CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript Interview with Pete Aguilar

Interview

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BROWN: And joining me now to discuss is Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar of California. He was part of the Congressman Castro's delegation that saw those conditions firsthand yesterday at that border facility in Texas. Now, to be clear, this was not the CBP facility with those described jail-like conditions. This was the facility where the migrants went after.

But Congressman, thank you for coming on. We just heard Congressman Castro's comments there placing the blame on the Trump administration. Trump hasn't been president for over two months now, at this point isn't it the Biden administration's problem?

REP. PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): Well, it's hard to look past what they did for four years to create this issue. Clearly, President Biden and the Biden-Harris administration is looking to remedy this, as they should and they are putting leadership into it. They did visit the same facility that they read members of the administration, high-level members have visited the Carrizo Springs location that I was in yesterday with Congressman Castro and my colleagues and so they are taking this serious. But it's going to take time is what we would say, because the Trump

administration tried to dismantle so many aspects of our immigration system. They tried to wreck it at every possible step from the asylum process to the Homeland Security process and everything in between. They tried to damage it, including removing funding from Northern triangle countries, which is the root cause of this migration.

BROWN: Well, that is a problem. The push factor is coming from these Central American countries. But I just want to ask you because Democrats say this is cyclical that surges happened under Trump, but in the next breath they say it was all the past administration's fault. But we are seeing a record number of unaccompanied children, even though these surges happen, there are a record number of those children coming over.

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What does the administration need to do to stem that flow of these kids by themselves making that dangerous trek?

AGUILAR: Well, it is, it is a dangerous journey and we would hope that no one would want to go through this. But that's the situation that we're in. And so our responsibility is to as quickly and safely as possible, put them into facilities like the one that we saw yesterday in Carrizo Springs that is managed and maintained by HHS, the Health and Human Services agency.

Those are the proper entities, Customs and Border Patrol is not where we want these children who are presenting themselves for lawful asylum. And keep in mind, many of the individuals who we talked to yesterday, the children who we talked to and many who are coming presenting themselves at the border have immediate family members who they are trying to be reunited with.

And so our goal should be as safely as possible to reunite them with their family members. So while the Trump administration focused on separating families, we clearly understand the responsibility that we have and I take that serious as a member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, is what resources will we need to make sure that this is as timely as possible, is as expeditious as possible and hoping that no individual has to go through this journey.

But once they present themselves for lawful asylum, pairing them with an immediate family member as quick as possible.

BROWN: I just want to look at the numbers here, because on Thursday, there were more than 18,000 children in U.S. government custody up from 17,000. On Wednesday, the number of unaccompanied children crossing is expected to surge in the coming months. We have seen a rise since President Biden was inaugurated on that front. Do you view that as a crisis or do you do you stick to the language the Biden administration is using saying that it's a challenge they're facing?

AGUILAR: Well, it's a crisis that someone would have to put themselves in this position. When a child has to present themselves alone at the border, that's a crisis. And so the fact that they have to flee the terrible conditions and that they make that choice is a crisis. So I'm less concerned about the language and more concerned about my job to provide oversight and to make sure that this is done in a humane way that we lead with compassion.

That's what the Biden and Harris administration is seeking to do from a leadership perspective. That's what we're doing in Congress is exercising our oversight responsibility over those facilities and to make sure that we get this right.

BROWN: OK. Congressman Pete Aguilar, thank you so much for coming on.

AGUILAR: Thank you.

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