three older brothers all went off to the military. i had a dream to be a public school teacher. [applause] sen. warren: my shot at making it to be a public school teacher, my family didn't have money. it was a commuter college that caused -- cost $50 a semester. i believe in opportunity. [applause] sen. warren: i was lucky enough, i spent pretty much all my life as a teacher. first as a special education teacher. [applause]

sen. warren: second, in law school. [applause] sen. warren: nerd contingent. love it. always said with love. i spent most of my life studying one central question. that is what's happening to working families in america, why is america's middle class being hollowed out? why is it working people are just getting crushed and that poor people get dirt kicked in their face? why is it that people who work every bit as hard, if my folks worked two generations ago,

today find a path. so much rockier and steeper. for people of color, even rockier and even steeper. [applause] sen. warren: and the answer is about whose side government is on. when i was a girl, my daddy had a heart attack, my mom had to go to work to be able to save our house. she did. she walked over to the sears, got a minimum wage job at a time when a minimum wage job would support a family of three, pay a mortgage, cover utilities, and put food on the table. today, a minimum wage job in america will not keep a mom and baby out of poverty. that is wrong, and that is why i am in this fight. [applause] sen. warren: and that kind of

difference did not just happen because gravity. i will tell you why the difference is in minimum wage. when i was a girl, the question asked in washington is what does it take a family of three to survive in america? what does it take to get a hold in america's middle? what does it take a family of three to have something solid to build on? the question asked in washington is where do we set the minimum wage to maximize profits for giant multinational operations? i don't want a government that works for giant national corporations, i want one that works for our family. [applause] sen. warren: and that has been the fight of my life. i have watched year after year as family incomes have flattened out.

people have worked harder and harder. everybody is at work. people working two jobs on and on. expenses shoot through the roof. housing, health care, child care. the costs in education. we have an america working better if you are born into privilege, but it is not working for the rest of us. 2020 is our time to change that. [applause] sen. warren: i have been in this fight for a long time.

it is not something i plan on. i thought i would talk about what's happening to our families, what's happening to people of color, seniors, young people. during the financial crash, i got called to come in and try and put accountability in place. hold those banks accountable that got the big bailout. i thought we should be fighting for a government agency. a consumer agency, which would actually be there to make sure this never happens again. giant banks don't boost their

profits by cheating people on mortgages, credit cards, and payday loans and student loans. [applause] >> people said great idea, but you will never get it done. never in a million years will you get it done. i heard it, and i thought with a were saying is try harder. [applause] sen. warren: get more people in the fight. a whole bunch of us got in the fight. in 2010, president obama signed it into law. [applause] sen. warren: and it goes to show that when we fight, we can win. it also shows not just that we

can win, we can actually make government work not just for the rich and powerful, but for everyone. [applause] sen. warren: and that is plain and simple as it is. it is why i am in this fight. i am in this fight because i believe we have this special opportunity in 2020. we have this unique chance to be able to come in and not look backwards, not nibble around the edges of our problems, but attack our problems head-on and make america the nation of our best values for all of our

children. that's why i'm here. [applause] sen. warren: so we are -- we have a rowdy crowd. just some questions. >> my name is lynn. sen. warren: nice to meet you. you, me, and 2000 of your closest friends. i want to apologize we were late. the reason is i had to start with the crowd from the overflow crowd. that is a good crowd. >> i have a question about your medicare for all plan. this is from my friend, who is a chiropractor. she owns her own small business.

she is a person of color, hard-working, still paying off her student loans. she has concerns about the plan. when she is working with medicare patients right now, she is being paid pennies for overwhelming amount of paperwork. if she says she had to do that for every single patient of hers, she can't do it. sen. warren: and she's probably right. >> so i need to hear from you what you would do to expand coverage, but also make sure those providers thrive, as well. sen. warren: great question. let's do the narrower question, and then a bigger question for everyone. on the separate question, we

need to make sure we get the reimbursement rates right, because we need health care practitioners to thrive. that is true for doctors and nurse practitioners, and mental health providers. [applause] sen. warren: it is true for physical therapists and chiropractors. it is true across the board. we have to make sure we get these dialed in. when you talk about the paperwork and all, it will be one of the big savings. you go to your doctor, you see two doctors and six people filling out health insurance forms. the whole idea is it gets down to one kind of form, because you have one provider. if you ever wondered why there are so many different health insurance forms and why they change every year, it's because it increases opportunities for health insurance companies to deny coverage. somebody filled it out wrong. not ok. and it is going up. it's one of the reasons that drives up health care costs overall.

i think we will get help to your friend in those directions. as a small business owner, when everyone has access to health care through medicare for all, that means small business owners can compete with big is this is for their employees, everybody gets covered. it will help a lot of small businesses. thank you. >> my name is julie. nice to meet you. i am a huge fan. i work in transportation. families don't have a lot of control over it. the gas tax hasn't been raised since 1993. highway trust fund went bankrupt more than 10 years ago. virginia is one of many states turning to private tolling of public roads.

to pay for our crumbling infrastructure. working families who can't afford to live downtown often pay more than $50 one ticket to work in the morning. one day. i want to understand how we can help at the federal level to create a sustainable funding source for transportation, and specifically, prioritize transit improvements that the koch brothers have lobbied against. [applause] sen. warren: the question -- i want to reframe your question. the question i think we should be asking in a democracy is how does this happen? think about it. in a democracy, what would you expect to see happen? the services a lot of people use be the services we invest in. and that do very well.

that helped grow our economy. a good transportation system, more people can get to jobs, education. they have more opportunities. you would expect to see it in america. it doesn't work that way. why not? because we have an america that works for rich people who don't want to pay taxes. [applause] by itself, it is not quite the answer. you should be saying to yourself, they don't pay taxes, but it is a democracy, and there's a lot more of us than there is of them. [applause] so how is it that rich people who don't want to pay taxes because the consequence of not paying taxes is the highway trust funds runs out, nobody will have additional revenue sources, on every part of this. why is it that it works that way?

it is because of the influence of money. money on the decisions that get made in washington. when you see a government that works great for rich people, works great for giant corporations, works great for those that can hire an army of lobbyists and lawyers, can make giant campaign contributions and bundle donations. when it works great for them, and doesn't work for much of anyone else, that is corruption, pure and simple. we need to call it out. [applause] sen. warren: here's the good news. i have the biggest anticorruption plan since watergate. [applause]

here is the bad news. we need the biggest anticorruption plan since watergate. it has a lot of moving parts. money is felt in a lot of places. let me describe two or three of the pieces. what can we do to beat back the influence of money in washington? how about and lobbying as we know it. [applause] sen. warren: how about end the revolving door between wall street and washington. or the revolving door between big pharma and the fda. [applause] sen. warren: here's one you may

never have thought about, how about we make the u.s. supreme court follow basic rules of ethics? [applause] i could do these all night long. it is a big bill. no surprise. he really want to hose out some of the corruption in washington. make every single person who runs for federal office put their tax returns online. >> -- [applause] sen. warren: we flush out some of the corruption, i get it. we will not be able to get rid of all of the influenced money, but i'm tired of being on my back foot. i'm ready to get on my front foot. ready to call it out for what it is. we do that, and now we have

money to invest. we have money for transportation, money for our kids. we have money for student loan debt cancellation. we have money. [applause] sen. warren: i want everybody to leave here remembering this part. whatever decision, whatever issue really gets you going, climate change, immigration, criminal justice reform, gun safety, price of prescription drugs, whatever is the issue that matters to you, that really is the one that pulls you into the fight, if there is a decision to be made in washington, it has been influenced by money. it has been shaped by money. it has had exceptions created by money. not just once, not just twice, it is over and over again.

most of it never makes the headlines. over and over so that the rules, the regulations, the laws are reshaped over time to accommodate those with money and leave everyone else behind. whenever someone talks to you about any other issue, how they will fix this, six, six that, and i care about this, ask yourself what are you going to do about the influence of money? if you don't attack corruption head-on, you can do anything. we are starting by going after the corruption. [applause] sen. warren: thank you. >> i'm wes from fairfax. sen. warren: it is good to see you. >> i had trouble coming up with a question. you are known to have a plan for everything, between your comprehensive website and what

you are saying out of the campaign trail, you have ready much answered all of my questions. [applause] sen. warren: i hope that's a good thing. i kind of feel if you actually want to get something done, you should have a plan for that. [applause] >> i am going to take advantage of asking you to boil it down for me. if you had to pick one thing to do to improve our nation's security, what would that be beside removing the current

incumbent? [applause] sen. warren: it is to protect this democracy. [applause] sen. warren: if we can get this democracy working, home everybody's vote matters, everybody's voice gets lifted up, make this democracy work. rich people will own more shoes, more cars, more houses, but they shouldn't own a bigger share of our democracy. [applause] sen. warren: i have a plan for that. here's how it starts. here's how i think of this. if you let me do it, i want to see a constitutional amendment to protect the right of every american citizen to vote and get the vote counted. [applause] sen. warren: fight hard. i want a federal law to outlaw

all political gerrymandering anywhere in this country. [applause] sen. warren: how about a federal law that overturns every racist voter suppression law in america? [applause] sen. warren: just one more. overturn citizens united. democracy is not for sale. thank you. >> i'm phil, i work at this high school. [applause]

>> i'm going to ask you to speak to these students that inspire me so much. [applause] sen. warren: hello. >> what they want to know is how your plan -- how your pathway to citizenship is different from anybody else, and what would you do about the rollbacks to the epa? sen. warren: i'm having trouble hearing you, because they are so excited. about citizenship -- >> how your pathway to citizenship would be different from anybody else, and how you would fix rollbacks to the epa sen. warren: that is fair. first, let's do a little bit more on immigration. it is important we talk about

it is important we talk about immigration to start with our values. immigration does not make america weaker. immigration makes america stronger. [applause] sen. warren: yup. and i have a plan for that. first, we need to expand legal immigration. we need to be able to bring families back together, including moms and dads who have been deported. [applause] sen. warren: we need a pathway to citizenship, not just for dreamers. dreamers are great, dreamers have moms, dads, grandparents. we need a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people who are here to stay. [applause] sen. warren: that's the difference.

achievable, no more mixed status families. everybody gets on the pathway to citizenship. [applause] sen. warren: and one more, even though you didn't ask, we need to stop this trump made crisis at our border. [applause] sen. warren: we do that in part by expanding, not taking away, support for the governments in central america, treating our neighbors with respect so people don't have to flee for their lives. [applause] sen. warren: i will close all for-profit detention centers and prisons in this country. [applause] sen. warren: a strong america is an america that lives its values every single day. [applause] sen. warren: you also asked me about the epa rollbacks.

how about we get rid of the coal lobbyist who is running the epa? [applause] sen. warren: climate change threatens every living thing on this planet. what truly scares me the most is every single time the scientists collect more data and do more analysis, the problem is worse than we thought, and we have less time than we thought. that means the urgency of the problem cannot be overstated. i will say something that is very controversial in congress. i feel safe to say it here. how are we going to deal with this? hold on to your neighbor if you need to, not in a creepy way. no creepy way. ok.

here it is. you ready? i believe in science. [applause] sen. warren: that's right. >> science. science. sen. warren: i love it. i think that is my first ever science chant. i am going to increase by 10 fold the money we put into science. we have to innovate out of this

problem. at the core has to be environmental justice. for decades in this country, this nation has permitted toxic waste dumps, polluting factories, to be located in or next to communities of color. it has damaged the health of children who live in those communities. it has destroyed property values. i am committing $1 trillion to environmental justice. [applause] sen. warren: there is a whole lot more on elizabeth warren.com, but i have to mention more. i am all for a green new deal, but it is not enough. we have to have a blue new deal to save our oceans as well. that is what you have to do. [applause] sen. warren: thank you. good.

>> this is our last question. sen. warren: no, this is so fun. >> unfortunately, we are unable to stay for selfies. our wonderful team will be here afterwards to tell you the way you can plug in, get involved, and join this fight before march 3. sen. warren: let's make a promise. we bring this home march 3, i am coming back for a selfie with each of you. >> hello, senator warren. soon to be president warren. sen. warren: i like this.

>> my name is rick. i am a labor union activist. thank you to my teamster unions and brothers and sisters who printed all the signs here. sen. warren: we are union all the way. you know we are a union campaign. >> thank you very much. thank you to my wife who is an organizer on the other side. willow, i said your name. my question is -- we are all held accountable to the laws of the land here. i paid a ticket yesterday. i come from labor, teamsters. if i ran my union the way i ran the white house, i would be in jail. now giuliani is part of the criminal enterprise. my question is, what will president warren do to make sure everyone is held to the same standards and is accountable for

their criminal activities? if they are criminals, will they end up paying the price just like any of us in this room like vladimir putin's boy in the white house? that guy. he is already unindicted co-conspirator number one. so he should be doing a stretch out of the gate. we want an assurance from you that every criminal out there is doing that, no matter how high and imperial they are, will they be held accountable? in the past, presidents have given a pass to those behind them, ford pardoned nixon. sen. warren: the answer is yes, everyone is held accountable. no one is above the law. let me say this so no one

misunderstands. this is not about political prosecutions. this is not about political retribution. this is about an independent justice department. an independent justice department that enforces the rule of law. it investigates. people who are in any administration should know if they break the law, even if they have a president who is willing to look the other way, elizabeth warren as president will not look the other way. you will be held accountable. [applause] sen. warren: i just want to say one more thing because it is a great question. since you mentioned you are here from a union, i want to say something about structural changes in we are talking about

building an economy that works for our families. we have a real problem in this economy right now. we have giant corporations that gobble up little business, medium-sized businesses. the problem is not just what that does economically. it is how much power it gives them. power over their employees, customers, the communities where they are located. and power in washington. it is time for a president who is willing to stand up and enforce the antitrust laws and break these guys up. and yes, big tech, i am looking at you. [applause] sen. warren: that is how we began to restructure the economy. part two on restructuring the economy, we have to get more power into the hands of workers. that means making it easier to join a union and giving unions more power when they negotiate. unions built america's middle-class.

give them a chance and they will rebuild america's middle class. and one more thing, it is time for a wealth tax in america. we want to get a little structural change, let's ask the top 0.1% to pay a wealth tax. it gets to be two cents. your first 50 million dollars, free and clear. two cents on every dollar after that. there are some billionaires who have not liked it. some have cried. others have run for president. they argue i worked hard for

this money, i had a great idea. you are just trying to punish success. no, you made it? i say that is great. good for you. that is how this economy should work. but understand this. you built a great fortune in america, you built it at least in part using workers all of us helped pay to educate. you built it at least in part getting your goods to market on roads and bridges all of us helped pay for. you built it protected by police and firefighters all of us helped pay the salaries for. we are happy to do it. we believe in investing in opportunity. that is how you grow an economy. we are just saying if you make it big, like top 0.1%, pitch and

two cents -- in two cents. with two cents, universal childcare for every baby in this country. universal early education and pre-k for every three-year-old and four-year-old. we can stop exploiting the largely black and brown women. two cents, and we can put $800 billion into our public schools. for the first time in history, we can fully fund ieda so children with disabilities get a full education.

not just that for our babies, k-12, we can make post high school education available tuition free for anyone who wants an education. and we can actually help level the playing field. we can put $50 billion into our historically black colleges and universities. and one more thing, one more thing, we can do all of that on two cents. we can do all that and we can cancel student loan debt for 43 million americans. i just want you to think about it.

this is the heart of what i have been working in all my life. it is about america's working families. we can just ask those at the top, pitch in two cents and we can be an america that invest in an entire generation. are you up for that? [applause] you guys are great. so here is the thing. here is the thing. we need to talk about this before we wrap up tonight. we have now had three years of donald trump. but we have to be serious. it is beyond boo. it is the people who are afraid.

they are afraid for their families. they are afraid for their neighbors. they are afraid for children locked in cages at our borders. they are afraid for children in lockdown at our public schools. they are afraid for women. they are afraid for people of color. they are afraid for immigrants. they are afraid for lgbtq. all whose rights are going to be up for grabs in this u.s. supreme court. they are afraid for our nation and they are afraid for our planet. the danger is real. our democracy hangs in the balance in this election. here is the decision you are going to have to make, virginia. when you face this kind of fear,

you backup? do you -- do you backup? or do you fight back? i fight back. i am fighting back. fighting back, who is ready to fight? yes. fighting back is an act of patriotism. [applause] sen. warren: we fought back against a king to build this country. we fought back against the scourge of slavery. we fought back against fascism to protect our democracy. americans are at our best when we see a big problem and we fight back. [applause]

sen. warren: this is no time for small ideas. this is no time to be looking backward. this is no time to nibble around the edges of the big problems that face our country. this is the time to meet those problems head-on with big structural change. [applause] [chanting]

sen. warren: now understand this. i am not running a campaign that has been designed by a bunch of consultants. i am not putting forward proposals that have been carefully crafted not to offend the donor class. i passed that stop sign a long time ago. i am running a campaign based on a lifetime of fighting for middle-class families, for working families, for the working poor, for the poor poor. i am running a campaign from the heart because i believe in you. [applause] sen. warren: i believe in the america that we can build together.

i believe that together, we can build an america in which every person has value. in which every child is worth investing in. in which people, not money, are the most important part of our democracy. [applause] sen. warren: and if you can imagine that america, just imagine that america, if you can imagine it and you think it is worth fighting for, then i am asking you, get in this fight with me. go to elizabethwarren.com, pitch and five dollars, volunteer an hour. but get in this fight. because this moment in history

is the moment that we have been called to. this moment in history will not come our way again. this is our moment to choose hope over fear. this is our moment to choose courage. this is our moment to dream big, fight hard, and win. [applause] ♪

♪ >> i am not going to try to dance. maybe i am. all right, i know you heard that last line of dream big and fight hard. don't forget the fight hard part of it. we have to put our money where our mouth is. and support the lovely senator warren. make some calls, knock some doors, and sign up for every shift that you can. are you signing up? are you signing up?

great. pinkie promise. ♪ [indiscernible]

>> follow campaign 2020 to nevada this weekend. saturday night, joe biden, pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar, tom steyer, centre -- bernie

sanders, and elizabeth warren speak. 5:00 p.m. eastern, joe biden, pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar, and tom steyer talk at a forum on infrastructure. and listen ond the go on the radio app. with the iowa and new hampshire primary contests now behind them, here are some upcoming important events. often calleducus the first in the west, is saturday, february 22. the vet ascends 36 pledged delegates to the convention. isth carolina's primary saturday, february 29. super tuesday, where 15 states and one territory allocate a third of all of the delegates, is march 3. tonight, the

director of the cbo talks about the budget, debt, and federal spending issues. on the communicators. after that, ryan mccarthy delivers talks at the national press club in washington, dc. on newsmakers this week, our guess is director of the congressional budget office phillip swagel. and helping in the studio, richard rubin and jim hanker sulli. before we get to those questions, for those outside of d.c., explain what the congressional budget office is, who you answer to and what viewers should take away from your latest reports? phillip: thank you for having me on the program. [please stand by]