Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Crenshaw

Interview

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BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

We just heard this hour that Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham will introduce new legislation this upcoming Wednesday to address the asylum laws that are contributing to the crisis on our southern border.

This comes as we get staggering new numbers from the Border Patrol showing apprehensions have already topped half-a-million this fiscal year. This is just since October, 504,300 apprehensions.

Joining me right now is Republican Congressman from Texas Dan Crenshaw. He sits on the House Homeland Security and Budget committees.

And, Congressman, it's a pleasure to see you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.

REP. DAN CRENSHAW, R-TX: Absolutely. Great to be with you.

BARTIROMO: Your reaction to these apprehensions?

You are coming from a border state. We were in El Paso two weeks ago. And I was just stunned to see the dangerous position that children are being put in. What is your thought in terms of how to fix this?

CRENSHAW: Well, you mentioned how high the numbers are and how they have been -- how they have been increasing.

And we have to ask ourselves, why? What is causing this? And the reality is, is that there are loopholes in our asylum process that are completely taken advantage of.

And it goes something like this. People have now started to realize that, if they bring a child with them, then they can't be held because of the Flores agreement from 1997. They can't be held. And they will be caught, and then they will be released.

And it's really questionable whether they will ever show back up. All they have to do is say that they're here claiming asylum. And that case will be adjudicated in the far future.

So what we have to do is remove those loopholes. We have to allow people to be detained. We will keep the family together, but keep them there, and adjudicate that case quickly. So we need resources to do that. We need more detention space, and we need more immigration judges.

And we need to -- and we need to change our asylum law, so that it deters this abuse of the system. It's not fair to legal immigrants. It's not fair to the children who are being dragged across. And it's not fair to the sovereignty of our nation.

BARTIROMO: Well, Congressman, you say we need more detention space.

You're not getting it. The Democrats basically put a limit on the number of beds that you can actually have...

CRENSHAW: Yes.

BARTIROMO: ... available for people going into these detention centers.

So they are putting a limit in terms of how many people. And the detention centers are busting out. One of the Border Patrol people told me when I was there two weeks ago that when they decide, OK, you're going to stay for X number of days, and then you will have a hearing, that hearing is in eight years, literally.

CRENSHAW: Yes.

BARTIROMO: The system is so overwhelmed that the hearing is not for years, seven, eight years.

Of course they're not going to come back.

CRENSHAW: Right. And you hit the nail on the head. They don't want more detention space. You have to ask yourself, what is their actual goal?

Here's a real problem. I speak to constituents, Democrat and Republican. There are no constituents that I have met who want open borders. But every single Democrat in the House of Representatives does want open borders.

And you can tell they want that because of the policies that they're pushing. If you are not for more detention space, it's because you want them caught and released. And, like you said, they might have a court date that's eight years in the future.

I mean, it's an enormous amount of time, which effectively means open borders. And, again, this is not fair to legal immigrants who want to do it the right way. This is not fair to legal asylum claimees who wants to do it the right way. They're around the world, by the way.

People around the world who want to claim asylum in the United States are now confronted with a system that is completely overwhelmed. They have no chance of getting in. Why? Because -- because our good intentions have gotten in our own way.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

CRENSHAW: And it's bad for immigrants.

BARTIROMO: Sir, before you go, let me ask you about social media.

I know you have tweeted about it and you have posted about it. And I want to ask you what your thoughts are here, because, going into the 2020 election, if we see censoring of conservative speech, that's going to really tilt the balance, isn't it, in terms of the 2020 election and not being able to be heard?

CRENSHAW: Well, that's right.

And we have to be speaking out against this. And I'm glad you're bringing it up, because, every chance we get, we should talk about this. And it's - - the clearest way to fight back is more free speech.

Now, we also have to be careful about the knee-jerk reaction to want to then regulate these companies and try to enforce their free speech codes. The problem with that is, while we have a friendly administration now that I think promotes real free speech, we won't necessarily have that in the future.

And so, as conservatives, we have to -- we have to restrain ourselves on that. But the right way to handle this is to keep calling them out.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

CRENSHAW: Keep showing the world that left -- the left can't argue with our ideas, so they try to silence them.

BARTIROMO: Right. Unbelievable.

Dan Crenshaw, great to see you. Please come back soon. Thanks so much.

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