MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: "Trump calls Iran sanctions "hard-hitting.""

Interview

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HAYES: Both the House and Senate are expected to vote this week on spending packages of the border. On the House side, as the Congressman was just referring to, lawmakers could vote as soon as tomorrow on a $4.5 billion emergency funding measure which would include some additional oversight requirements as well as restrictions on how the funding can and cannot be used. Now, that`s different than the Senate legislation which has always been passed. The House proposal also does not crucially include any funding from the Department of Defense. The House package would also reinstate aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, the`s so-called Northern Triangle of Central America from which many migrants are now coming to seek asylum only to be detained under sometimes horrifying conditions. But even with safeguards and additions, the House measure some Democrats can still balk at handing over any more money to an administration they view as treating migrants under its care so appallingly. Here with me now one of the Democratic members of Congress who will have to decide on how to vote, Congressman Pramila Jayapal of Washington State. Congresswoman, your colleague Michael Burgess there and many Republicans up to and including the White House say they need more money, they need more resources in the hands of our ORR, CBP, and ICE and Democrats are standing in the way. What`s your response to that?

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): It is absurd. The way that these kids are being treated is unconscionable. We are watching ongoing family separation happening. If you listened to Professor Binford, you heard her say that these kids are being held out of every standard that we have applied, and this administration has continued to do things like metering policies that drive up the numbers at the border. They are not releasing these kids. Only 12 percent of these children according to the reports that I have seen, Chris, are actually kids that don`t have parents. So they should be immediately fast-tracking getting those kids out of there, not using for-profit detention centers which let me just remind you Elizabeth Warren and I wrote a letter to Homestead because John Kelly who oversaw family separation went to join the board of Homestead that is now charging $700 a night for -- to hold a child in these conditions. So the thing that really frustrates me is we have standards in place for how people are supposed to be held in detention. We have the Flores Settlement that is the law of the land that says that children cannot be held for more than 20 days and that they need basic things like food, and water, and medical care. And this administration is lawless. It has taken the money that we have given and it does not follow any of the conditions that we lay out and then they say to us, you know what, give us more money. Well, let me tell you something. How do we assure that they are going to actually follow the law and not allow for families to be separated? We have a court decision that said that thousands of families were separated and now they`re doing it right in front of our eyes and they want us to give them more money for that. This is -- it is a crisis that has been created by the administration. They cut aid to Central American countries that would have helped address the situation in those countries. They started the metering process which basically has slowed to a trickle the processing of asylum seekers across the border, which is why you saw those families, that those people who had died today. This hot Sun and they`re having to travel to try to find one open point of entry to come in and wait outside, waiting to be able to demand the legal right to asylum. They have continued family separation in spite of court orders, and now they are trying to hold hostage these kids. They`ve said they want to deport a million people across the country. And I just -- I don`t have words to describe how horrendous and lawless this administration is and how they are inflicting long-term damage on thousands of children and this is the United States of America.

HAYES: They`re saying to you basically you got a pass -- you got to give us more money that would -- that there`s a capacity issue and I hear what you`re saying which is that you just don`t trust them. You don`t trust the money we spend, we don`t trust --

JAYAPAL: We just gave them an enormous amount of money through the regular 2019 DHS appropriations process. There is -- and as you said, very accurately they seem to be able to find money for things that they want that they declare an emergency, but suddenly they are keeping kids without toothbrushes and soap and mattresses because apparently we haven`t given them enough money. That`s absurd.

HAYES: So are you and no on this vote? That`s what it sounds like.

JAYAPAL: I have been trying to figure that out, Chris, and I`ll tell you what. I -- we have asked for some things that would give us a stick that say for example right now you know, Flores is the law of the land. I think that they should be in compliance within three months. That is too long in my book. That`s 90 days. And I don`t think we should give a year for people to be in compliance with Flores. I don`t think that we should allow for you know, $155 million to go to the U.S. Marshalls basically to refer people for federal criminal prosecution. So I am torn. Obviously, this is a tough decision. We`re trying to you know, figure out if we can make the bill better so that we demand accountability. That`s at the end of the day for me if I have an administration that was actually doing and meeting the conditions that were already laid out and the laws that are already in place, and I knew that I could trust them, that would be a different question. But they have continued to break the law and at the cost of these kids. And what the professor said is right this is an incredible waste of taxpayer dollars, incredible mismanagement of the agency and on-going every step of the way.

HAYES: All right, Congressman Pramila Jayapal, thank you so much for sharing your time.

JAYAPAL: Thank you.

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