(tense music)
- The hundreds of thousandsof people that are invading.
- [John] Border securitytakes center stage.
The president pushed toclose the southern border.
- Murdering babies when they're born alive
is legal in many states.
- House Republicans move
on the Born Alive Protection Act.
How they plan to outmaneuverDemocrats on Capitol Hill
with a vote on the pro-life measure.
(clapping)
And three months afterthe president signed
a landmark criminal justice reform bill,
the impact of the First Step Act.
This and more, tonight on Faith Nation.
(friendly music)
The US cutting off aid to threeCentral American countries
as the president threatensto close entryways.
Welcome to Faith Nation, I'm John Jessup.
- And I'm Jenna Browder.
The White House says thereis a crisis happening
at the border.
President Trump tweetingtoday Homeland Security
is being nice but quote, "not for long."
- Critics say the president's threats
to close the border go too far.
National SecurityCorrespondent, Eric Philips
joins us with a closer look.
Eric?
- Absolutely, what the president is saying
that he has to take these drastic measures
because Mexico is notdoing enough to hold up
their end of the deal.
- Mexico has to stop it.
They have people comingright through Mexico.
- [Eric] In addition to thethreat of closing the border,
the State Department followed through
on stopping certain aid to Honduras,
Guatemala and El Salvador.
- We were paying themtremendous amounts of money
and we're not paying them any more
because they haven't done a thing for us.
- [Eric] The goal ofthat money was to reduce
the flow of immigrantsby improving conditions
in those countries.
But the president said,that's not happening,
a charge he leveled inOctober to CBN News.
- But when you see a caravan
that's pouring up to our country
with thousands of people,maybe 10,000 people now,
look, we're not gonna letthem come into our country.
- [Eric] CBN contributor, Chuck Holton,
demonstrates just how easyit is to cross the border
as things stand right now.
- I'm currently in northern Mexico,
right on the US southern border
and I'm gonna cross intothe United States right now
and I'm gonna show you just how quickly
I can do this, just how quickcan I get over the border.
Here I am and I'm in theUnited States, just like that.
- [Eric] Critics say cutting off aid
will only encourage more migration
and people will still find their way in.
They add, closing theborder will ultimately cost
the US almost $2 billion in goods
that go back and forthacross the border every day.
Plus, the call it, a broad brush,
that won't mainly target criminals.
- Some of them are criminals.
Some of the are dangerous people.
But most of them probably are not.
And it's a drastic step tojust make no distinction
between them and justput a figurative wall
along the border.
- [Eric] Trump's acting Chief of Staff
defended the measures.
- Our hands are forced on that decisions
because Democrats won'thelp us fix the problem.
Faced with those limitations,
the president will do everything he can.
If closing the ports of entry mean that,
that's exactly what he intends to do.
- President Trump has said the so-called
catch-and-release practice ofallowing illegal immigrants
to stay in the US until their court date
simply doesn't work.
While the president said,it's not a viable solution,
Border Patrol officialsmay have no other choice
because of over crowded conditions.
John and Jenna.- Alright Eric Philips,
thank you very much.
Well, here now for more, are ABC News
Political Director, Rick Klein
and CBN News Chief PoliticalAnalyst, David Brody.
Rick, to you first.
We see the president wantingto shut down the border.
Mexico, of course, is ourthird largest trading partner.
And then there's all thesemigrants coming to the border
creating a lot of problems down there.
Is this about solvingthe immigration crisis
or is it really more, in your opinion,
about 2020 and fulfillingcampaign promises.
- We'll see if he follows through.
He's threatened this before.
I talked to the SenateHomeland Security chairman
who's an ally of thepresident, Senator Ron Johnson.
He says it's not actually practical
to close the border entirely.
So some of this is rhetoric.
Maybe it's about trying toget the Mexican government
to a negotiating table.
I think a lot of it is colored by the fact
that this president made this commitment
regarding the border.
He has obviously beenvery fixated on getting
his border wall.
And I think part of itis associated with that.
- And if I can just add in,
some of his critics will say,he's crazy enough to do it.
And there's that Trump wild card.
That's exactly where he wants his enemies.
And quite frankly, everybody, to be,
this idea that he may just do it.
And that gives him leverage to a degree.
Also, he looks at everythingin terms of money.
And I understand there'sa bigger picture here,
in terms of, you dry upthe money in Honduras,
Guatemala and El Salvador,you risk these communities
becoming less stable.
But he just says, what arewe getting for it, right?
Same thing with G-20,same thing with Iran Deal.
Trade, China, everything's about fairness.
We're not gonna take it,America first, all that.
But money seems to be the commondenominator a lot of time.
- Jenna just hinted towards 2020.
Joe Biden is in some political hot water
over his affectionate,
what some might call inappropriate style.
You've already seen someDemocrats begin to circle
the wagons around him.
Do you think that thiswill, for both of you,
keep him from running?
- No, I don't think so.
Though I'd be curious toget your opinion, Rick.
I guess we'll get to that in a moment.
No, I don't think so.
I feel like he's stuck in 1979.
I just feel like this type of conduct,
I'm not saying anything about the conduct.
I'm not condoning it orsaying anything about it.
But in 1979, this conduct,compared to today,
there was a different barometer.
There is a different bar today
and that poses a problemfor the Democrats.
I mean, you're gonna comeout and be a part of,
you're gonna leave the Me Too movement,
the #MeToo movement,and then you have this,
well, where does that makeJoe Biden fit in all of this?
I think that's a realproblem for Democrats
and I would just say about Evangelicals,
Evangelicals, sorry, youcan't say anything right now.
If you're gonna support Donald Trump,
there's nothing youcan say about Joe Biden
when it comes to character issues.
- I think for him, the rules have changed.
I think David's right.
Even since he left politics,just three years ago,
they've changed and certainly
since he first enteredthe Senate in what, 1974.
Things are just different now.
And all of it gets looked at differently.
And I think if he is gonna run,
he has to appreciate thatall of this is on the table.
And his handling of theAnita Hill hearings,
we've been talking about hishandling of the busing issue
in the mid-1970's, his flip-flopsor his changing positions
on abortion rights, all ofthese things are fair game
for Democrats to look at.
And the party is sodifferent than the party
that he came up in.
And part of that's his appeal.
There are a lot ofDemocrats who would like
to go back to the good old Joe Biden days
where they felt like theywere a working-class appeal
that Democrats like Biden could appeal to
but the party is so different right now.
And this is gonna be a roughmoment for his pre-campaign.
His people around him have saidthat they've always expected
that things could come outand that wouldn't affect
his decision making.
But man, it's hard to imaginethat you don't look at all
of the events of the last few days
and wonder if that gives them pause.
- David, I want to circle back to you
because you had mentionedwhat Evangelicals,
their critique of this.
But White House Counselor,Kellyanne Conway
criticized Biden, calling himCrazy or Creepy Uncle Joe.
Given her boss's checkered past, does that
create an awkward situation?
- Yeah, it does for sure.
And I just think thisis one of those things
the White House has to leave alone.
But yeah, good luck, DonaldTrump leaving this alone.
He's not gonna do that.
Matter of fact, because remember,
the White House official position,
at least Trump's official position is,
I didn't do anything wrong.
I mean, he hasn't admitted to anything.
So look, if he canfigure out how he, Trump,
if he can figure out a way to win
at whatever game he's playin'
and a lot of it's three-dimensional chess
and some would call it Parcheesi,
but whatever he's playin',he'll figure out a way to do it.
- Rick, on healthcare in2020, President Trump,
he wants to do with Obamacare,a lot of Republicans,
people in his own party are saying,
this has not been a winningissue for us in the past.
Why are we re-visiting it?
Now, what are your thought on that?
- Yeah, the most telling response to me
was Mitch McConnell, theSenate majority leader.
He says, I look forward toseeing what Donald Trump
and Speaker Pelosi come up with.
Which means, it's not my problem, guys.
I am not dealing with that.
I've dealt with it already.
I think as we learn moreabout what drove this push
in the lawsuit that wasfiled just last week,
you recognize the president continues
to think this is a winning issue
and there's very few aroundhim that think the same.
The Democrats essentiallywon control of the House
on this issue.
They were obsessed with pushingthis as far as they could.
Republicans had to play defensethroughout the campaign.
And the bottom line is,if Obamacare was ruled
unconstitutional, thrown out tomorrow,
there is no plan to replace it
and millions of Americanswould probably suffer
pretty dire consequences.
- David, back to the Mueller Report.
We wanted to talk about that.
It fell flat for a lot of these Democrats.
But they're not letting it die.
What do you think their end game is here?
What are they trying to get at?
- Well, I've been on record, if you will,
from an analysis standpoint,of when are you gonna stop
digging the grave?
Look, the top line ofMueller is no collusion.
So you can go to the underlying evidence
and these are the words wehear, underlying evidence,
underlying evidence, underlying evidence.
And I get it, they're trying to create
their own special counsel.
They're trying to find any nook and cranny
they can possibly findto create that narrative
and keep the cloud going.
But at some point you've gotta just say,
look, it is what it is.
And this whole idea that Jerrold Nadler
is going to now subpoena or hewants the unredacted report,
now, you're talking aboutnational security issues.
And I understand it'sgonna be a legal fight
and it's never gonna be unredacted.
But the fact that theywould even want that
I think is a bit problematic.
- This is a bit of a politicalgamble for Democrats,
is it not?
- Yeah, I think they weredug pretty far in on this.
But David's right.
The top line is no collusion.
It's hard to imagine someoneelse looking to find collusion
if Mueller didn't.
The question of obstruction is a legal one
that I think will comeout through the final,
I think we're gonna knowmost of what Mueller found.
And most of the report's gonna come out
in some form or fashion.
And then Democrats have to decide whether
that's enough or not.
There's gonna be people pushinghim in either direction.
- Well, gentlemen, we're gonnahave to leave it right there.
ABC's, Rick Klein and CBN's,David Brody, thanks so much.
- Thank you.
- Thank you both.
Well, April is Second Change Month
and the White House is celebrating
by focusing on theimpact of prison reform.
Amber Strong shows us the effects so far
of the First Step Act.
- In the three monthssince the First Step Act
became law, more than 500 inmates
have been released from prison.
The White House is celebrating by honoring
those second chances.
We spoke to a former inmatewho's celebrating herself.
- All I can do is thank God
because I'm not gonna say prison bad.
I'ma say I learned a lot in my 10 years.
I got closer to God.
I got to know who he wasand what he could do.
It's unexplainable, to see the president
and then all the people whoput their hard-earned work
into this, came togetherjust to pass this bill,
was the best blessing.
- [Amber] Part of today'sactivities includes discussions
on employing thosere-entering the workforce.
The White House and advocates agree
there is work to be done.
- The Act needs to befully funded in order
to fulfill its promiseto the people inside
as well as to the peoplewho have been released.
There are also provisions of the Act
that have not yet been implemented.
Good Time Credits is a big part of that.
That was a provisionthat we had anticipated
going into effect immediatelyand it's something
that we're still workingon having implemented
to its full effect.
The Second Step I think, really looks at,
not just what's happening on the inside,
but also what we do forpeople when they come back
into these communities.
In order for people toreally have a second chance,
we need to be honestand genuine about that
so we need to look at housing,
we need to look at employment.
- Now, expect criminal justice overhaul,
to be a big talking pointin the 2020 election.
Many of the candidatesare already on the record
talking about what needs to be done
and pointing out their abilityto work across the aisle
when it came to this measure.
And of course, the WhiteHouse is already looking
toward the future.
Amber Strong, CBN News, in Washington.
- Thanks, Amber.
Well, as soon as tomorrow,Republicans will try to force
a vote on the House floor onthe Born Alive Protection Act.
CBN News, Capitol HillCorrespondent, Abigail Robertson
is here with more on the details
on the push engineered byMinority Whip, Steve Scalise.
Abigail, can you explainwhy he says this legislation
is so important and what it would do.
- Yes, John, well what it would do
is what it says in the title.
It's the Born Alive AbortionSurvivor's Protection Act
and it will give abortionsurvivors legal protections.
It says that doctors andmedical professionals
performing abortionshave to get these babies
who survive the abortion procedures
the necessary and life-saving treatment
or they could face criminal penalties.
And when I spoke with Congressman Scalise,
he told me when his stafffirst brought this issue
before him, he was shocked to learn
that it was not already a law.
Take a look at what he said.
- What we're trying to dois put legal protection
in place that most people are shocked
to find out doesn't already exist in law.
You find that so many Democrats are afraid
to buck Nancy Pelosi.
But again, on thisissue, I don't understand
how you can allow a baby to be born alive
and then let it be murdered and think that
that should be legal anywhere.
So this is an issue that even most people
who identify themselvesas being pro-choice
think it's wrong to kill the baby
after it's born alive.
So this shouldn't be evenpart of the abortion debate.
This should be a protectionthat's guaranteed
to everybody in America.
- And Republican lawmakers are saying
that the Democrats whorefuse to support this,
they're accusing them ofsupporting infanticide.
- Abby, so for those ofus who aren't familiar
with Congress, can youexplain why Republicans
have to try to force this vote.
- Well, with House Speaker,Democrat House Speaker,
Nancy Pelosi in control,she determines what bills
come to the House floor.
And she does not want tobring this bill to the floor.
So Republicans say, theyargue that 70% of all voters
support this issue and sothey want to force this
on the House floor, force a vote on this
and let voters see where their lawmakers
stand on this issue.
So what they're doing isthey're filing what's called
a Discharge Petition, whichif they can get 218 signatures
they can force this vote on the floor.
But that's going to be hard to come by
in a Democrat-controlled House.
- Yeah, Abigail, youkind of touched on that.
It doesn't sound like it has a huge,
really high chance of passing.
- So if every Republican signs it,
that gives them 197 signatures.
They have three pro-lifeDemocrats signatures already.
But they're still short 18and finding those 18 Democrats
who are willing to goagainst their leadership
is going to be very tricky.
But this petition will notexpire until the next Congress
so they have almost two years.
But it's still goingto be a very tough task
to get those 218 signatures.
- Alright, Capitol Hill Correspondent,
Abigail Robertson, thanksso much for that report.
- Thank you.
- Coming up, how a lackof foreign worker visas
is hurting workers across America.
(tense music)
A shortage of temporaryvisas is putting a squeeze
on some foreign workersacross the country.
- Upwards of 100,000 landscapers applying
for only 33,000 visas this season alone.
CBN News, White HouseCorrespondent, Ben Kennedy
joins us now to break downthe impact that will have.
Ben?
- Well, John and Jenna, you can imagine
the lack of visas ishaving a pretty big impact.
I spoke with one landscapingcompany in Maryland
where the H-2B workers make up nearly 75%
of their workforce and this year,
they didn't get a single one.
(shovel clunking)
In 1991, Jesse Banes starteda landscaping company
with the help of his family.
- My boys have been helping me
since they were little, tiny.
- [Ben] It's grown intoa successful business.
- It was really small.
We started at our homewith a little shop out back
and now we come to work.
I'm very proud of him.
- [Ben] Jesse didn't let a diagnosis
of FSH muscular dystrophyat age 14 stop him.
- When I first met him, hehad a truck full of firewood
and he was just a guy with alot of sheer determination.
- [Ben] A determinationlanding quality won
six-figure projects.
That means more jobs and more workers.
- We did go through a recruitment period
where we had, I thinkwe had nine applicants.
We had one show up for an interview.
- [Ben] So you're trying to hire American.
- We are, we are.
- [Ben] So the Baneshad to look elsewhere.
- And I was uneducated.
I didn't know a whole lot aboutthe foreign worker program.
And I thought like manyAmericans think today,
them guys are taking jobs.
They're taking American jobs.
They're, no way.
- [Ben] Turns out, the H-2Bprogram is not like that.
It's designed to let employers hire
temporary foreign workersfor non-agriculture jobs.
Companies must also show attempts
to hire American workers before applying.
Created back in the the '50s,H-2B is not an easy process.
Employers must first submit applications,
pay fees, then wait to bechosen through a lottery.
- It's expensive.
But anyway, we did that.
And once we got our first workers,
it was like, heaven.
It was heaven.
They were at work every day.
You could rely on them.
They were eager to work.
- [Ben] Lately, getting help through it
has proven difficult.
- It's my understanding that
that this fiscal year, therewere 33,000 available visas
and upwards of 100,000 applicants,just on that first day.
- [Ben] The Banes applied inDecember and again this year
for 15 workers but didnot get a single one.
- We have no H-2B workers this year.
- [Ben] What does thatmean for your business?
- Realistically, we try to hire US,
try to hire locally.
Most of them will beunskilled or unreliable
if we're able to find them.
- [Ben] This forced themto turn down business
and leave new equipmentsitting in the parking lot
with no one to operate them.
- We banked on them coming here
because we were gonna bring in more work
and break off and expand into more trucks.
- [Ben] The H-2B visa capof 66,000 workers a year
was set more than 20 years ago.
Congress just passed a bill allowing
nearly 70,000 more visas to open up.
But DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen
limited that to only an additional 15,000.
- I felt like God said,stop praying small.
Look up and I realized that he began
to expand my borders.
And then my heart was for,not just for our workers,
it was for every businessthat was in this crisis
to get their workers.
And then I saw that therewas that opportunity
that legislators, that Secretary Nielsen,
she has the ability torelease additional visas
and kind of alleviate this.
- [Ben] Nielsen says, "Congress, not DHS,
"should be responsible for determining
"whether the annual numerical limitations
"for H-2B workers set byCongress needs to be modified...
"and by how much, andfor setting parameters
"to ensure that enough workers
"are available to meetemployers' temporary needs
"throughout the year."
So while lawmakers debate what to do,
companies like QualityOne have this message
for their customers.
- I would tell my customers,
no matter what happens,we're going to try to,
we're gonna try our best,and one way or another,
we will service our contracts.
We will, it might getmessy for a little while,
but it will get better
and we won't abandon them.
We will get it done.
- At this point, no decisionhas been made on Capitol Hill
to change the visa cap.
In the meantime, the Banescontinue to turn down work.
Just last month, theysaid no to a $100,000 job
because, John and Jenna,they don't have the workers.
- Ben, it's obviously not an easy process.
How much does it cost tobring H-2B workers here?
- Well, in this case,it cost the Bane family
around $25,000 a year to bring15 H-2B workers to Maryland.
Even though they did not getany workers that past two times
they actually still hadto pay the application fee
so they are out that money.
But again, companies likethe Banes' want to go
the legal route andagain, it does cost money
to make that happen.
- CBN White HouseCorrespondent, Ben Kennedy,
thanks, Ben.
A rare archeological discovery sheds light
on ancient biblical history.
That story when we come back.
(tense music)
Welcome back.
Israeli archeologists havemade two rare discoveries
in and around the ancient city of David.
- That's right.
They point to historicalfigures mentioned in the Bible.
Chris Mitchell shows us
what makes these new finds so special.
- The discoveries came fromhere, the Gavati Excavation.
It's part of the ancient City of David,
where King David set up hiscapital 3,000 years ago.
Israeli archeologists made the discoveries
in this structure, wherethey found evidence
of a big fire they believe dates
back to 586 BC when theBabylonians destroyed Jerusalem.
Here you can still seethe ash from the fire.
The discoveries are anancient bulla and a seal.
- This is the bulla.
A bulla is actually a tiny piece of clay
that was attached to letters or jars
in order to make sure
that no one opened them without noticing.
- [John] The bulla bore a special name.
- And this one says(speaking foreign language),
the servant of the King.
(speaking foreign language)
Now, the name, (speaking foreign language)
is known from the Biblefrom the Book of Kings.
- [John] While archeologistscan't say for certain,
this (speaking foreignlanguage) is the one mentioned
in the Bible, Dr. Gerebovichfrom Hebrew University,
says the evidence is compelling.
- First the (speaking foreignlanguage), which is rare.
Second, the period, we'retalking about the mid-7th
century BC, King Josiah.
And third, the factthat we have the title.
So (speaking foreign language) was someone
who was close to the king.
- [John] For the archeologists, the finds
are like touching Jerusalem's history.
- This is very impressive for me.
Not only because of the history.
Because this is actually a snapshot
for the history that happenedhere 2,600 years ago.
- These discoveries shed morelight on ancient Jerusalem
and paint a more completepicture of King David's city.
Chris Mitchell, CBN News,the Gavati Excavation,
the City of David.
- Chris always does great reporting.
Well, finally tonight, it officially marks
the peak bloom for thosefamous Japanese cherry blossoms
here in Washington.
- [Jenna] And we leaveyou with these images
by CBN Photo Journalist,Patrick Robertson.
