CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Madeleine Dean

Interview

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[16:18:23] TAPPER: And we have some breaking news in our national lead. The watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security just released these disturbing pictures from the U.S. border with Mexico. The images show overcrowding of facilities at detention center in McAllen, Texas. In one photo, people are crammed inside a -- fenced in cell, and others what looks to be children wrapped in an aluminum type cover and dated June 10th and 11th -- just a few weeks ago.

And the photos are coming as we get brand-new CNN poll numbers that show most Americans, 74 percent, agree the situation at the U.S./Mexico border is a crisis. But they differ on why. The split is right down party lines.

Look at this. Most Democrats, 54 percent, consider this a crisis because of the treatment of migrants. Sixty-three percent of Republicans, however, believe the number of migrants trying to cross the border is the reason for the crisis.

Let's bring in Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. She was among a group of lawmakers who visited two border facilities in Texas yesterday. She visited a migrant detention facility in Homestead, Florida, today.

Congresswoman, good to see you as always.

Tell me what you saw when you visited these facilities?

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): Thank you, Jake. I had the opportunity in Texas to visit El Paso station number one, where we visited and got into the cell of 15 women who had just been brought in from outside. They had been there 56 days, most of the first cell of women were from Cuba. Many of them had cracked lips.

They were sitting on concrete floor and in very small jail cell with blue sleeping bags which apparently were just issued to them as a donation from the forestry service, very, very recently.

[16:20:00] Prior to that, they had been outside or in tented facilities for the 56 days prior to our arrival that morning.

They were crying. Their affect was sad, profoundly sad, scared. In that cell was a stainless steel toilet. We tried to operate the sink, when the sink didn't operate the women said to us, no, that sink isn't working. We were told we could drink out of the toilet. That's clean water. And that is what they had been doing.

TAPPER: Congresswoman Fredericka Wilson, a Democrat, who hosted the tour at Homestead today, said that you were only able to go to a classroom and an empty dorm. Were there efforts to try to show more of the Homestead facility?

DEAN: They certainly wanted to show us a lot of the property. We went to a very large auditorium-styled facility that was empty. We saw children playing in a playground at a distance.

We went into one area -- I said, where is the educational facilities? And somebody said, you were just in it. I missed that. I saw no curriculum. And saw sweet young children seated at long cafeteria- styled tables.

And there was a moment I have to tell you, Jake, where John Lewis, I asked him if he wanted to speak to the children and we brought over an interpreter and he very movingly and I have a piece of the pain-- a piece of the tape that I'd be happy to share with you, very movingly told the children of his experience meeting Martin Luther King and speaking about building a better America for people of all color, speaking about justice for all people. And he said, please don't become bitter, don't become discouraged. We will make this a better place and you are most welcome.

That was the only real time we had with children whatsoever. And when I said I'm a little disappointed, I'm a former teacher, I would like to see what you're doing in terms of educating these children while you have them for profit. After all, this is a for-profit center, 2,296 students -- detainees, children, detainees are there at a cost of $775 per head per day.

So, it's sadly, perversely profit-making location and that's not to say there aren't terrific people of good will trying to help these children. But there is a perverse incentive to hold on to them and to my mind to sanitize what we saw. We saw one dormitory, very neatly made up and not a personal item and when Joanna Hayes and I decided to go off course to find another dormitory room to see if it looked differently, of course, they didn't want us doing that but we did any way, and they did look differently, again, sparse but not the matching quilts, not that kind of thing. So, it was a sanitized version.

TAPPER: Let me ask you, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection acknowledged today that the system is oversaturated, migrants are staying at these facilities longer than they have been. He did push back on claims of any kind of inhumane treatment of the detainees, of migrants. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERT PEREZ, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: I myself have visited many of these facilities where we're getting overly saturated and have been for the better part of a year, and I'm very confident that we are meeting and in fact most of the time exceeding these standards.

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TAPPER: Do you agree?

DEAN: No. And here is why, and I'll contrast. The experience with these 15 women, they were brought in only yesterday, and they were lying on concrete floors and told that they're drinking water could be out of the toilet. I don't call that humane.

One of the women, they were from Cuba, one of the women who spoke very good English said, I don't mind being called bad names and I won't use the name she used, but I mind being treated like animals. I mind being treated like dogs. Two of us have epilepsy, one woman wanted me to touch her back, she has a very profound large lump on her back and they said, you clearly need a biopsy, but we're not going to be able to provide that to you.

Let me contrast that. So there was inhumanity there. Let me contrast that and compare it to the children that we saw. Very importantly, we went to Clint yesterday. A facility that if you remember it is -- it's bedded for 106 adult males.

When we came in, we were told there were 25 children in that facility. I asked, didn't you have quite a few more two weeks ago? Yes. Two weeks ago they had 250. I said what was your top number at this facility meant for 106 males, adult males? They topped 700, two and a half months ago.

So I was haunted all night long, where did the other 600 and so go? What we saw there, Jake, we were not able to get into the cell that the children were being held in. Six children held in a similar concrete cell behind a thick heavy door, behind glass. And we tried to shout in and someone shouted into them we were members of Congress hoping to help them, hoping to learn as John Lewis says, but also hoping to help them.

[16:25:01] And when I actually -- I scribbled this note on a piece of paper and held it up to the glass. And the guard corrected me. The note simply says, we heart you. We love you. And the children smiled.

You know what they did? They passed a note under the floor, under the door. And we got in trouble. The guard worried we were sending something.

The children sent us a note out. And the note said, how can we help you? The children wanted to help us. That's inhumanity. Children in a cage behind glass unable to speak to leaders of Congress.

TAPPER: Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, thank you so much for telling us what you saw. We really appreciate it.

DEAN: Thank you.

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