President Donald Trump speaks in the Hall of Columns as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo / AP
President Donald Trump speaks in the Hall of Columns as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo / AP
A heckler yelled "Mr. President, f*** you" as President Donald Trump walked through the US Capitol building on Tuesday evening to meet with House Republicans about immigration legislation.
"Mr. President f*** you," is heard yelled in footage of the president entering the office of House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Trump wasen route to talk to members of his own party about immigration policy, according to the Daily Mail.
Per our intern, who was standing there, the woman who yelled "Mr. President, F--k you!!" was a congressional intern.
Shortly thereafter US Capitol Police issued a "global look out" for a woman with "an intern badge" with dirty blonde hair and blue-chequered pants, according to a reporter from Reuters who heard it broadcast over police radios.
Many Republicans have joined Democrats in decrying Trump's policy to separate children from the adults accompanying during illegal border crossings.
Twelve Republican senators sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking him "to halt family separations while Congress works on legislative fix."
Additionally, two Senate Republicans are working on legislation that would halt the separations.
Democratic Senators also have legislation in the works.
And House Republicans are changing their compromise immigration bill to prevent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from separating migrant children from their families.
The new bill - which is a compromise GOP bill - would require DHS to keep families together while parents are going through legal proceedings related to their detention for illegally crossing the border, The Hill reported.
The compromise bill would meet most of Trump's immigration demands. It would create a path to legal residency and then citizenship for young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. It would also fund the president's proposed border wall and end the diversity visa 'lottery' system.
President Donald Trump, left, gestures as he walks with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, right, while leaving the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Photo / AP
The second bill is more conservative and does not offer a path to citizenship for the immigrants, known as 'Dreamers.' It would more dramatically limit legal immigration.
Votes are expected to happen in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Trump acknowledged those concerns and admitted his daughter Ivanka Trump talked to him about family separation at the border and that the images are not good, according to a report from a source in the meeting, as tweeted by a reporter from Politico.
He started his meeting with his party members by praising their work. We are hot and we are "winning," he told them, according to a source in the room as tweeted by a reporter from The Hill.
The president also spoke briefly to reporters after he entered the Capitol and said they are working to fix the broken immigration system.
"The system's been broken for many years. The immigration system, it's been a really bad, bad system, probably the worst anywhere in the world. And we're gonna try and see if we can fix it," he said.
Republicans are planning to vote on two pieces of legislation that would overhaul immigration later in the week.
Trump said earlier in the day he wants to cut off aid to Central American countries that he claimed Tuesday are 'sending' migrants to the U.S.
Trump said he'd be asking for authorization to end assistance to the region that includes Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
"We're not going to give any more aid to those countries," he asserted during a Washington, D.C. speech to the National Federation of Independent Business. "Why the hell should we?"
President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo / AP
The president was addressing the problem of family separation when he threatened foreign aid to the financially struggling countries that are home to most non-Mexican migrants begging for asylum at the southern border.
The president said he doesn't like that children are being separated from their legal guardians- even though it's a policy that was implemented by his administration.
"We can't let people pour in. They've gotta go through the process," he stated. "And maybe it's politically correct or maybe it's not - we've gotta stop separation of the families."
In back-to-back tweets this morning, the president ripped into the minority party and demanded that Congress pass legislation strengthening border security.
"Now is the best opportunity ever for Congress to change the ridiculous and obsolete laws on immigration. Get it done, always keeping in mind that we must have strong border security."
#CHANGETHELAWS Now is the best opportunity ever for Congress to change the ridiculous and obsolete laws on immigration. Get it done, always keeping in mind that we must have strong border security.
Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!
Trump also commented on the family separation controversy plaguing his administration.
"We must always arrest people coming into our Country illegally. Of the 12,000 children, 10,000 are being sent by their parents on a very dangerous trip, and only 2000 are with their parents, many of whom have tried to enter our Country illegally on numerous occasions," the president tweeted.
We must always arrest people coming into our Country illegally. Of the 12,000 children, 10,000 are being sent by their parents on a very dangerous trip, and only 2000 are with their parents, many of whom have tried to enter our Country illegally on numerous occasions.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says Democrats bludgeoning the administration for its "zero tolerance" policy at the border are acting 'cowardly' and could change federal immigration law if they wanted to.
Nielsen stood at the White House podium on Monday and argued that DHS was just doing its job in enforcing a Trump administration policy that has led more than 2,000 children to be separated from their parents or guardians in the last six weeks.
Akemi Vargas, 8, cries as she talks about being separated from her father during an immigration family separation protest. Photo / AP
"If an American were to commit a crime anywhere in the United States," she told a room full of reporters, "they would go to jail and they would be separated from their family."
Nielsen said, "This is not a controversial idea."
When asked by reporters if the policy amounts to "child abuse", Nielsen denied the accusation.
"We have high standards. We give them meals and we give them education and we give them medical care. There are videos, there are TVs. I visited the detention centers myself."
