CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Veronica Escobar

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Joining me now to talk about this is Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, of Texas. Her district includes El Paso and suburbs on the border.

Congresswoman, the Biden administration has pushed back on the idea that it's a crisis down there. Is it time to start calling it one? What do you think?

REP. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TX): Hi, Jim. Thanks so much for hosting me on your show today.

Whenever folks talk about the crisis at the border, part of my own personal frustration with that framing is that it focuses again only on the border, which is what the United States has done as part of its failed domestic policy strategy for decades.

The real crisis is in Central America. The real crisis is what these families are living through, the desperation that they face that drives them to our nation's front door.

There's an additional crisis, though, and that is a crisis of leadership that spans decades, as I mentioned.

Our country has focused only on enforcement and not thinking of what's happening outside of our nation's front door.

And we're now living the consequences of that failed domestic policy and failed foreign policy as well.

ACOSTA: And you told "The Intercept" that you're worried about some, quote, "sick forces in the Border Patrol," people who you think want to see a more compassionate approach fail, in favor of the tactics used by the Trump administration.

What do you mean by that?

ESCOBAR: I first want to say, Jim, in the greater context -- and I said this to "The Intercept" as well -- we need the to recognize there are a number of really great, hardworking agents, people who are put in terrible situations because of the failed leadership that spans decades.

But there are some folks within that agency that do want to see a more compassionate approach fail. I've heard it myself, our advocates have heard it, that folks believe

we should go back to cruelty as a deterrent. Folks who say that MPP, or Return to Mexico, was working. Folks that say Title 42 is a good policy.

These are not good policies. We know that deterrence doesn't work.

Thankfully, the Biden administration is unwinding MPP. Title 42 is still in effect.

I hosted Secretary Mayorkas here in El Paso on Thursday. I got him to sit with advocates, all of whom shared the harrowing stories of Title 42 and their gratitude that MPP is finally being unwound.

We've got to make sure that we have an agency where good folks are protected.

[16:39:59]

You know, when you root out some of the bad elements, you elevate and uplift and support the good elements, regardless of what ever agency it is.

So that was part of the conversation with "The Intercept."

ACOSTA: You made headlines this week for also saying that you think Trump's former senior adviser, Stephen Miller, should be behind bars for, quote, "human rights violations" because of the policy of separating children.

You really want Stephen Miller locked up?

ESCOBAR: It's not a question of what I want, Jim. It's a question of what is just and what is right.

What we saw during the Trump administration were some egregious human rights violations.

The administration and our government, at the hands of that administrations, damaged generations of children and families. Hundreds of those families, Jim, have yet to be reunited.

Some of those children, many of those children were infants when they were separated from their families.

It will be very, very difficult to reunite them with their families. They can't identify their parents because they were taken as infants.

These are the kind of human rights abuses that our nation would condemn and call for justice were they were happening in another place.

And so I --

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: So you think Stephen Miller should be prosecuted for this? What do you think? Or were you overstating things in that interview?

ESCOBAR: No, I was not overstating them. That's my opinion. I stand by it.

ACOSTA: And do you think that that -- do you think that takes the conversation in the wrong direction?

How can you a debate with the other side when you're talking about that? That's what Trump did. He talked about locking up political adversaries.

ESCOBAR: You know, here is the thing, Jim. I have actually been focused on solutions.

So many of the CODELs I bring -- I bring congressional delegations to El Paso. In 2019, I brought nearly 20 percent of Congress to El Paso.

I have reached out to across the aisle to Republican colleagues, invited them to come and participate in these CODELs.

I had a bipartisan congressional delegation here two weeks ago. Because my focus is solutions.

But when I'm asked a question, I'll respond honestly and candidly.

So I was asked about what I thought about the prior administration's specifically as it pertained to folks like Stephen Miller.

Folks who were -- people who are architects of some of the most abhorrent cruelty of our generation. Things that we saw that we never thought that we would see on American soil.

But my focus and my priority is solutions.

And so I published an op-ed in "The New York Times" where I laid out a plan that I think is pretty comprehensive and wholistic.

A plan that I think could get us towards stability in the western hemisphere but also embrace our values, our American values, and create a system that's focused on compassion.

ACOSTA: Congresswoman, I do want to ask you about gun control.

Obviously, you had that horrific mass shooting in El Paso. That community is still recovering from that. I know that all too well.

But recently, you know, this past week, President Biden announced a series of proposals to address gun violence. Do they go far enough?

ESCOBAR: Well, it's a start.

You know, my hope would be that we could work together, both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and bring forward solutions that are common-sense approaches to the gun violence epidemic in our country.

What we've seen in the House of Representatives are bipartisan bills that are widely supported by the American public.

But in the Senate, because of the filibuster, because the Senate has become basically unable to govern, because it has become all about the status quo because of that filibuster.

I support the president's efforts via the executive orders.

Those executive orders are a beginning. You know -- we have to take a comprehensive look at this epidemic, which includes gun violence prevention legislation. It includes research. It includes investment in programs that work.

So executive orders alone won't address the violent, horrific epidemic that the country has lived through for too long.

My hope is that the Senate will act, and that they will act with us. But in the absence of that, we've got to do something.

ACOSTA: All right, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, thanks so much for all of that. We appreciate it. We'll talk to you again soon. Thanks for coming on.

ESCOBAR. Thanks so much.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source