President Trump (C), with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (C L), speaks during his visit to US Border Patrol McAllen Station in McAllen, Texas, on Jan. 10, 2019. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

The border security roundtable has wrapped after a little over an hour.

President Trump, who spoke in front of a display of stacks of drugs, guns and cash seized at points of entry, opened the event by praising border patrol agents as “heroes” and said they’re “highly respected in our country.”

Trump pledged that the US will build a “powerful steel barrier” and slammed Democrats for calling the situation on the border a “manufactured crisis.”

“What’s manufactured is the use of the word ‘manufactured,’” he countered.

Family members who lost loved ones also spoke and expressed support for improvements in border security, including the wall.

At the end, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen emphasized the “crisis” on the border and said that calling it manufactured is not only an insult to those who lost loved ones, but also “it’s an insult to our country.”

A note on the term "crisis": Part of the White House counsel's office review of declaring a national emergency has included laying the groundwork for a legal defense of the move, according to officials familiar with the matter. That has included advising the President's aides on ramping up talk of the humanitarian and security "crisis" — a characterization that administration lawyers could use later in court to defend a national emergency.