Transcript for Biden and Trump discuss their views on immigration policy
We’re going to talk about immigration now, gentlemen. And we’re going to talk about families within this context. Mr. President, your administration separated children from their parents at the border, at least 4,000 kids. You’ve since reversed that policy, but the United States can’t locate the parents of more than 500 children. So, how will these families ever be reunited? The children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they’re brought here and they used to use them to get into our country. We now have as strong a border as we’ve ever had. We’re over 400 millions of brand new wall. You see the numbers and we let people in, but they have to come in legally. But how will you reunite these kids? They had a picture in a certain newspaper and it with us a picture of these horrible cages and they said, look at these cages, president trump built them. And then it was determined they were built in 2014, that was Do you have a plan to reunite the kids? Yes, we’re working on it. We’re trying very hard. But a lot of these kids come out without the parents. They come over through cartels and through gangs. Vice president Biden, let me bring you into this conversation. Quick response and another question to you. 500 plus kids came with parents. They separated them at the border to make it a disincentive to come to begin with. Real tough, we’re really strong. And guess what? They cannot — it’s not coyotes didn’t bring them over. Their parents were with them. They got separated from their parents. And it makes us a laughing stock and violating every notion of who we are as a nation. Let me ask you a followup Kristen, they did it, we changed the policy. Your response to that? We did not separate — Who built the cages, Joe? Let’s talk about what we’re talking about. Let’s talk about what we’re talking about. What happened? Parents — their kids were ripped from their arms and separated. And now they cannot find over 500 sets of those parents and those kids are alone. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to go. It’s criminal. It’s criminal. Let me ask you about immigration. Ten seconds. They are so well taken care of. They’re in facilities that were so clean. Some of them haven’t been reunited with their families. One question. Who built the cages? I’d love you to ask that. Who built the cages? Let me ask about your immigration policy, Mr. Vice president. The Obama administration did fail to produce immigration reform. It presided over record deportations, as well as family detentions at the border, before changing course. So, why should voters trust you with an immigration overhaul now? Because we made a mistake. Took too long to get it right. I’ll be president of the united States, not vice president of the United States. And the fact is, I’ve made it very clear, within 10 0 days, I’m going to send to the united States congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people. And all of those so-called dreamers, those DACA kids, they are going to be immediately certified again to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship. The idea that they are being sent home by this guy and they want to do that, is going to a country they’ve never seen before. I can imagine, you’re 5 years old, patien parents are taking you across the Rio grande river and it’s illegal. And you say, oh, no, mom, leave me here. I’m not going to go with you. They’ve been here, many of them are model citizens. 20,000 of them are first responders out there taking care of people during this crisis. We owe them. We owe them. President trump? He had eight years to do what he said he was going to do. And I’ve changed — without having a specific, we got rid of catch and release, we got rid of a lot of horrible things they lived with. But he had eight years he was vice president. He did nothing except build cages to keep children in. Vice president Biden? Wrong. The catch and release, you know what he’s talking about there? If, in fact, you had a family, came across and they were arrested, they, in fact, were given a date to show up for their hearing. They were released and guess what? They showed up for a hearing. This is the first president in the history of the United States of America that anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country. That’s never happened before in America. That’s never happened before in America. You come to the United States and you make your case that, I seek asylum based on the following premise, why I deserve it under American law. They’re sitting in scal lor on the other side of the river. President trump, your response? 30 seconds and then we’ll move on. It just shows that he has no understanding of immigration or the laws. Catch and release is a disaster. A murderer would come in, a rapist would come in, a very bad person would come in, we would take their name. We have to release them into our country and then you say they come back. Less than 1% of the people come back. We have to send — Not true. We have to send I.C.E. Out and border patrol to find them. We would say, come back in two, three years, we’re going to give you a court case, you need Perry mason. When you say they come back, they don’t come back, Joe. They never come back. They do. Only the really — I hate to see this, but those with the lowest iq, they might come back. Okay, president trump, let’s give vice president Biden a chance to respond and then we’re going to move onto the next section. You don’t know the law, Joe. I know the law. What he’s telling you is simply not true. Check it out. All right, let’s move on. We don’t have to worry about it, because I terminated it. And you have 525 kids not knowing where in god’s name they’re going to be and lost their parents.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.