MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: "Ivanka Trump plays diplomat."

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

HAYES: By the way, those were pro-Trump Detention Center protesters in the background there jeering the members of Congress. Now, it`s not just members of Congress sounding the alarm about Border Patrol and the detention camps, it`s the Department of Homeland Security`s own internal watchdog. NBC News exclusive reporting the DHS inspector general warned as far back as May that conditions at an El Paso border station were so bad that border agents were arming themselves for possible riots. "Only for showers available for 756 immigrants, more than half the immigrants are being held outside, and immigrants inside were being kept in cells maxed out at more than five times their capacity. A cell meant for a maximum of 35 held 155 adult males with only one toilet and sink. The cell was so crowded the men could not lie down to sleep." The name of the El Paso Border station was redacted in a report but as a reminder, last month a New Mexico State University professor described a detention center in El Paso as a "human dog pound." Now that to be clear as a different facility than the one in Clint, Texas were reports surfaced about children held in appalling conditions including inadequate food, water, and sanitation. And that is different than this detention camp that was photographed from the air by Reuters. At this camp in McAllen, Texas, you can see adults and children sleeping on the ground with reflective blankets apparently jury-rigged to give them some shade. By the time the photos were taken, around midday, Reuters reports the ground temperature was about 89 degrees. Here with me now, one of the members of Congress who visited those facilities in Texas today Democrat Nanette Barragan of California. Congresswoman, what did you see today? Describe it.

BARRAGAN: Well, I think from what we`ve seen today, from what we`re reading today, and what I`ve seen personally, it`s more than a lack of resources and funding, it`s really a lack of treating people like they`re human beings. It`s a lack of treating people with dignity and respect that they deserve and that is part of this problem that isn`t focused on that we need to make sure we focus on.

HAYES: Well, part of -- I mean, there seems to be two things here. CBP facilities have been pretty awful places to be for years. The toilet sink combo that there`s been pictures of stretch back years. Those have been operating for a very long time. What seems different here are the crowding conditions and the duration of time. I mean, how long -- what stretches a period of time the people you talk to are in those facilities?

BARRAGAN: So we talked to some of the women who are being held at the Border Patrol station in El Paso for 50 days, 70 days, there are in these cells, these very tiny cells for extended periods of time not -- there`s really no healthy food. When I ask what`s the healthiest food you have, they said maybe some fruit. And so that`s a great concern. This is the area where you have members of Congress asking to speak to the detainees. This time around they said no which is why we basically had to force ourselves to get their attention and ask him to open the door which they did. When we got to Clint, Chris, they locked the kids in these rooms so we wouldn`t talk to them and there`s a plexiglass. You had a small child, maybe three or four years old running up to the plexiglass to try to touch us through the glass, to try to get our attention, and asking for his father. It`s pretty heartbreaking. But Chris, let me tell you one more thing. There weren`t that many people. It was quite remarkable and quite shocking. I said, where`s everybody at? The board Patrol said, you came at the wrong time. And so, I said well, what are you going to do with all this money with the funding that was just allocated from Congress? And he kind of looked at me with a blank stare and said well, it`s not going to be like this forever. And so there`s so much inconsistency and there`s so much concern in new policies and procedures of taking our phones away, not allowing us to talk to people is causing concern. And for me I believe they don`t want us to know what`s happening and they don`t want us to talk to people so we can hear directly from them on the experience.

HAYES: We`ve got -- I believe one of the members that you were in there with Joaquin Castro of Texas just tweeted this video from inside that El Paso facility that he managed to show which is women, you can get a sense of what it looks like there. Women sort of crowded around cramped in the cell for 50 days, denied showers is one of the things that he mentions in that tweet as well. You can kind of see here. So they`re sleeping on the ground. I mean, to me, with the thing I keep returning to here, these conditions are terrible but the duration of time is insane. I mean, these are facilities that it appears to me look like they`re designed the way that like an overnight booking cell in a local jail might be designed, like a place that people stay for 12 to 16 hours. How is it that these folks are there for 50 to 70 days? Do you understand what is breaking down?

BARRAGAN: You`re absolutely right. That is what these are designed for. They`re designed for a very short term a period of time and they`re there for a very long time. And so the impact is having to their mental health. I mean, look, Chris, these ladies were crying. They were begging for help. They wanted out. And many of these said they had family members here in the United States. So I don`t understand what the holdup is. I don`t understand why they have to be detained for 50 days, 70 days. It`s just not human to have people in these holding cells that are meant for short term periods of time.

HAYES: I want to just -- if we could keep --

BARRAGAN: And these showers. I mean, we could -- that`s a whole another conversation.

HAYES: Well, I want to hear about that. I just want to keep -- if we can just to the control room, if we can keep showing this footage because I think it`s important to stress here. It`s very hard. I mean, and I`m wondering what your conclusion was as talking these women. I mean, there is no -- in your estimation, is there a public safety reason for these individuals to be behind bars in this facility?

BARRAGAN: I don`t think it`s justified. I don`t think it`s necessary. We talked to a you know, a mom who came with her child who`s 18 years old. She was separated from her 18-year-old. They`re telling her she`s going to be sent back to remain to Mexico and to wait there while her daughter came on and got into the U.S. So we had no answers today about how they`re treating people differently, what the standards are. They wouldn`t answer questions about how they determine who they`re going to send back. And you know, the showers. There were three showers in Clint where the children are kept, only one of them was working, two of them look like they were locked. It was -- it was pretty horrifying to see that these this is where they`re keeping people and children, and there`s really no need to do this. There are alternatives and there`s got to be quicker ways to do this as well, Chris, so we need to continue to shine the light on what is happening at the southern border and we have to make sure that when we allocate funding, there`s guardrails, that there is oversight provisions. Members of Congress should be able to show up unannounced and they`re not allowed to do that right now.

HAYES: All right, Congresswoman Nanette Barragan, thank you so much for that -- sharing that. I really appreciate it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source