MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Henry Cuellar

Interview

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HAYES:  All right, thank you for that, Jacob.  We`re going to talk to you a little bit later about all the reporting you`ve been doing over the last several years on this.  Joining me now from Washington D.C. is Congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas.  His 28th Congressional District runs along the border from McAllen to north of Laredo.
 
Congressman, you were on that conference committee that struck the deal that appears like it`s going to be signed, but what is your reaction to the President`s announced intent to declare a national emergency?
 
REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D), TEXAS:  I disagree with the President because his vision of the border, all he sees is the crisis that he`s dead wrong.  For us, to live on the border, we see the border as a place to raise our families, grow businesses.  It`s a place of community and opportunity.  If you want to look at violence for example, the -- according to the FBI, the crime rate -- the national crime rate for example murders, it`s 5.3 murders per 100,000.
 
The border crime rate is a lot lower and I can pick different cities that I`ll pick.  My hometown of Laredo, you compare it to Washington D.C. where I`m at right now.  It`s more dangerous here in Washington like two or three or four times more dangerous here.  So the crisis is not at the border.  Sometimes I think it`s in governance dealing with our President with all due respect to him.
 
HAYES:  What do you imagine are the next steps for Democrats and for others if the President does attempt to invoke this legal authority which many observers think is of dubious constitutionality?
 
CUELLAR:  It`s certainly dubious.  I mean, I think the Supreme Court has already talked about when the President can declare an emergency.  I think any rational, any reasonable judge that I say will look at this and say, if there was an emergency, maybe he should have called it at months and months ago, but he keeps waiting and tries to use that as a leverage.
 
He did not get his $5.7 billion on that wall that he wanted.  You know he didn`t even get that close.  So now he wants to use that because he`s obsessed put in this 14th century solution called a wall which is just totally ineffective to what he wants to accomplish.
 
HAYES:  What do you think the press and it would be -- I want to read this.  There`s some concerns from Susan Collins, Republican in the Senate who says this.  Declaring a national emergency for this purpose would be a mistake on the part of the President.  I don`t believe the national emergencies act contemplates the President unilaterally real allocating billions of dollars already designated for specific purposes outside of the normal appropriations process.
 
What do you think the president is here for you`re -- you and the role of Congress as a co-equal branch should the President do this?
 
CUELLAR:  Well, you know, the Senator is absolutely right.  I`m at full agreement with that.  As an appropriator, we work a whole year.  We have hearings, we have testimony, and then we decide in a very bicameral, very bipartisan way to put the appropriation bills.  So we decide what goes into certain accounts.  And then the President wants are coming in by himself and change everything that Congress did.  That just doesn`t make sense.  He`s -- again, he`s just obsessed with this 14th century solution called the wall.
 
HAYES:  Is the reason that the money wasn`t there, the $5.7 million, the compromise that was -- that was hammered out between you and others Republican and Democrat is that it`s just not necessary?  Is that your position?
 
CUELLAR:  Look, we want to have sensible border security where we balance the trade and tourism with border security.  Again, I live on the border.  I know what the border is.  I don`t just go in for a few minutes and say I know that the border better.  So it`s based on if you want to stop drugs, keep in mind that DEA CP -- the Custom and Border Protection`s say that most drugs will come through ports of entry.  So you build a wall, it doesn`t stop the drugs coming into our port so you got to be smart.  Focus on the ports of entry, technology, K9 personnel.
 
Now, if you want to stop people from coming in, keep this in mind.  Keep in mind that the -- that in 2001, 2000, Border Patrol apprehended 1.6 million individuals.  What did they apprehend in the southern border last year, 303,000 individuals.  And if you want to look at the most of the people that are here 67 percent are here illegally came through a legal visa of permit.  So you put a wall, what`s going to happen?  They`re going to fly, drive through a bridge.
 
And keep in mind, with all due respect to our neighbors, most over -- visa overstays are Canadians so maybe we`re looking at the wrong border.
 
HAYES:  Congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas whose district is along that border, thank you for making all time tonight. 

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