MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Undocumented Immigrant Children

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Joining us tonight, Congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas. Congressman, thanks for your time tonight.

Tell us about your visit to the facilities. What did you see and what impression was it -- may left upon you about what we should do? Tell us what these people are going through.

CUELLAR: Well, first of all you got young kids with no parents, low (ph) girls, low boys. They are just coming across the river in South Texas with no parents. They traveled thousand of miles. They traveled through very difficult parts of Mexico to get over here.

And again, it`s heartbreaking to see those young kids to come across. And right now, we`re getting about 1,500, 1,200 to 1,500 people that are crossing just in that part of the country. And out of that, 300 to 400 of them are kids with no parents. Just a sight that a wave of humanity that we`re seeing right now.

SCHULTZ: So, what do these kids telling you about why they`re coming here? I mean, I think we know the answer but I want to hear what they had to say to you.

CUELLAR: Well, you know, I did have an opportunity to talk to a lot of those kids. As they held to each other and their hands, sisters, low girls just holding their hands. Basically, they said several reasons. One is violence. You know, the violence of those countries has just been -- just growing. Honduras is the number capital murder in this part of the world.

The economics, there`s nothing there and some of them are coming in to join their families or their parents. They`re already here in the United States. And quite honestly, I think the other thing is, they didn`t say this, but I think we know what`s going on.

They know that if you are somebody from Central America, if you step here, you`re going to be given this notice to appear and you pretty much are going to stay here for quite a while.

SCHULTZ: You met with the Honduran and Ambassador today. What did you discuss? What`s the solution here?

CUELLAR: Well, we certainly talked about setting up a stronger protocol between the Central American countries like Honduras and the United States. How do we return those folks faster? He wants to get some of those kids returned back. He wants to unite them back, back with their families if they`re back there in Honduras. So we got to set up those protocols, number one.

Number two, he wants to go after those smuggling drug organizations that are really carrying out this and they want to start a campaign in their country.

SCHULTZ: But what -- do they have any responsibility to those kids that are the cells right now?

CUELLAR: Absolutely. Absolutely. They have a responsibility just like we`re taking care of those kids. We`ll provide them food, medical care .

SCHULTZ: Sure.

CUELLAR: . shelter. We`re doing that, but those countries have a responsibility to make sure that, you know, those kids are not coming over here because you just can`t say as a country -- imagine if we did this as a country. We led our nine year old, 10 year olds to go and travel thousand of miles without parents. They have to show their responsibility also.

SCHULTZ: OK. Let`s go back to that picture that we just show just a moment ago. The little kid on the left and the little girl on the right, how do they get here? I mean, obviously someone brought them here. Are some of these kids with parents? I mean I can see a teenager coming along by his or herself, but what about these young kids?

CUELLAR: Well, you know, they gave different stories in the sense that some of them said, "Listen, we heard or I heard that there was a group of people coming, so I just went with them to go find a family member in the United States." But certainly the smuggling organizations are really doing this because think about this like today, how do we have in South Texas and a border patrol agent just told me that 280 people through my Congressional district in South Texas just crossed the river and said, "Here we are."

These were mothers and kids.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

CUELLAR: So, there`s an organization to these chaos that we`re seeing down their on the border.

SCHULTZ: Now you`ve said that the administration and the state department are not on the same page with Central America. It`s not the radar screen, I believe, was the comment.

CUELLAR: Right.

SCHULTZ: Expand on that a little bit. What do you mean?

CUELLAR: Well, you know, again there has to be a sense of urgency because anytime those kids are coming over besides the danger that they`re put in, it does cost this about $250 a day to take care of those kids and .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

CUELLAR: . we got to do it. I mean, we have to share the compassion and share of those kids.

SCHULTZ: So we`re not doing enough, right?

CUELLAR: Well we got to talk to those countries, those Central American countries and say, "Hey, we got to get those campaigns moving down there. We got to get the word out. Not to allow those kids to come over here, because that`s a danger to those kids."

SCHULTZ: OK. Congressman Henry Cuellar, great to have you with us tonight.

CUELLAR: Thank you.

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