MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: "Dorian upgraded to category four hurricane."

Interview

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REID: It has been yet another week of horror and confusion in this country. This time for immigrant kids with cancer, kids with cystic fibrosis, kids with genetic diseases, kids with heart transplants. A week ago, the Trump administration announced that immigrants living in this country under an exception to receive medical care would now have that status taken away. Under this new policy, all those immigrants with medical deferments were told to ditch their doctors, ditch their medicine, ditch all the things keeping them alive and leave the country within 33 days or be deported. When this policy first made the news this week, the administration said the medical deferments would not be ending, they`d just be handled by an entirely different part of the government, by ICE, which apparently was news to ICE. According to multiple reports, no one from the Trump administration told ICE that it was now their responsibility to keep these sick kids alive. And today, we got even more clarity on what ICE intends to do with this mystifying new policy. A spokesperson for ICE told WBUR radio in Boston, quote: ICE does not exercise discretion on a categorical basis to exempt entire groups of aliens from the immigration laws enacted by Congress. In other words, no, ICE will not be taking applications for medical deferrals. That program for sick immigrants in this country is over. Full stop. Today, the slow trickle of outrage over this story turned into a flood. One hundred and twenty-seven members of Congress have signed this letter to the Trump administration today demanding an explanation. Next week on Friday, the House Oversight Committee will hold hearings on this. They are calling on the acting director of ICE and the acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that first sent the families a letter telling them they have to leave, after a week in which families have struggled for information or answers or hope, they at least now have the prospect of seeing lawmakers put their questions directly to the Trump administration. And joining us now is Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, a Democrat from California. And Congressman DeSaulnier is on the House Oversight Committee, which is overseeing those hearings next week. He`s also Isabel Bueso`s congressman. Isabel is the young woman Rachel profiled on the show last night who under this new policy will be deported, and therefore loss access to her lifesaving medical treatments as a result of this new policy. And, Congressman DeSaulnier, thank you so much for your time tonight.

REP. MARK DESAULNIER (D-CA): My pleasure.

REID: So, does Congress, in addition to holding hearings, which I think is important, does Congress have the power to stop the Trump administration from removing these immigrants who need medical care in the United States?

DESAULNIER: Well, first, we have a question of where they got the authority, where the president got the authority to do this anyway. So, we`re trying to identify that law. Obviously, as usual, the administration is not being helpful. We didn`t find out about this, at least myself, until my constituent and her mom came in to show me the letter they had gotten a week before.

REID: And Isabel Bueso is obviously your constituent. What can be done or what is your office trying to do to help her specifically?

DESAULNIER: Well, we`re trying to do everything. Lots of media, trying to make people aware of the injustice of her situation. She came to this country at invitation of the federal government, the FDA, to be in a treatment for her rare disease. And she came when she was 7. She`s now 24. Her participation has helped not just herself but many other people with her disease. She can`t get the treatment if she`s forced to go back to Guatemala. The letter said they would be forced to go back to Guatemala by September 14th. So, we are running against that time. And trying to get information from these departments has been very frustrating to say the least.

REID: If someone dies as a result of this policy, what will Congress do about it?

DESAULNIER: Well, Isabel`s doctor who is a very well nationally respected doctor at UCSF here in the Bay Area has written a letter that said she will die. He said more diplomatically that her life will be shortened, because she won`t be able to get the treatment she gets for one day every week. This is intense treatment. So, it`s really just a horrible situation. We have sent letters. Senator Harris has joined a letter with me. We have been on that -- as a co-author on the letter you referred to. We are introducing a bill on Monday specifically for her. But mostly, we`re trying to get attention to somebody in leadership in the White House to realize what they`re doing. They are sentencing this young woman, who has been here legally and was invited by the federal government. They are sentencing her to death.

REID: And, you know, getting someone in the White House to realize what they are doing, one presumes they know what they are doing, right? And if one presumes that, because their cruelty has been pretty open, if you have agencies like ICE that are perpetrating this cruelty on people, we just learned it from your very committee, staffers were prohibited from going in and performing oversight over facilities that the Department of Homeland Security is operating, holding migrants. There was a story apparently that came out of some of the facilities that one detainee alleged that a border patrol agent told a child who spilled soup that the child would not receive more food unless the child drank the spilled soup off the floor. This is dehumanizing and despicable. If it was in another country, we would call for the U.N. to go. Should Congress keep funding ICE and DHS if this is the way they are behaving toward human beings, toward children? Why not just cut the funding off?

DESAULNIER: Yes. Well, that`s what we tried to in the supplemental bill, many of us put more restrictions on that $4.6 billion we sent, because we were concerned how they would spend the money. And, of course, we got in a battle with the Senate and some of us in the caucus over that. So, we have to try to hold them accountable. I`m of the opinion that until a federal judge holds the secretary in contempt of a federal court and puts them in jail, nothing is going to happen. We have a sociopath in the White House. And he acts like a mobster rather than a president.

REID: Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, Democrat from California on the House Oversight Committee, thank you for being here. We will definitely keep an eye on what you all are doing. And we hope you will keep us apprised as this story develops. Thank you very much.

DESAULNIER: Absolutely. Thank you.

REID: Thank you, sir. All right. Still ahead, a story that Rachel wanted to get to last night but didn`t have time for. That is next.

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