CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX)

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, I am here in McAllen, Texas, where about 40 miles of the 15th Congressional district runs along that border with Mexico.

I want to bring in Congressman Gonzalez who can give better perspective than I can. Congressman, when you hear the horrific imagery from the president, today, that rhetoric, how do you and your constituents compare his version of what's happening down here with your reality here? REP. VINCENTE GONZALEZ (D), TEXAS: Well, it's just factually wrong.

If you look at the FBI statistics, McAllen is safest - the seventh safest city in America. El Paso is the safest large city in America. We have zero murders the year of 2018. We're one of the safest communities in the state and the country. So, it's just factually wrong, statistically wrong. So, you know, it used to be offensive. Now, we kind of just laugh at it.

KAYLEE: You base your perspective on the president's remarks not just on what we just heard from him. You were at the White House on Wednesday meeting with him. What did you take away from that ability to speak one on one with him about the way he perceives the border and the plan he has here?

GONZALEZ: Right. Well, I do believe it was a constructive meeting. Because any time you can meet with the president and give him your idea and try to move the ball forward and opening the government back up, I think it's a good -- well time spent.

We have 800,000 federal workers who are not employed, who are not getting paid. I have 10,000 of them here in my district. Many of them are Trump supporters. We have our border patrol that's going through a difficult time. Our U.S. Attornys Office, federal law enforcement, USDA, they're all being impacted by Donald Trump's shutdown.

And I think that this type of policy is what lost them 40 seats in the United States Congress and will probably lose Senate seats in the next election and certainly the presidency.

HARTUNG: Today, not the first time we've heard President Trump refer to this humanitarian and national security crisis on the border. He was just here a week and a half ago. You say that wasn't a genuine visit. What did you mean by that? And what do you wish he would've done differently with the time he was here?

GONZALEZ: That's right. He met with -- he didn't meet with any local officials. He didn't meet with sheriffs. He didn't meet with the chief of police. He didn't meet with county judges who have the real experience on the border. They've been here for generations. In fact, they sent me a photo. I was in Washington and we had votes that day of his roundtable. I didn't recognize a single person.

So, it was, certainly, you know, a staged meeting for him to take photos and send to the American people and send to his, you know, 35 million folks who follow him regularly.

HARTUNG: This deal that he announced today was said to be dead on arrival. Nancy Pelosi had already given it the thumbs down before it was announced, essentially.

GONZALEZ: Right.

KAYLEE: What it will take to get past this impasse that we're at?

GONZALEZ: Well, I'm hoping we can -- I was hoping we could get the government open for 30 days and keep negotiating on border security. But we can't be doing this with a government that's closed. We need to do this under normal conditions with everybody working as we always have, as Congress is supposed to work, as the government is supposed to work.

And the president needs to know he is no longer in the majority in Congress. He needs to negotiate. And he needs to give and take. And I don't think he understands that. And I think he's having a really difficult time adjusting to the Congress that we have and the 116th as the 115th. We're in a completely different environment. We were and they are now.

[17:15:08] HARTUNG: You mentioned how safe the city of McAllen is. You mentioned -

GONZALEZ: Very safe.

HARTUNG: -- El Paso as well. How do you characterize life here? What do people, who have never been here before, need to understand about the reality you see on the border?

GONZALEZ: Well, I can tell you that I take walks around my neighborhood late at night. It's something I won't do in Washington, D.C. As I said, it's one of the safest cities in America. It's -- we have zero murders in 2018. We have great law enforcement.

And our border is a different issue. He talks about a wall. That doesn't stop 75 percent of the migration that's coming across, because they're asylum seekers. They actually go to areas where there is a wall already and go up to a camera and wave at them so agents come and pick them up and they can apply for asylum.

I think we should have cutting edge technology on our border. We should have more immigration judges to process those asylum claims faster. It shouldn't take two years or one year the way it does now. If you don't qualify and you have to be deported, we send you home in a family unit in a humane way. The way America has always been.

HARTUNG: What do you understand about the dynamic of the people who are trying to come here for asylum, as the president characterizes, you know, rapists and murders and criminals?

GONZALEZ: Right.

HARTUNG: Who do you see coming into -

GONZALEZ: Right.

HARTUNG: -- this town across the border?

GONZALEZ: Most of them are impoverished folks from three central American countries. The president likes to say we have a crisis on the border. We don't have a crisis on the border. We have a crisis in three Central American countries, in El Salvador, in Honduras and in Guatemala. And that's because of failed American policy that we've ignored for decades now. I think we should be going into those countries and investing to bring security on the ground and economic opportunity to incentivize people to want to stay home and find jobs. As you know, ever since NAFTA and business with Mexico has done really well, Mexican nationals are going home at a higher rate than they are coming to the United States. And that -- it's not necessarily because of security, but there's economic opportunity. Something we don't have in these three Central American countries.

I also believe policy that would expedite asylum hearings and send people home who don't qualify, that policy alone would stop a lot of the migration. I'm against open borders. I'm against open borders. I'm against this -- these groups that are coming across through Mexico.

I think we need to engage the government of Mexico to secure their southern border. We should have asylum hearings in Mexico's southern border and be able to filter everything there. We need to have creative solutions to an issue that we're dealing with now.

But he likes -- the president says that we're at an all-time high in border crossings. Completely false. We're at a 500 percent low from the year 2000 to now. So, I'm shocked that he can say this and gets no pushback -- factual pushback from his own party.

HARTUNG: Well, no one denies immigration reform is needed.

GONZALEZ: It is.

HARTUNG: And, Congressman, it doesn't sound like a deal will be reached today among you all.

GONZALEZ: Not today.

HARTUNG: Thank you so much, sir -- Ana.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source