MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Immigration
Interview
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HAYES: And Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, joins me now from Washington, D.C. It`s good to see you, Senator.
I want to just be clear on this, you reached out to DHS through your staff, through official channels, to arrange some sort of visit before going down there, correct?
MERKLEY: Well, I was seeking to get into three different places. One is a processing center run by DHS, the Department of Homeland Security. And I was given permission to do that. This third place is after DHS hands the children over to the Department of Health and Human Services, and it`s run by the office of refugee relocation. And so this was technically we reached out to that office to get into this facility, and they said no.
HAYES: And that facility, that is the blacked out windows -- that`s an old Walmart with blacked out windows that has children, both who come unaccompanied and also children who have been taken way from their parents who are then housed in that facility? Is that correct?
MERKLEY: That`s my understanding. I wasn`t able to get precise answers, but those who work with refugees there say that is the case, that there are roughly a 1,000 children inside behind those doors without adults.
HAYES: Now, you went to a facility in McAllen, right, and you got to see a kind of processing center. What did you see there? What did you witness?
MERKLEY: Well, the first room had a series of cages that look a lot like dog kennels in which people had recently arrived and been put into them. They were very crowded. The individuals had space blankets, so you had all these silver space blankets. No mattresses. And people looking very distressed and upset, a number of women holding children in their arms.
And then adjacent to that is a very, very large warehouse with much larger cages. And in those, the children have already been separated away from the parents. There is one cage that had children who -- young boys who were being lined up for food. And they started with the smallest in front, so you had a little toddle -- I don`t know, he must have been 4 or 5 years old -- up through youth that are 16 or 17. And they -- some of those may have been unaccompanied, others were undoubtedly taken way from their families, for families that are seeking asylum.
So these are families that are coming to the U.S., having gone through horrific circumstances abroad, having this vision of the Statue of Liberty and the fact that Americans, virtually all of us, have some member of our family tree at some point who came here escaping oppression, expecting that they finally made to it the shores of the U.S., and now they`ll get a fair chance to present their case for asylum, and instead they go through a new trauma with their children ripped out of their arms, sent away until they have no idea where, no idea where they are going, no idea how to contact their children. It`s hugely stressful for the parents for sure. But think of the trauma to the children who know nothing about this new land, except the security of their parents and they`re torn away from them.
HAYES: I want to play for you -- you know, the Trump administration has been a little coy about whether this is what they`re doing or not. And their line is we have a zero tolerance policy. We prosecute everyone who crosses the border. Here is what DHS Secretary Nielsen had to say in Arizona last week. I`d love to get you to respond to it. Take a listen.
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HAYES: What do you think of that?
MERKLEY: Well, Kiersjen should be absolutely ashamed of herself on this, because here you have families who are presenting themselves at the border and they are saying we are here. We have gone through these horrific circumstances. We are seeking asylum.
We have always treated such families not as illegals, but as people legitimately under international law seeking asylum while the children have been kept with the parents. There is no reason not to keep them with the parents. They`re going to go through an adjudication. If they are judged that they have enough documentation that they meet the standard, they`ll be granted asylum. And if they don`t, they`ll be returned to their host country.
But we never treat them by inflicting a new cruel tragedy on the children by ripping them out of their parents` arms. If that`s just the new unacceptable policy.
The administration is trying to change the topic in every possible way. But on this, they have no moral standing to tear these children away from their parents who are seeking asylum.
HAYES: All right, Senator Jeff Merkley, thank you.
MERKLEY: Thank you.
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