Trump Calls for New Vetting Center and Shutdown if Congress Doesn't Pass Border Security Measure

President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Tuesday to establish vetting centers for individuals attempting to enter the United States.

The National Vetting Center will be led by the Department of Homeland Security to help coordinate the efforts of departments and agencies to better identify individuals seeking to enter the country who present a threat to national security, border security, homeland security, or public safety, the White House said in a statement.

"The Federal Government's current vetting efforts are ad hoc, which impedes our ability to keep up with today's threats. The NVC will better coordinate these activities in a central location, enabling officials to further leverage critical intelligence and law enforcement information to identify terrorists, criminals, and other nefarious actors trying to enter and remain within our country," the statement read. 

As CBN News reported US Border Patrol said smugglers don't care who or what they bring in, as long as they get paid.

Chief Manuel Padilla, Jr., who heads up the Rio Grande Valley sector of the US Border Patrol says while the Trump administration has made a difference regarding border security, many illegals still exploit loopholes in the system. He says criminal organizations often send MS-13 gang members as unaccompanied children or with a fake family.

"Counterfeit documents, modified documents, that are being issued in certain countries to make a 'family,' if you will. They establish the parenthood of a child and once we start interviewing, we learn it's all false claims," Padilla said. 

The Border Patrol says these children are turned over to ICE, who then turns them over to the US Health and Human Services. Border security says sometimes they're released to family members already here in the United States. 

"The twist is they're given a court date, which some never attend," Padilla noted. 

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen opened the discussion by highlighting legal barriers to keeping out and removing MS-13, short for Mara Salvatrucha, and other gang members, including "catch and release" laws, which Trump said are "unique" to the United States.

"Not another country in the world has the stupidity of laws that we do when it comes to immigration," Trump said. "This isn't politics, this isn't Republican and Democrat, this is common sense. So, it has to be taken care of."

President Trump accused MS-13 of taking advantage of "glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors," which he has cited as a reason for more stringent immigration laws and the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico.

"Whatever they want to come through they come through," Trump said. "We don't have the wall we're never going to solve this problem."

Trump also said there was a lack of cooperation from Democrats, saying their policies prevent the issue of immigration from being resolved.

"Everything you do is illegal. You can't touch. You can't do anything," Trump said.

The president added he would welcome the looming government shutdown if it led to a deal that would resolve the issue, although senators made a deal Tuesday.

"I'd love to see a shut down if we can't get this stuff taken care of," he said."If we have to shut it down because the Democrats don't want safety ... let's shut it down."