MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Jeff Merkley

Interview

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O`DONNELL:  Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat from Oregon, joins our discussion now.  And Senator Merkley, the wall gets the media attention and it gets an emergency declaration by the president.  But the real emergency that you`re looking at is the detention of these children.  What did you find when you went to Florida to the detention center there this week?
 
MERKLEY:  So this is a detention center or really it`s a child prison.  Part of a system that had 15,000 migrant children locked up in December.  The numbers have come down a little bit as the administration released several thousand children who already had sponsors but they were sitting on it.
 
But here`s the thing.  Why are we locking up thousands of migrant children in prisons?  They belong in homes and schools and playgrounds as they await an asylum hearing.
 
O`DONNELL:  And what did -- did you get a chance to talk directly to the children?
 
MERKLEY:  I was able to talk to three boys selected by the administration of the camp.  And the thing that struck me most was that I had heard that one of the ways that they are being kept in line is to threaten them that they will not be sponsored by a family, not be able to leave the camp if they misbehave.
 
And when I asked the administration about this of the camp, they said absolutely not, we would fire anybody who told the children that.  Then I asked the three boys, has anyone conveyed to you that if you misbehave, you will not be able to go to a home and you`ll be kept here?  And all three said yes, yes.  Absolutely, yes.
 
And it`s a small piece of the psychological terror these children are living with.  They`re separated from their families.  They have no idea what`s to become of them.
 
They`re under the complete control in kind of a Kafkaesque way of the U.S.
government.  And we`re doing serious, serious damage to these thousands and thousands of children.  It`s just absolutely wrong and it has to change.
 
O`DONNELL:  Senator, I know there`s a lot of things on the agenda of every member of the United States Senate and it`s very hard to crowd in a new one.  What drew you to these children?  Because no one has gone down there more and no one has gotten closer to them and tried to find out what`s happening to them.  No one in the Senate has done that more than you have.
 
MERKLEY:  It was Jeff Sessions` speech back in May of last year where he laid out his so-called zero tolerance.  I read it and I said this sounds like zero humanity.  It sounds like they are planning to injure children as a strategy of deterrence.
 
What a terrible idea, that you`re going to deliberately injure children as a political strategy.  That is not acceptable under any moral code, under any religious tradition, and yet it`s exactly what the administration planned and proceeded to do.  And we have to put an end to it.
 
O`DONNELL:  What do these children think is going to happen next in their lives?
 
MERKLEY:  They have such uncertainty.  They`re in limbo.  The average stay there at Homestead is 67 days.  Now, recognize that the Flores settlement that was regard the protecting children said you never lock up a child for more than 20.  It was to be an absolute cap.  And yet here they are not abiding to the principle that at all.
 
O`DONNELL:  Senator Jeff Merkley, I know the country really appreciates the work you`re doing on this one.
 
MERKLEY:  Thank you.
 
O`DONNELL:  Really appreciate it.  Thank you.

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