CNN "State of the Union with Candy Crowley" - Transcript: Immigration Crisis
Interview
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All right, Mayor Long, I want to turn to you now. As the mayor of Murrieta, can you tell me -- very often, anger --
and we saw a lot of that in this protest -- derives from fear of something. What was the fear in this case that caused -- prompted people, not all of them from Murrieta, but prompted some Murrieta citizens to be so angry about this turn of events?
ALAN LONG, MAYOR OF MURRIETA, CALIFORNIA: Yes, you're right.
A very small town here in Murrieta, all of a sudden, we had a national problem end up on our doorsteps. And we had some local residents with some legitimate concerns. I think most of the angry people that you saw protesting were from out of town.
Like I said, this is a national problem, and the world showed up on our doorsteps. We didn't have a lot of answers early on, and there were some legitimate concerns, health concerns and humane concerns. People were concerned about the people, the immigrants coming here. Would they have proper facilities? Who is going to take care of them? How long is this going to be for?
And those were questions that we just didn't get any answers to.
CROWLEY: Right.
Mr. Mayor, you know, as you look at these protests -- and I will grant you right up front I did not cover them -- but, as you look at these protests, that it was the overwhelming concern didn't seem to be, oh, my goodness, the poor children -- that was mentioned -- but the overwhelming concern seemed to be, go away, not here.
If this is an American concern, are you at all rethinking the idea that a town can turn away busloads of children without documents who are headed to a federal processing center?
LONG: Right, and absolutely.
You know, we live in a democracy. I can't tell people who to do. We had a very large crowd. There was a lot of emotions on both sides.
CROWLEY: Right, but you could clear the streets, right?
LONG: My job was to make sure -- we did.
And if you look at the film, the police -- the police officers did intervene for the safety of the buses. They stood between the protesters and the buses. What the story didn't cover and didn't show and didn't tell was, the police officers did not have the equipment nor the staffing to deal with the crowd. They had mutual aid on its way.
The Border Patrol made the decision to divert the buses before that mutual aid showed up.
CROWLEY: Congressman Cuellar, Mayor Long, I want you to stick with me now. I have to sneak in a commercial break. Mayor Long, I'm going to come back with you. With hundreds more
immigrant kids arriving every 72 hours to various places, would the people of Murrieta turn them away again?
I want to ask you that right after the break.
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CROWLEY: Thousands of undocumented immigrants, now that they're here, how should the government handle the escalating humanitarian crisis?
I am back with Congressman Henry Cuellar live from Laredo and Mayor Alan Long. He's with us from Murrieta, California.
Mr. Mayor, just flat out, if this were to ever occur again, and it's three busloads, 140 children, children with their mothers or unaccompanied children do arrive at Murrieta to try to get to that federal facility, would you ensure that that happened this time?
LONG: You know, our plan this entire time was to make sure we provided the safety for everyone, protesters on both sides and anyone who comes through the city of Murrieta.
And that plan still is in place. So, depending on what the Border Patrol decides to do, that really is up to them. But, again, our plan always had the safety of everyone in mind.
You know, I would like to talk about these human lives, because that's really what this is about. And, you know, when you talk about this system and what this system is luring these people into, it's horrific. The system that is in place right now lures these people into thinking they're coming to a better place, but, on that journey, one-third of the females, some younger, in their teens, are raped along the way.
And that's a broken system. We have to fix that. We have got to work together, Congressman, to fix that.
CROWLEY: Congressman, go ahead.
Let me just quickly, Mr. Mayor, if you will, just to try to get an answer to the question. Did you feel these children were not safe in Murrieta? I'm trying to understand what the answer to the question is.
LONG: Yes.
CROWLEY: Would you try to clear the roads and make sure that whoever is on those buses gets to the processing center?
LONG: That was always the plan.
The buses -- we expected the buses to enter the Border Patrol facility and the processing to take place there. What we object to is, we object to inhumane facilities. If you look at the Border Patrol, those are jail cells. I inspected them personally. It's a jail cell.
That facility can only process 25 per eight-hour shift, and if you look at the numbers we're talking about, I think immigrants would have been queued up in a facility that does not have the ability or the capacity to hold them long-term, and that's just not right either.
CROWLEY: Congressman, your response to that? The mayor says, look, we just -- our facilities can't handle this.
And I take it that the Texas facilities are overflowing. Some of these children are in jail cells.
CUELLAR: Well, yes. I have been to those detention spaces. Many a times, they're supposed to be only for a small number of individuals.
And, as my pictures have shown, that they -- that they're just being overwhelmed. They're processing them as quickly as possible. As you know, under the law, Border Patrol should move those individuals out in 72 hours. And, again, if you're a mother with children, you are going to be put at a bus station, 500 a day just in South Texas that they're releasing.
And if you're a child, then, of course, they're going to send you somewhere else, Health and Human Services, after they're being processed. So those numbers are overwhelming. And, again, keep in mind, this is not a Mexican problem. It's a Central American problem.
CROWLEY: Right.
CUELLAR: It's not the first time we have seen a surge, and we should have been ready for this surge. The administration should have been ready.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: Well, I think you both agree the administration, you don't feel, was ready.
Let me ask you, Congressman, do you think the president will get the $2 billion plus that he's asking for to meet this emergency situation, with more help at the border, more social workers to deal with the children?
CUELLAR: Well, again, we got Border Patrol securing the border right now, as you can see behind us.
But the president has asked for some money. He certainly can move some moneys around, and we can handle that at the end if we want to. Again, let's keep in mind, with all due respect to the administration, they're one step behind.
They should have seen this coming a long time ago. They should have seen this a long time ago, because we saw those numbers increasing. We're hoping that we can get that money, so we can provide more detention spaces, more flights down there. And, again, if we put those young children and those mothers and the right caregivers in those countries, I think this would solve -- there is an incentive, there is an incentive that, if you bring a child over here or your child by themselves, you're going to be let go.
And that's exactly what is happening. Our immigration courts are so backlogged, there's not enough detention spaces. And, therefore, this is the incentive that we have to take away. And that's the 2008 human trafficking law that needs to be changed at this time.
CROWLEY: Congressman -- Congressman, I want to give the mayor the last word, because I hear him agreeing with you.
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CUELLAR: Yes.
CROWLEY: But, first, before I leave the congressman, President Obama is coming to Texas this week. As I understand it, at least thus far, he has no plans to visit the border.
How does that strike you?
CUELLAR: Well, again, it would be nice for him to come down to the border. But, again, with all due respect, I think he still is one step behind.
They knew this was happening a year ago, last year. And, again, they're just over -- they're not reacting fast enough at this time, in my personal opinion.
CROWLEY: And, Mayor Long, to you for the -- for the last question.
LONG: Yes.
CROWLEY: You -- you heard the congressman. You agreed with him.
Look, the administration wasn't ready for this. The facilities are woefully lacking for children of the ages in which they're coming across. But the truth is, they're overloaded in Texas as well. They need to put them someplace.
You say that you don't think Murrieta can possibly handle 140 children in 72 hours. They're having the same problems in Texas. What do you suggest that, right now, setting aside who's to blame and who was prepared and who wasn't, right now...
LONG: Right. CROWLEY: ... where do those children go?
LONG: Well, let me just address one thing first.
Remember, they told us 500 per every 72 originally. Then it was 300. We started asking questions. What about the health screen? They assured us they were screened three different times. Come to find out that wasn't an efficient process. They had to take -- after traveling halfway across the nation, they had to take them to the hospital for high fevers and scabies and possible T.B.
These are the types of things where these people, these human lives are not being taken care of. And they should be taken care of as they cross the border. Our military is able to set up cities in Third World countries all over the world, and we can't set up temporary facilities?
And like the congressman said, this happened in the '80s. It did happen in the '80s. We should have been prepared for it. And we should have a flexible system that's mobile, so when this happens the next decade, we can take that mobile facility to wherever the problem has happened.
But the bottom line is, those people, those human beings should be cared for immediately as they cross the border, not shipped halfway across the nation, and then dumped on the doorsteps. If the administration in Texas can't handle it, how can a town of 106 handle this problem?
CROWLEY: Understanding, it's not like California is halfway across the nation from Texas.
But, again, just to the question, where should these children go now? We don't have that mobile city they can set up. It's not there. So there's a now urgency to it. Where should they go?
LONG: Right.
You're correct. And we are dealing with the federal problem. And that needs to be fixed, but that's the long-term solution. The short-term solution is, once they're here, once these people are here, we need to treat them with compassion. We need to treat them with caring hearts.
And I guarantee you, if a bus were arrive at the Murrieta Border Patrol, and those aliens were here, you would see that. We would treat them with compassion. The unfortunate part is, that never occurred. Again, this is a democracy.
For whatever reason, the bus was turned around. I'm not going to deal with that now. That happened. It wasn't anyone's call. What I'm telling you right now, if those buses were to arrive here tomorrow, and enter the Border Patrol facility, you would see what Murrieta is known for.
And that is a caring, compassionate community. I can't speak for the rest of the world that showed up at our doorsteps. This is a huge national problem, and drew a lot of emotions on both sides of the protest line.
CROWLEY: It is a huge problem, as both of you, I think, have outlined pretty fully this morning.
I want to thank you both.
Congressman Cuellar of Laredo, Mayor Long in Murrieta, California, we appreciate it.
CUELLAR: Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: Speaker Boehner is accusing President Obama of abandoning the Constitution. A CNN exclusive: The top Republican in the House explains why he's suing the commander in chief.
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CROWLEY: The Republican speaker of the House, Representative John Boehner, is filing suit against the president of the United States.
Joining me around the table Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican National Committee, and his Democratic counterpart, Mo Elleithee, radio talk show host Stephanie Miller, and Carly Fiorina, creator of a new super PAC aimed at finding women voters for Republicans.
Let me start out with this, because in an op-ed that he wrote for CNN.com, the speaker lays out his case for this suit that he wants to file.
He says, the president is simply not living up to his constitutional duties. He says, in part: "The president has circumvented the American people and their elected representatives through executive action, changing and creating his own laws, and excusing himself from enforcing statutes he is sworn to uphold -- at times even boasting about his willingness to do it, as if daring the American people to stop him. And that's why, later this month, we will bring legislation to the House floor that would authorize the House of Representatives to file suit in an effort to compel President Obama to follow his oath of office and faithfully execute the laws of our country."
And just so we get in the other side, here was the president's reaction to some of the things that he has done, because, of course, he says, but Congress is not acting, so I will. Here's what he had to say.
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