CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Ted Lieu

Interview

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BLITZER: Yes, that's an enormous question. What happens to those 2,300 kids who are already separated, not impacted directly from this executive order the president signed today.

Polo Sandoval, thank you very much.

Joining us now, Congressman Ted Lieu. He's a California Democrat. He serves on the Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

Let me get your quick reaction. The president announcing that the families will now at least be kept together, but they will be held together in detention while the parents face criminal prosecution. What's your reaction to this solution, this executive order signed by the president today?

REP. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you, Wolf, for your question.

Today's action shows that Donald Trump and Secretary Nielsen lied to the American people repeatedly. They first said there was no family separation policy. Then they tried to blame it on the Democrats. Then they said only Congress can do it.

And with today's executive order that reverses this policy, we know that it was all lies. That's why Secretary Nielsen needs to resign. Her credibility has been shredded. I and many other members of Congress no longer have faith in her.

And this executive order itself has a number of problems that might not actually solve the ultimate issue.

BLITZER: Let's go through some of those issues.

There's a court order, as you know, that prevents the government from holding children in detention for longer than 20 days. The executive order signed by the president today says he's going to go to court. The attorney general, Jeff Sessions, shall promptly file a request with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California -- you're from California -- to try to modify that.

What's your reaction?

LIEU: There are a number of ways to solve the family separation issue. Donald Trump picked one of the worst ways, which is to try to reverse an actual court settlement.

In this case, what they could do is, after 20 days, let the family go and have them come back for the court hearing. Many times, you have these asylum proceedings, and under the Bush and Obama administrations, they would let the asylum cases go forward before prosecuting them.

That makes the most sense. That's what the Trump administration should do, instead of prosecuting every single person. That's not rational, when many of them have legitimate asylum claims.

BLITZER: They say they're not going to do that because a lot of these families, they say, would simply disappear and not show up for some court proceedings and just wind up illegally in the United States.

Couldn't this decision, this executive order signed by the president today lead to families being detained indefinitely?

LIEU: It could. That's why I think the judge is not going to modify that settlement.

Or, if she does, it's not going to be modified for very long. Again, the easiest way to reverse this policy is to reverse Attorney General Jeff Sessions' policy letter that caused this crisis in the first place.

And this is not the proper way to go about it, to detain whole family units indefinitely.

BLITZER: But, as you said, this executive order signed by the president isn't getting rid of the zero tolerance policy that aims to criminally prosecute 100 percent of the people crossing the border illegally.

Do you think the goal is to prosecute every single person who crosses the border? Is that really practical? Is it necessary for national security?

LIEU: It is not practical at all.

I previously served on active duty. The U.S. faces a lot of serious threats, but we don't have threats from babies and children. And many of these migrants who are coming over are fleeing persecution with legitimate asylum claims.

They are not al Qaeda. They are not terrorists. And we need to follow our own laws, which is to let their asylum claim proceeding go forward. And the Trump administration, in trying to prosecute them for these misdemeanors, has caused this entire crisis in the first place. They could reverse that if they wanted to.

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BLITZER: But you hear the president often say many of them are drug dealers or they're gang members or they're killers simply seeking to illegally enter the United States.

LIEU: And we certainly ought to prosecute those individuals. That's why you should have prosecutorial discretion.

To say you're going to prosecute 100 percent of the people coming over, even if they're kids or migrants who have no criminal record, makes no sense.

And, again, this entire crisis is something that the Trump administration caused. They could defuse it. And, unfortunately, this executive order does not fully defuse the problem.

BLITZER: What do you need to do? Because does Congress need to act to make sure those 2,300 children who have been already separated from their parents will, in fact, be reunited? Because this executive order doesn't say anything about them.

LIEU: Another reason Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen needs to resign is that, 19 days ago, I led a letter with other members of Congress asking her very basic questions about this family separation policy, such as, how do you know you're not putting a child with a child molester?

How do you make sure we reunite children with their parents? To this day, she still can't answer those very basic questions. I have introduced legislation, along with Ranking Member Nadler and many others, to solve this problem, to reverse this policy, and to really put into law a fix to what the Trump administration has done with their policy.

BLITZER: Congressman Ted Lieu, thanks so much for joining us.

LIEU: Thank you, Wolf.

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