CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview With Texas Congress Vicente Gonzalez

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

TAPPER: All right. Nick Valencia, thank you so much.

Horrible story.

Joining me now, Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez of Texas. His district includes McAllen, where the largest border patrol processing center is located. He toured that facility yesterday.

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

More families have been separated leaving the McAllen facility than any other facility in the country. The children that you saw there, how did they seem to be doing?

REP. VICENTE GONZALEZ (D), TEXAS: Well, as you said, you know, it's a clean facility with tight beds, but I didn't see a single smile when I was there and it's just a real American shame. I think it's a blemish on our policy and I think ripping kids away from mom and dad is just -- it is un-American. It's not what the world knows us for. It's not what -- the America we know and love. And I think this policy needs to stop.

And the only person who can stop this is the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and our attorney general, Jeff Sessions. They have the power to turn this policy around.

TAPPER: Now, Jeff Sessions just said today that this is the policy because when people break the law, their parents get prosecuted and that's why children get separated from their parents. How do you think this problem should be dealt with?

GONZALEZ: Well, shame on him for saying that, because we're talking about human beings and I think the majority of Americans regardless of where they are in immigration and regardless of -- I'm a -- I have to begin with a premise, that I'm a law and order border congressman. I don't believe in open borders, I believe in having good immigration policy that's strictly followed. But separating families is not what -- the beacon that the world stands for.

And so, another thing that we haven't talked about that I think is important is our failed policy in Central America which is what got us here. Right now, we're dealing with a symptom of mass migration but why are we here? Because we've ignored these countries for decades and the crime-ridden and there is not security on the ground, we haven't helped boost their economy. I think for a fraction of the price of what we spend now dealing with it -- the symptom, we could resolve these issues and we need to think about foreign policy in Central America today, otherwise this is a continuous problem --

TAPPER: I just want to ask -- I hear what you are saying. But I really want to hear about what you saw in the processing center in the little time we have here. You said you didn't see many smiles. I mean, were kids --

GONZALEZ: I didn't see --

TAPPER: Tell us what you saw. GONZALEZ: I didn't see a single smile. I didn't see a single smile.

They are basically hurricane fence rooms, some people could call them cages or larger kennels that house younger kids, that house more adult men and have women separated and then a section of young girls. Not a single smile.

It was Father's Day. You know, it was a sad day. And I can't imagine what they've been through to get just to this point. But one thing that I thought was very interesting, there would be four or five or six young children in a section and usually, you'd see kids playing with each other or regardless of social economic standards or where they are, kids tend to play with each other.

I didn't see a single smile when I walked through there. So, certainly, we have a failed policy. It is not an American policy or where the majority of the American people stand and I think the administration needs to do the right thing and address this issue immediately.

TAPPER: One of the most striking images of course showing the chain- link fencing and we've heard it described as a cage. Is that mostly what's in the facility, these individual chain-link fence cages or whatever you want to call them?

GONZALEZ: That's correct. It's 100 percent. In a particular facility in McAllen area, it's about a 75,000 square foot warehouse that has chain-link-fenced rooms, that also have a ceiling of chain-link, so it is like a complete capsule of chain- link.

And then it is divided depending on gender, on age. And some kids are unaccompanied. Some of them have been taken from their parents. And we certainly can do better than what I see now.

I was just in Central America a few weeks ago, and I saw busloads of people who had been deported from Mexico. And they were processed as a family unit and they were deported as a family unit.

And one thing I could say, we certainly should be doing just as good or better than what Mexico is doing.

TAPPER: One last question, quickly, if you could.

Congressman Joaquin Castro, your colleague, said that he saw a child eight months old who had been separated from his parents. What is the youngest child you saw?

GONZALEZ: Well, they were probably toddler-age.

Then, when I was at the bridge, there was a lady who had just come in with -- that had a baby a few weeks ago on the road. She had been traveling since March, and she had a child. She was from Honduras. She had her child somewhere in Mexico, and she had just come across the bridge and was asking for asylum.

There are rumors. There are both -- there are rumors on both ends whether people who are showing up to the border asking for asylum are being separated. The official answer is that they are not.

But there are pretty strong rumors out there that they are. And we couldn't have that question answered yesterday when we asked it. So, apparently, that is something that needs to be further investigated.

TAPPER: All right, Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, thank you so much for joining me, sir. I appreciate it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source