Trump on if US-Canada border is secure: ‘You can never be totally confident'

President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met about their countries shared goals on Monday, but their contrasting views were also on display during a news conference where they talked about immigration and refugees.

Thousands of people watched KIRO 7 News’ Facebook Live on the news conference, where Trump said “you can never be totally confident” that the northern border is secure.

Here was the exchange.

Reporter: "President Trump, you seem to suggest that Syrian refugees are a Trojan horse for potential terrorism, while the PM hugs refugees and welcomes them with open arms. Are you confident the northern border is secure?"

Trump: "You can never be totally confident. But through the incredible efforts already, I see it happen … We're actually taking people that are criminals, that are very hardened criminals with a tremendous track record of abuse and problems, and we're getting them out. And that's what I said I would do (in my campaign). I said at the beginning we were going to get the bad ones. The really bad ones. We're getting them out. And that's exactly what we're doing."

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Trudeau: "Keeping Canadians safe is one of the fundamental responsibilities of any government. At the same time we continue to pursue our policies of openness toward immigration and refugees without comprising security."

>> Related: Prime Minister Trudeau says Canada will take refugees

Terrorists who lived or passed through Canada are associated with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, suicide bombings in Israel, assassinations in India, the murder of U.S. tourists in Egypt, a bombing attack on the U.S. military in Saudi Arabia and the foiled plot to bomb the Los Angeles airport at the turn of the millennium, according to a Seattle Times report.

Trudeau said Canada welcomed nearly 40,000 refugees last year. After Trump signed an executive order that barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, Trudeau tweeted: "To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.”

A Seattle judge has since halted the president's travel ban. Read about Washington's fight against the ban here.

>> Related: White House is 'reviewing all options in the court system' for travel ban

The young prime minister has been reluctant to criticize Trump. His government has been trying to balance his liberal view of the world while not offending the new Trump administration.

"Canada and the United States have been neighbors a long time," Trudeau said Monday. "We fought and died together in battlefields on in WWI, WWII, Korea and Afghanistan. But there have been times when we have differed in our approaches. And that's always been done firmly and respectfully. The last thing Canadians expect is for me to come down and lecture another country (on how it) chooses to govern themselves. My role and our responsibly is to govern in such a way that reflects Canadians' approach and be a positive example in the world."

KIRO Radio reported that the number of refugees crossing the Canadian border is quickly rising. People are attempting to gain refugee status by entering Canada from the U.S.

Correspondent Jason Markusoff, who reports for Canada news publication Maclean's magazine, told KIRO Radio that an agreement between Canada and the U.S., the Safe Third Country Agreement, could become a problem for people seeking refugee status. 

Under the agreement, refugee claimants are "required to request refugee protection in the first safe country they arrive in unless they qualify for an exception to the agreement."

Another potential problem is if the number of people seeking refugee status grows too much.

“If people started coming across the border en masse … that’s going to be a very big policy change,” Markusoff said.

>> Related: 150,000 unauthorized immigrants live in Seattle area, Pew study finds

Gov. Jay Inslee stood with the former president when Barack Obama pledged in 2015 to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees in a year's time. The city of Seattle recently passed a resolution to become a "welcoming city," which means that it works with city departments to reduce the barriers that immigrants and refugees often face.

Cox Media Group