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not alone. >> these television providers support c-span, giving you a frt row seat to democracy. >> 2024 republican presidential candidate governor ron desantis lked about his border security plan at a town hall in texas on the u.s.-mexico border. he said he would step up and enforce current border patrol w and used executive action for asylum seekers who try to access the u.s. via its border with mexico. this is just under an hour. >> last night, i was in green hall in green, temper spread was the something my wife and kids and i plan to do a long time ago. it was a great show. go see them before they stop touring. a couple of observations -- there was a guy walking through the dance hall. his shirt said, liberate

freedom. legalize freedom. in america, we are talking about legalizing freedom. we need to legalize freedom again. that is what we are talking about. there was a young man dancing in the dance floor who had down syndrome. he and his family were rejoicing. they were celebrating him. i was sitting there thinking think of that family chose life. thank god texas stands for life. life is more than just that issue. life is about every life that we are trying to protect here in south texas from the lawlessness that is destroying our homes and communities. life is about the angel moms in this room who have lost loved ones, from those here illegally who have taken our loved ones. life is about migrants who have died along were present branches because we have a system that is

causing ranchers to find bodies on their ranches. 53 human beings were cooked in a tractor-trailer in san antonio last summer. all of this under the watch of an administration that does not care. no one in this room believes as people of faith that that is how we should treat our fellow human beings. i know most of you in this room. most of you want to see an end to this because people care. you care about the migrants, the texans, your community. you care about the children we are losing to fentanyl, the 72,000 last year alone, the five or six we have lost in the school district for my wife and i live in the last nine months from fentanyl poisoning. you know all of this. you live it and that is why you are here. i will say this before turning the stage over to the guy that we are here for. we are here for something

bigger. we are here because governor desantis stands as someone willing to fight for you. none of you want to continue this lawlessness we are seeing want someone who will stand up and defend us. that man, in my opinion, is governor ron desantis. i am going to give you a quick note as to why before i bring the governor out on stage. governor desantis has proven he is willing to stand up and fight. in florida, they just passed strong border legislation. they just passed legislation to ensure we will have e-verify implanted. they just passed legislation to crack down on human trafficking in florida, past legislation to make sure you cannot use drivers licenses and other documents in florida if you're here illegally. the governor has sent florida troopers to texas to protect us.

the governor is standing out and fighting us in texas. and he is doing it now in real-time. the governor won by 1.5 million votes last time. he won six to 2% hispanic -- 62% of hispanic voters after saying they would send folks to martha's vineyard and sacramento. the hispanic voters that i know in texas are tired of being a bumper sticker for a party that does not care about them. [applause] they want people who will stand up and leave. i know governor desantis. he has been leading florida head has a wonderful wife and children. he has been demonstrating that you can win a coalition, build that coalition. by winning by 1.5 million votes, is a kind of guy we need to take this country back by stern.

-- by stern. he will restore america and bring about an american comeback. i want to introduce my friend, governor of florida, ron desantis. ♪ >> hello, south texas. thank y'all for coming out. i will say this. as a native meridian born and raised, i usually do not notice much about the temperature but when i got here yesterday, it may not be quite as humid as florida, but it was a shocker but we look forward to going out and making an announcement today. make yourselves comfortable. i want to thank chip roy, not just for the rate introduction

but what he does for our country. you is a ferocious defender of the people of texas, in the u.s., and of freedom. the country is better off with him in washington, d.c. we are going to be able to do a lot more in about 18 months. i looked at the issue of the border. some people in the media, people on certain political decisions -- persuasions and dismiss it as a texas or an arizona problem. but i am here to tell you when you do not have control of your own border, that is an american problem. and there is a lot of bad stuff going on here. hopefully, we will hear some stories today, but this impacts communities throughout the country. it impacts florida. we, like every state in this country, have seen an increase in fentanyl overdose deaths over these last three or four years,

particularly the last two. mothers are losing kids as a result of what is being brought across the border. you see it the most, which is the sheer number of people, but even in communities far from here, you have thousands of illegal aliens that will show up. what does that do for medical care? education? criminal justice? all these different things. it imposes serious burdens on communities when you do not have control over who is coming in and out of your country. nobody knows who is coming in. we have sent people to texas on two occasions. in 2021 with the initial biden surge because of his failed policies. i went down there. people act like these are mexicans coming in. i do not see a single mexican coming in, but there were people from halfway around the world coming through this southern

border because it they know all you have to do is drop on the border and you will get a ticket into the interior of the u.s. there were people from the stem coming from the southern border and from libya. i think they have identified about 10,000 chinese nationals coming across the southern border. our own government acknowledges a significant number of people on its own terrorist watch list that have come across the border. and we know there have been a lot of criminal aliens that have come across the border. this is a huge problem. we will do something about it. in terms of some of the cost of this, we have done a lot in florida. one of the things we did -- i have a tool in florida where i can ask the state supreme to have a statewide grand jury. [no audio]

-- the cost of this, they'll grow up we have done a lot in florida. i have a tool in florida, where i can ask for a statewide grand jury. it is a grand jury that has wide investigatory power. it can do the criminal indictments and things like that, but short of that, it can subpoena and issue reports. we did one -- what they do is they identified a bunch of examples of this. but just one, there was a lady from honduras. she had four kids. she wanted to come to the u.s.

and some other men wanted to come. all it been deported at least once, some multiple times. she rented out her kids to these adult males. they all went across the border. because there was a kid who was safe, that gave them a leg up. this is what our government is incentivizing, that type of conduct. could you imagine printing out your own kid to somebody who probably does not have great intentions coming into this country? it has created a human catastrophe because of what the government is doing. in florida, chip mentioned we have taken action. we have done things like ban sanctuary cities. we have employment verification. if you bring people into the state illegally, you get stiff penalties now in florida. and now people know we will do it legally, not mess with this. but one of the things we did, we

are not a southern border state, but we are a maritime border state. it does not get as much fanfare, but we have people try to run illegally with boats into the florida keys. this is the coast guard's responsibility. they do a good job, but they do not have enough resources to stop all the boats. we were in a situation where the coast guard started dumping people in the florida keys. you had some boats coming prepared and i am like, we are not going to do this. i did a state of emergent tape. we searched our marine access to fill the gaps where the coast guard was unable. what happens is coming you have a vote. maybe there will be 15 patients. you stop the boat, bring the hai tians to the coast guard and they are deported. guess what happened once people saw that was likely to be the

result of them trying to enter illegally. the number of boats plummeted. why would you want to get into a ragtag vessel, go hundreds of miles potentially, impossible waters sometimes knowing the only thing that is going to happen is you will go right back where you started. people are not going to do that. the same principle applies here at the southern order. they know they will get issued a paper saying come up before a court date in three years and go enjoy the united states, they will do that. if they are denied entry or if they are immediately repatriated, people are not going to want to mess with this. they will not want to pay some coyote. they know the u.s. enforces its laws. we have to reestablish the rule of law. [applause] we have to make sure that people understand that there is a

sanction to violating the law. we also should just be clear. this thing about asylum, there are legitimate reasons why someone would need asylum. and there have been throughout american history, but what you are seeing now is an abusive asylum. think about it. if you are fleeing a country, what you are supposed to do see first-time you get to safety, you claim asylum wherever that is. instead, we have people traveling through other countries, showing up at our southern border, entering illegally, and timing assignment here. this not the way it works. chip is working on working -- i'm dealing with this legislatively. but we will do that through executive action. we will make it clear that while we support bona fide asylum, 90% plus of these cases are not legitimate. it is used to shoehorn them into

this country against the law. we are going to do that. to the extent that you have some that are adjudicated, people can wait in mexico for adjudication. you do not come to the interior of the country and that a free pass. it is less appetizing to make the trip like that knowing we do not qualify in the first place and do have to wait on the other side of the break before you get a decision. we will see it dry up in terms of the numbers of people who want to come. we have people in florida helping. i was in eagle pass yesterday. we did a tour. we've got some of her fish and wildlife folks who do a lot on the water. we have highway patrol. we have put a lot of people with the national guard of florida. we believe it is important. but what i think to happen is if the federal government will not do its job, states should be

fermented to send people back. that is what you need to do. [applause] right now, there have been supreme court decisions. it is not like this is something people are making up. they excite states can intrude on the federal government's prerogative to enforce immigration. immigration is a federal issue. therefore, what the fed says goes. i do not know if that is right or not, but if the feds have the responsibility to do immigration and they decide to not do it, are we helpless? we do not have laws enforced at all? states have a role to play. as president, we are going to fully deputize state and local governments to enforce immigration law. [applause] you will have that authority. and we are not going to allow

sanctuary jurisdictions get away with it. you think about cities, states where they saying we refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement. what will happen is you have somebody in the country illegally. they commit a serious crime, survey prison sentence. when they are done, a state or locality that is a sanctuary will not notify ice that they are getting out of prison. if they do, i stand take them and send them back. instead, they release some into the community. how is that acceptable? it is not. we are going to turn the screws on sanctuary jurisdictions. all these localities get money from the feds, grants. we will return the experience so that it pays to follow the law and it does not pay to violate the law. [applause] the thing, too, about this is

some of this sanctuary stuff is virtue signaling. they started doing that a lot under the trump administration. it was a way to say we are fighting power. we have a program to offer transport to sanctuary jurisdictions in florida. there were 50 that were sent to martha's vineyard last year. [applause] martha's vineyard actually had an office in its downtown that said nobody is illegal. everyone is welcome. it was a refugee welcome center. i guess they ever actually serve anyone there, because they had 50 shower up. think about towns in south texas. if you have 51 day, -- just 50 one day, that would be a good

day. now they get 50. this is one of the wealthiest on plays in the world and a self-described sanctuary jurisdiction. and when did they do when they had 50 ask for services? they declared a state of emergency and kicked them off the island the next morning. some of this stuff is we have a country where we have elites who think they should impose their vision on the rest of us but they do not think they should have to suffer any of the consequences. can you imagine how they would feel if people were coming illegally through their yards, knocking on their windows at night? they would not tolerate that for a minute but they expect you to down here. they want to impose their vision on others without having to live under the consequences. that is clear. part of what we are going to do is we talk about building the

lock. i was in arizona the other day. you have the wall and it just kind of stuck spread so the guy from -- it just kinda stops. so the guy from the cartel motions people to go over. you've got to finish the job. but even in places where there were serious steel beams, these guys in the cartels can cut through the really fortified steel beams. you spend this money on that and let them cut through with impunity. we need adequate rules of engagement so that if somebody was breaking into your house, you would repel them with force. they have drugs, backpacks. they are having through an enforced structure and we are supposed about them in? use force to repel them. if you do that one time, they will never do that again. [applause]

this -- here is the thing with the drugs. you -- it is the number one cause of death, fentanyl overdose, for people 18 to 49 right now it shows no signs of abating. it is going to continue to be a major issue. you've got to deal with the supply. it is not the only thing you have to deal with, but you have to deal with the supply. we will be leaving in against these drug cartels. they are telling a lot of americans and are effectively in control of this quarter -- they are killing a lot of americans and are effectively in control of this border. they do so with impunity. chip and i are talking. we will give them a designation so we can unleash more federal

power to the kathy cartels. that will happen -- to knee cap the cartels. that will happen. you have so many people dying in the u.s. yet, our ruling class in washington, d.c. is struggling -- shrugging their shoulders. there is no sense of urgency to stop this. for them, it is the cost of doing business. i find that to be unacceptable, totally deplorable. the reason why i am motivated to bring this issue to a conclusion is because i have listen to people in washington, d.c. for years, going back decades. republicans and democrats they are always tripping about this yet never actually bringing the issue into a conclusion. never getting the job done. we are saying no excuses on this. get the job done, make it happen.

we want results, not hollow rhetoric were empty promises. we go in on day one, we are going to marshall every bit of authority we have. we will work with congress we need to. we will take executive action when we can. it will be a day one priority and see -- ed you will see a big change quickly. final thing is this -- what i have seen at the border is humiliating. we cannot even enforce territorial integrity. people fought and died so that we could be independent. they fought over so many generations so that the could be free. a free society means porters are enforced and that they matter. i do not consider myself a

citizen of the world. i am an american. being an american used to mean something. we are a distinct country with distinct borders. very important to understand that. when we have allowed this to happen during world war ii? we would have squashed this quickly if we had this many deaths from drugs. now, it is like our government can never do anything right. they just let problems persist. we will bring a can do spirit to this issue. we had a hurricane in september, almost category five. one of the things it did was it not out a bridge from the mainland to pine island and a causeway going from the main and -- mainland to say again about. it had three breaks. these were not state roads or bridges. it was not directly under our

purview, but the locals were told you will be out of luck for six months. get off the island, make arrangements. it will take a long time. they came to me and asked for help. i got my guys together and said, "no red tape, no bureaucracy, no excuses. i want these bridges fixed. i am not waiting six months." we mobilize, cut to the smoke. we did the pine island bridge in three days. we did the santa bout causeway, fix it two weeks after that. do not tell me things cannot be done. you just have to put your mind to it. [applause] alright, anybody have anything they want to say? i want to hear from you i am happy to your questions and just listen to you in terms of what you are doing. do we have hands anywhere. ok, sir. thank you for your service.

>> if we go through another country, we do what they are doing to us, they would declare war. the u.s. constitution says that if you are invaded by another country, that is an act of war, why haven't we acted? >> i think that we should act. it is a violation of sovereignty. chip and i have a view of taking action that is very forward facing in terms of that. because it is violating our sovereignty and it is killing americans so of course it is a violation. i think the state of texas has the right to declare an invasion. i think the state have a right to come in and help repel the invasion. certainly, if i am president, your state will be able to deport across the border 100%, but i think they should be doing that right now. but you will see as president under article two of the constitution, you have a responsibility and duty to protect the country.

we are going to do that and we are going to do that robustly. [applause] >> yes ma'am. >> [indiscernible] a lot of us -- we get to see this -- sorry, i am -- from -- i am kelly pratt from del rio, texas. a lot of what we see going on in washington dc, we see the one sidedness where they have rules for us and not for them. nothing happens with the republican party. nothing gets done. we cannot get on the same page like the democrats do. i mean when they do something, they are all in it to win it. what are you going to do to bring the party together so that we can get things done and clean up the mess and corruption that is happening in d.c? >> thank you for that i appreciate it. [applause] >> i think you are right about how d.c. looks out for itself. here is an interesting fact.

seven of the 10 wealthiest counties in this country are suburbs of washington dc. how does that happen? are they producing energy or any of that? they are producing a lot of hot air from the nonsense they spew and producing a lot of debt for the rest of us. but when you look at how the federal government manages finances, borrowing, printing, spending trillions of dollars over the last 4-5 years at the -- at levels nobody thought possible. that has been bad for everybody in the room because you're paying way more for groceries, necessities, inflation is an invisible text that hits you -- invisible tax that hits you you in the pocketbook every day. it does not get them as much. a lot of that has been -- beneficial to people that are politically that is true with republicans and democrats it is -- democrats in d.c.. it is not just one party. we cannot clearly just do business as usual.

and i say the country is in decline right now. i am not running because some -- like some republicans, we just want to manage the decline a little bit better than the democrats. i am running to do -- to reverse the decline. i can tell you i have a track record of doing this in florida. i came into office, we won a historic landslide reelection. my state was a one point state when i got elected in 2018 the first time. we got elected with 32,000 votes. and won 1.5 million the first time. i came in and did not have super majority in the legislature. i had to set the vision and had to mobilize the board behind the -- mobilize support behind the vision and deliver resolve. -- results. we were able to do that and lo and behold we were able to attract more people to our cause and were able to shatter records in 2022. at the end of the day i think it is about leadership. people will be attracted to a very clear vision and we governed in florida with old -- with bold colors not with

pale pastels. everybody knew where we stood. even people that did not like what we did they said he says what he means and means what he says. and even what i think people will say of me even those that oppose us is if he tells you he's going to do something he's going to do it. he does not say -- there are not hollow promises. if i cannot promise something i just will not do it but if it is something i believe in and i believe i can get it done, and i tell you that you can that your -- you can set your clock because we will act. on all of this we will act. i think it is about leadership and it is about understanding that you need to build as big a coalition as big as possible. i am proud in my election i had people vote for me who had voted for bernie sanders in the past. why? because i did something to better their lives. when they were trying to force everyone to take vaccines, we called a special session in the

legislator and said you do not have to choose between a shot you do not want and a job that you need. we protected peoples jobs because we did not want to have people face that choice. we have an appeal to a broad -- we have a broad agenda that appeals to a broad range of people, people see that, they get excited. i think they will want to get on board. one of the things i did in florida, i helped other candidates. it was not just about me, it was -- i helped the legislative candidates. we had the majority and i did -- and we did not have that when we started. if you think about what they are doing now, they are trying to impose indoctrination and ideologies in the schools. who would think that even five years ago, it would have been appropriate to have transgender ideology in a first grade classroom, telling a girl that

she may really be a boy or that she should change her gender is totally unacceptable. in florida we led to protect kids and parents from that but you need the school board people on the front line and we did that as well. it is the same thing federally. i will be working to help members of congress and people -- help people get elected to the senate. it is a team effort. at the end of the day politics is a team effort. there is a lot that you can do through executive action there -- action and some of the stuff we can do poorly through executive action and we will but ultimately you need strong support. we will provide that and if we do that half as good as what we did in florida this will be in -- this country will be in great shape. i tell you that. [applause] >> yes ma'am. >> jaclyn klein from san antonio. once you are elected, what is -- what tax plans do you intend to enact? >> lower taxes is what we want. [applause] we are going to be rolling out some tax policy.

i think clearly some of the current laws are about to expire in a couple years that would raise everyone's taxes. we will not let that happen. we want to make sure we preserve. one of the things that we let -- that we will do is, ok, your tax policy says something about what you think is important and maybe what you do not think is, important. but i think our tax policy, with the information companies, google, facebook, they do well under the current system but a lot of what they do is entertainment. with kids i think they are on the devices way too much. it is a huge negative there. we do not intend to do much with favoring capital investment and advanced manufacturing. we need to make more things in this country. we cannot have everything made in china like we have seen over the last however many years. [applause] >> you know, they used to say , some of these, the cheap stuff, was made in china as well. i would think that our

manufacturing would not be like that -- it will be more cutting edge. but the cheap stuff from china i -- when my wife and i, we get our kids christmas presents and the stuff from china breaks. it cannot last two days from christmas without the toys breaking. it is cheap stuff. but with our national security we can't dependent on china with all these things. it is important to have a strong industrial base for our society and our economy but also if you ever were in a situation where you need to have a mobilization if there was a major conflict that broke out in the world, what will you do, go hats in hand to go to china to ask them to sell you more things to have more ammunition? that is not a good place to be in. we will have tax policy to recognize that. you also reverse what biden is doing with tax policy to try to subsidize electric vehicles and all of these things. let people make a choice about what they want.

do not try to force everybody into that. if you like it, there are a lot of people that like it, knock yourself out, that is great. but he is trying to basically go all electric. by the way, if you do that you are more dependent on china because you get a lot of stuff to go into that from china. that is not a good idea. yes ma'am. >> my name is stephanie turner and i am the founder of texas against fentanyl. i lost my 19-year-old son to fit -- and in all -- to fentanyl poisoning. i think it is important that we understand as a nation we are not tracking things and all death correctly. i would like to see that improve. >> you're probably right, there is more that -- there's more that is going on and whether the dangers things about fentanyl,

people can go and you something, that would not typically be fatal but if it is laced with fentanyl, they could die. you have to have an accurate account and it is the number one cause of death any weight you counted but it is likely much more than that. i also would they in terms of how we approach this cartel -- yes, cartel some private -- cartel supply, we did huge penalties in florida. if you give to a minor and then -- the minor dies, you go to prison for life in the state of florida. we got to do that but i don't think you should do it just through supply only. what my wife has done, she has done a campaign in schools called your path to the future and she is educating high school kids about the dangers of substance abuse and drug use within -- with an emphasis on how this is not like how it was

50 years ago where street drugs -- with street drugs. you never know and it takes a little bit of fentanyl and she is educating kids and i think it has an impact when they see that because people don't want to take that risk so that message is put out to try to reduce demand. we have leaned in on treatment for people. we have a program called coordinated opioid recovery network. 17 counties in florida. it recognizes when somebody overdoses and goes to a hospital, they make it and then they get out of the hospital the -- chances are they will relapse. if nothing else happens the chance is they relapse. we have the ability to get them into an integrative program. sometimes they are getting medical or counseling, whatever to get them to where they can cope with this. what we found is the people that have gone through the program , the relapse rate is under 10%. that is a big deal. it is a whole approach. i think some of the people we

have seen in florida who have overdosed and died from fentanyl. they had an addiction, they would get off, go and then it was always topsy-turvy. eventually they had a fatal overdose. offering that i think is important. from a federal perspective, we will work to counter demand and work with treatment in addition to supply. yes ma'am. >> my name is winney trooter and i am from kenny county. i am very concerned about the children. i want to relay this story to you that a border patrol told a woman he was out in the bush and this pregnant woman holding a five-year-old child's hand approached him. she said i think i am in labor , can you help me? he said, what do you want me to do with your little girl?

she is not mine. i just found her out here. and i am concerned about these little children that are being abandoned by the cartel. >> absolutely, i think you are 100% right and we found it in florida but the ground -- the grand jury. we are talking huge heartbreaking stories about what is happening. part of it is our policy here is incentivizing bringing children across the border. i would do just the opposite. i would say we will not be doing this. the children need to stay with their parents on the other side of the border. once you make the policy clear, it will stop happening. right now, if you have a child in tow, that is better than if you are trying to come by yourself illegally. who are the victims? these kids are the victims. the cartels are abusing these kids. some of them are ending up being trafficked or sex trafficked.

all of these really terrible things. you see the worst of human nature coming through with some of this. our policy has got to be, you know, it is totally irresponsible to be shipping a child across a international border. that is not something we want and that is something we have to try to prevent because right now the incentive is to just do that. and it is interesting, we were in -- yesterday at eagle pass down there right there at the river. people had kind of mentioned you or california that raised a -- you know, these folks in martha's vineyard or california that raised a ruckus when they had however many people come, they acted like somehow it was bad for the migrants. no, the migrants were thrilled to be able to get out of having nothing going for them. what they pointed out to me was , next time someone tries to say that, point them to, they call it a a pvc pipe graveyard. yes, a lot of people that have drowned in the rio grande are

basically buried on under these pvc pipes. i did not go see it, but think about that. dozens and dozens of corpses, how is that something that is good for policy? that is horrific that that is happening and yet that is happening. yes sir. navy guy? thank you for your service. me too. >> absolutely. my name is mauricio -- i am from texas. with what we said earlier, migrants come over here illegally. they think as soon as they step on the land of america they give you a place to stay, give me medical care. but yet in our own backyard we have homelessness, homeless veterans and mentally -- i mean it is one of the things that is constantly at me. three out of my four kids are in the military also. one is an officer, one is a

summary -- summary, one is in fort saint houston. it just really gets to me. it is passionate for me seeing that. >> i agree with you. first of all, i think if you want to incentivize illegal and -- immigration then offered them all be benefits. if you want to this incentivize --disincetivize, no taxpayer benefits. that is not how should be. you should just get -- [applause] so we will act very quickly on that but it is all about how we -- you want to structure policy and right now, the policy structure to incentivize what is happening, we will turn that on its head and there will be a major disincentive to want to go. you want to go, you go back 120 years, a lot of people with, and people were poor back then but there was no taxpayer program. when you came to america you had two nickels to rub together, you

better work and have a plan to make it. and if you came to something -- someplace like ellis island and you were considered a public charge, they would send you back. they would not even let you into the country if they thought you would somehow be a burden to the community or a bird into the -- a burden to the state in any way. that is the way it should be. why would you say come to america to get programs. people come to america not because they want to get on a program but because they want to live in freedom and have an opportunity to do well. that's what we have to get back to in this country. >> my name is terry flowers, i live in del rio but we have ties to midland. do you have plans to put people -- plans to reinstate the keystone pipeline and put people back in business, the jobs and oil industry? 100%. it is a no-brainer -- >> it is a

no-brainer. did you see they had a crash in montana. the pipelines are the safest way to transport it. keystone, we want to permit a lot of pipelines and i think it is critical answer structure and good for the economy and i think it is good for national security. we will open up all the oil and gas in the u.s. for development because it is important. it is great for people's pocketbooks to play -- pay less for gasoline and we see it at the gas pump but it permeates everything in the economy. when everything is high, everything, it permeates. it is good to get downward pressure, biden, he is knee capping our ability to produce domestically he wants no oil or gas in 5-10 years which is absurd but that is what they are trying to do. the country will go into a depression if they get away with that, but what he has done is --he has released all of the

strategic petroleum reserve. that is how he tried to keep gas prices from going higher than they have. god for bid where we needed a whole bunch, he has depleted that. i think it is a no-brainer. i think we will be able to do that but here's the thing. it takes forever to permit bees pipelines and the -- the pipelines and the bearcats -- bureaucrats have to stop holding the country up, i am sorry. we used to be able to build the empire state building and the golden gate bridge. that would take 25 years now from start to finish now with all of the bureaucracy and studies you need. we need to cut through the red tape and permit things like pipelines. put people to work and enjoy the lower energy prices. [applause] yes ma'am. >> thank you. my name is veronica. my daughter passed away of fentanyl poisoning.

this is not really a question but more of a -- sometimes to know overdoses are not overdoses -- sometimes pension all overdoses -- sometimes fenton all --fentanyl overdoses are not overdoses but they are poisoning. can we start calling them what they are? it is murder. [applause] >> absolutely. i am sorry. yes, i mean look at this. that is an american tragedy. i can tell you, i go back 5-10 years and think about who would come up to me. in the last few, the number of mothers i have met in similar circumstances, these are awful circumstances. we got to do something about it. in florida, we treat it. you know what they do they put

fenton all --fentanyl in candy now. to try to market it to young kids. and we say if you do that to market to a young kid we will send you to jail for a life sentence. we will treat you like the murderer that you are. that should be true everywhere in this country because the toll is unacceptable. we need to get to a point where it is not routine in a community in this country for mothers to bury their kids because of this garbage. we are with you on that 100% . yes ma'am. [applause] >> there is a form i-9 that by federal law requires that every employer must fill one of those for every employee to make sure they have legal employees. there is no enforcement. washington keeps passing loss and they can sit there and make one million more and if there is no enforcement, get them off the

books. >> i agree. employment verification comes -- goes back to the benefits. if you come in illegally and can get a job that is an enticement for people to come illegally. in florida we did e-verify they -- so they have to run people through e-verify and if they are legal they can obviously work. it has always been a law in florida that you have to be legal to work but it is about the enforcement. it is illegal in the united states to work if you are illegal but they do not enforce. we did e-verify and you already are seeing the results from that where people are not coming to florida illegally because they know if they are run through e-verify they will not be hired. we are moving very quickly now to a legal workforce. that is what we need a legal -- need a legal workforce. , most of the people coming illegally will be willing to work for much lower wages than the average american has worked for. you end up depressing

wages of working-class people who are either legal immigrants or american citizens. how is that a good thing? i want better high wages for people. i think we are better off when we have high wages for people. >> i have a ranch down here north of eagle pass. all of us are here because of concern on the border. we all know 90% of the problem is the cartels -- cartels and the cartels control mexico. in your administration, how would you control the cartels in mexico? >> it is a great question. it was great to talk with you before this about the people on your property and knocking on your windows. probably not as big a deal for you in this community because you know this is happening but if you go to other communities rose country and don't see that and say, how would you feel at 50 people came in the middle of the night and started knocking on your nose, i don't think many american citizens would sign up

for that. that type of invasive activity is happening, and it shows that -- happening, shows that we need to take strong action. we will use every bit of leverage to our disposal against both mexico and repowered the -- and our power against the cartels. there is a lot of leverage that a lot of hurt -- presidents think they are not able to use. i think you have to do it and think about it, how many of these folks are coming all the way through mexico to get to the southern border? mexico is not doing what they need to be doing. this is something they are working effectively with the cartels to allow happening and it is totally unacceptable so we have a lot of levers at our disposal. we will pull them and exercise leverage to ensure better behavior and we will use the authority. we do transnational criminal, -- we are going to do eight -- a

designation that will pack the punch and for the president to battle against the cartels, you don't even need to necessarily do that. you don't need congress. if they are moving product in the country and killing our people, you have a responsibility to fight back and we will. yes. [applause] my wife's sister did her air force pilot training in del rio, tellis so my wife new dell rio four we met and it is ironic and years later, i am the point florida troops to help out. >> this should be the last crowd question. >> fort hood in texas has been renamed to honor the first hispanic general, four star general. i have heard you will be

changing some names. will you, as the new president, will you change the name back to fort hood? >> i haven't seen what happened with fort hood but here's what i said with respect to fort bragg. that is a iconic base. i did not know it was a civil war general and i don't think most people knew. you know if you have been to bragg. they are changing it for political correctness reason so i don't believe in doing it for political correctness reasons. that is kind of how we will roll on that. you learn from history, you don't erase a history. it is what it is and i think that is a better way. what is happened -- has happened is there is movement to say, we need civil war people but they will take abraham lincoln off the statue in boston.

there will take teddy roosevelt down in new york city and removed george washington's name from schools in san francisco. that is not what i want to see. you can look back at anybody any confined loss -- and you can find flaws but we have done -- had people who have done great things in this country and we would not be where we were if we didn't have people like george washington and thomas jefferson. i do not want to erase that and i am not in the position to say that i am so much better than any of this. people make mistakes and there are different parts of society we look back and say is a mistake but the idea we will all race history i think is fundamentally -- we will erase history but the ia -- i think is fundamentally wrong.

we will not do that. [applause] vethe weekend, former president donald trump talked out his time in the white house and commented on his federal indictment. you can watch it tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. after 10:32, ron desantis ves his border security plan at a recent campaign stop in texas and you can watch on the c-span now video app or online at c-span.org. >> american history tv saturdays on c-span two exploring the people and events that tell the american story. july march the 1/16 anniversary of the battle at get exterior -- at gettysburg. topics include civil war generals and come veteran

starvation parties and at 6 p.m. eastern, jeffrey harding and penn state university professor john needs gives insight on how weather impacted the battle. historians along with a princeton official -- a reflection on the 16th president thinking on the debate at the time over politics and religion and culture. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturday on c-span two and find full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime as c-span.org/history -- at c-span .org/history. >> in 1814, francis scott key wrote a song that would become the national anthem of the u.s. mark clegg discussed in his book

about the history and cultural impact of the star-spangled banner. >> one of my big insights or beliefs about the song is that it is a living document. it is not a frozen icon. it is not something that is static but costly changing and alive and it is brought to life in a performance by people like jimi hendrix. every time we sing the song, we elevate the questions and the tension and the crisis and the hope that is in that song. >> mark lake with his book, oh say can you hear, sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span q&a. you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app. >> republican presidential candidate mike pence spoke -- i washington dc.