MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Immigration

Interview

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HAYES: Senator Cory Booker returned yesterday from McAllen, Texas where he crossed back and forth into Mexico to see firsthand how our government is turning away asylum seekers without giving them a hearing. Booker also spoke out this morning against the Supreme Court decision, affirming Trump`s travel ban, arguing both issues have the nation now facing a quote, moral moment.

And joining me now for more on that and how to resist Trump in 2018, Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey.

Senator, let`s start about your trip to the border and specifically that issue you mentioned, which I think is important and adjacent to the family -- the child separation, which is American officials turning people away at ports of entry from asylum. What do you think is happening?

SEN. CORY BOOKER, (D) NEW JERSEY: First of all, you know this calls to the darker chapters of our country where there was a group of -- a famous ship coming from -- people escaping the holocaust -- got to the United States, were turned back around, back to Europe where many of them were killed.

These are folks who are escaping extreme violence. They come to, as I saw in one of our bridges and are told it cannot enter, because we don`t have quote, unquote, the space for them.

And so this is the challenge. We have people who come to these bridges -- when I went into Mexico to turn around, the Mexican official that was there told me, please don`t go into the city, it`s very dangerous for you walking there on foot. And here I am this big guy from Newark, and yet they`re turning women with children, small babies back into that enviornment.

And so I`m already talking to Customs and Border Patrol about this practice and how it does not reflect our values, nor does it reflect the law. When we tell people if they come to this country -- and we hear the president calling folks illegals -- here are folks showing up ready to go through the legal process of seeking asylum and they`re being turned away, often into conditions that aren`t hospitable, and for me it gives some responsibility for safety and security when we push them out of our country.

We need to increase the capacity for us to hold people seeking asylum and to process people seeking asylum. We need to end that process of Customs and Border Patrol going out on to the border away from the other side of the bridge where people are often being processed to try to turn people away before they even get to our country.

HAYES: We are now on another primary night. There is a bunch of races in seven states across the country. There is sort of a lot of people, I think, thinking about the midterms in the wake of what`s been happening, particularly family separation in the Supreme Court today.

And there`s one argument that goes that the White House thinks that when they`re talking about immigration, they`re winning. When you`re talking about, you know, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you`re winning because it`s ginning up their base. What is your read about the politics at this moment, senator?

BOOKER: Well, I guess there are two things. I do agree that when we`re talking about Sarah Huckabee Sanders, when we`re talking about the coat that Melania wore, we`re taking away focus on what`s happening right now. Jeff Sessions working to undermine the protections Americans have against being denied insurance, because of a preexisting condition. That is being eroded, ended as we speak, and yet we seem to be talking about things that often distract us from really important things that both Republicans and Democrats agree upon.

And so I`m trying to, in my energy, trying to keep people focused on the things that matter. But I do not want major moral moments like ripping away families. I don`t care if there`s a Democrat talking about immigration reform or not it`s going to help us in a November election or help us in a 2020 election. There`s got to be a time where we don`t ask if it`s politic. I don`t know if folks who protested the Vietnam War, whether it was Muhammad Ali or Martin Luther King stopped to think is this politic. They did it because it was the right thing to do.

And this has got to be a time where we stand up and do what is right. Our country has a president who is engaging in moral vandalism, whether it is the way he talks about Muslims and the roots of what happened in the Supreme Court today are bigotry against Muslim people, or what`s happening at the border. This is a violation of our values. We shouldn`t wait to see how this plays out in polling, we should do the right thing and stand up for who we are as a nation.

HAYES: All right, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, it`s always a pleasure to have you. Thank you for being with me tonight. I appreciate it.

BOOKER: Thank you very much.

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