CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Representative Ted Lieu

Interview

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WHITFIELD: All right. Let's get reaction now to this new DHS plan to reunite separated families. With me now is Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California. He is a member of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Communities.

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.

REP. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. So this new DHS plan that is -- at least portions of it being made public will keep children waiting in custody with reunification -- reunification, rather, only happening once the parents' deportation proceedings are completed. What's your reaction to that?

LIEU: It is not acceptable that right now there are still over 2,000 babies and kids who are ripped away by the Trump administration from their parents. That still have not been reunited. The American Pediatric Associate has said that this kind of trauma can affect the kids' brain development and affect them for the rest of their lives. We need to put these kids back with their parents as soon as possible.

WHITFIELD: And then of course according to this plan, once the parents have to, you know, be processed, we've heard reportedly there is a real shortage, you know, of attorneys being able to represent people, and that that process is very lengthy. What do you anticipate in terms of how long this wait would be for this process to be completed?

[14:10:03] LIEU: There is a lot of chaos that started because of this awful family separation policy. By the way, I agree with Republican Congress member Mike Coffman that Stephen Miller, the White House adviser who was the architect of this policy, should resign.

In terms of process, we're asking very basic questions that the Department of Homeland Security still cannot answer. So three weeks ago I asked Secretary Nielsen in line with other members of Congress, how do you make sure when you release these children that they're not being released to child molesters? How do you reunite these kids? How do you keep track of these kids?

They still haven't been able to answer any of those questions. And we still don't know how they know that babies are connected to their actual parents. None of these questions have been answered.

WHITFIELD: What does this mean to you when it says there are improvements that they're working on, modifications for their data base? How does that translate to you?

LIEU: It translates that maybe for new kids, they have these improvements but for the initial 2300 or so, what it tells me is they had no plan in place. They did not have these linkages that they needed, and they can't answer these very basic questions, which his quite horrifying. What it might mean is that some of these babies and kids may never be reunited with their parents because they don't who they are.

WHITFIELD: Now I want to ask you about what happened earlier in the week on the House floor Friday when you chose to play audio from the Pro Republica (sic) recording of the cries of young children and one little girl, you know, saying she is pleading for a phone call to her aunt. And then you were met with some resistance by the Republican in charge of the session.

Let's watch some of that moment.

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WHITFIELD: So she said prohibits the use of that device. Did you challenge that? Is that the case, that you were in violation by playing that audio? And secondly, what was your, you know, objective?

LIEU: I thought it was important to put in the congressional record the horror of these kids and what they're experiencing from the Donald Trump administration's family separation policy. And I just wanted the American people to hear the cries of anguish from these children that were ripped away from their parents. And there was not a breach of any House rule in terms of decorum, nothing says that I can't play the cries of children who were separated from their families. And by the way, why are we even talking about decorum when what we're seeing is a functionally equivalent of kidnapping. There is much more at stake than this decorum.

WHITFIELD: And is that largely your kind of concern when you were talking about, you know, there is a great concern that without some real good bookkeeping prior to this new promise of a database, that there are some children who will never be reconnected with their families, but somehow they're in the United States, they'll be dispersed. Some are already in foster families and it's your accusation and that of so many others who are calling this kidnapping? LIEU: Absolutely. I remember when our two kids were born. Both

times the hospital went to great lengths to make sure that they knew who the parents were, who their infants were. And there is no evidence here that the Trump administration went to those lengths that they actually connected who the babies are to who the parents are because if they did they would be telling us, as well as the news media, the procedures they put in place.

My great fear is they had no procedures, which means these little kids and these babies will really be lost from their parents because they don't know how to connect them.

WHITFIELD: And babies and those that are nonverbal unable to explain, express who their parents might be if the numbers or whatever data is taken doesn't correspond with reaching their parents?

LIEU: That is correct. And what the Department of Homeland Security has said is that a number of these parents may already have been deported, so now how do you reunite those parents with their babies or infants, especially if the little kids can't explain who their parents are.

WHITFIELD: Congressman Ted Lieu, thank you so much.

LIEU: Thank you.

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