Fox News "America's News HQ" - Transcript

Interview

Fox News "America's News HQ" - Transcript

FOX NEWS CHANNEL "AMERICA'S NEWS HQ" INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR JOHN CORNYN (R-TX) INTERVIEWER: JON SCOTT
SUBJECT: CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL ALIEN CRIMINALS

Copyright ©2008 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.

MR. SCOTT: Our next guest is calling for an investigation into how Immigration officials screen illegal prisoners in jails, not only in Texas but really across the country. Texas Senator John Cornyn has written a pretty scathing letter to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division.

What are you pushing for, Senator?

SEN. CORNYN: Well, I want to know what the problem is, Jon. We've supplied all the resources we believe that are necessary in order to have the Department of Homeland Security, and specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement, screen these dangerous criminals at county jail facilities.

And what's happened is, as you've described, too often, because of a shortage of manpower or some other problem that we're trying to get to the bottom of, they're simply released back into the community. These folks are a threat to the immigrant communities where they live, not just to the public at large.

MR. SCOTT: Talking about a shortage of manpower, though, didn't ICE ask for $150 million? I mean, didn't you in Congress give ICE $150 million more than they asked for in the last budget go round?

SEN. CORNYN: Absolutely. I think the mood in Congress is whatever the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement need in order to enforce the law, in order to protect the community, we're going to provide that resource. But unfortunately, they haven't spent it. And we've been asking for a report to get to the bottom of this problem because it looks like either it's a lack of resources, a lack of actually executing on the plan that Congress has laid out or just pure incompetence. And I can't figure out yet which it is.

MR. SCOTT: Because there are some of these cases in which illegal aliens are thrown in jail and they actually are released on bail to face whatever charges, you know, they were thrown in jail for even though they're here illegally. Does that make any sense?

SEN. CORNYN: Well, it gets even worse than that. After someone who's here in the country without the proper visa has served their time, let's say it's a short jail term, they cannot be detained by the authorities beyond six months because of a Supreme Court decisions if their country of origin will not take them back. So we've got a lot of problems, and part of it is a need to update our laws.

The other part of it is just sheer bureaucratic incompetence, it appears, in actually doing what Congress wants them to do, which is actually to protect the public by keeping these people locked up.

MR. SCOTT: You've also got a lot of problems among the Republicans in the Senate, namely, you don't have many of them or not as many as you used to have. And you just found out today that Ted Stevens lost his race in Alaska. Maybe that's not such bad news for Republicans in that particular case. But you're the guy who's in charge of trying to win back Senate seats among Republicans. How do you do that?

SEN. CORNYN: (Laughs.) Well, my job starts January the 1st, but we're getting ready. And you're right, that's my job to try to make sure that we win some elections and get back in the majority. It's about policy, it's about the right sort of message. But it's also about going out and being competitive when it comes to winning those elections. It means recruiting good candidates to run against Democrat incumbents because a good candidate can go a long way in winning those elections.

But it also means becoming more competitive. The Democrats outspent Republicans by huge margins nationally and in local elections all across this country. And of course, Obama was a phenomenon until himself and turned out a lot of new voters. So we've got to get back in the game, and that's going to be my job come January the 1st.

MR. SCOTT: Texas Senator John Cornyn, thanks.

SEN. CORNYN: Thank you, Jon.

END.

Source