CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Immigration Reform

Interview

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WHITFIELD: I'm joined now by Democratic Congressman from Texas, Henry Cuellar. Congressman Cuellar, you are a proponent of immigration reform -- right. What is it that you would want to see in a package?

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D), TEXAS (via telephone): Well, you know, I do support immigration reform. And I think any package should have three main concepts. One is you need to have sensible border security. I live at the border and that is what I want to see. Two, some sort of guest worker plan to make sure that we address some of the needs that we have here in our economy. And then number three is what do we do about the 11 or 12 million undocumented persons that we have?

The problem is that right now, you know, with all due respect to our Republican friends because there are some Republicans that support immigration. But, you know, they're just saying we're going to stop the President but, you know, we have at least two years this session to work on immigration reform. The Senate passed a package; on the House side it never, never, never moved. So instead of fighting tooth and nail to stop the President, Boehner should be fighting tooth and nail to compromise to come up with some sort of consensus on immigration reform.

WHITFIELD: So if that doesn't happen as we're hearing alluded to by Boehner. Then the President says he's going to use executive action in order to make it happen. But you don't agree with that approach. Why?

CUELLAR: Well I mean I'm not going -- if the President does that, I'm not going to vote to defund it like the Republicans are saying. I won't go that approach. I prefer that we have a bipartisan approach in Congress. That is the way it should be. But if the President decides --

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WHITFIELD: But in this climate is that realistic? In this climate is that realistic?

CUELLAR: I'm sorry?

WHITFIELD: In this climate, is that realistic?

CUELLER: In this climate, no. So therefore the President decides to go this way, we are going to have some sort of limited immigration reform. I'm not going to defund that. I will support the President. I might not agree with everything because he's doing this in secret and we don't know what he's doing. I saw some suggestions that might come out. And I don't agree with all of them but overall I think we can work with him.

And remember the President has the power to use an executive order just like other Democrat and Republican presidents have done in the past.

WHITFIELD: What are some of the things that you don't agree with? Because two of those items that you mentioned are in, I guess, the possible elements of his plan. These possibilities have been leaked by various sources. You know, tighter border protection. Some sort of allowances for a guest worker program.

The President apparently or possibly in this plan would be allowing people with children to stay. Migrant workers would be able to stay under certain conditions. What of the information that you are hearing might be in the President's plan --

CUELLER: Yes those things are fine. We'll get to look at the details. I'm talking in particular one thing in particular is the secure community. The secure community is if somebody gets picked up for a crime and they are taken to a jail, they will use biometrics to check his criminal record. And under secure communities they can use biometrics to check whether he's here legally or not. And if we catch a felon at that time, are we supposed to let him go because we get rid of the secure community and he's a non documented person? No I don't think so.

I mean if he as a parking ticket in the past that is something different. But I think secure communities can be adjusted on priorities but it should not be eliminated like the President is saying we should eliminate it.

WHITFIELD: If that were one concession made would you agree with the President using executive action with the elements that we know of in his plan.

CUELLAR: Well, again I'm not going to fight the President if he does executive action. I'm not against that because the president has used 193 executive actions since he was president. The average is 200 or 400 executive actions. At 193, the president is lower than President Reagan, President Bush and President Clinton so he's not used executive action a lot.

I'm not against an executive action. I just prefer a bipartisan legislative approach. But if he does that, then we'll work with him on that. And I might not agree with everything he's doing, but I do believe that we need perhaps immigration reform.

WHITFIELD: All right, Congressman Henry Cuellar, thank you so much and we will see in the new week ahead whether indeed that is the week where the president --

CUELLAR: Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

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