MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Immigration

Interview

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MELBER: Welcome back. I`m joined by the Congressman who marched to the White House today protesting these Trump Administration policies separating immigrant families Democratic Congressman Jimmy Gomez of California. Congressman, what is going on do you view this as a humanitarian crisis?

REP. JIMMY GOMEZ (D), CALIFORNIA: Yes, this is a huge issue. This policy of the Trump Administration to separate the kids from their parents as they come and seek in asylum is doing long-term harm to these kids and to these families. But it`s also doing harm to the kids across the country. You know, we act like our kids don`t know what`s going on but they do. They hear it from their siblings, from their classmates. They hear it on the playground, they hear from the people that take care of them. There`s a real fear that`s being created out in the communities that you know, if you`re an immigrant, if you`re documented otherwise, your parents might be separated from you and you might be left alone. So we`re concerned and we`re calling on this Administration to end this policy of separating the kids from their parents.

MELBER: Right. And Congressman when you look at these reports, let me read. Federal authorities took a daughter as she was breastfed in one of these detention centers. And when that mother resisted, she was handcuffed. Another woman saying I want to be with my children. The Border Patrol agent said, "you will never see your children again. Families don`t exist here. You won`t have a family anymore." Is this a Trump Administration policy that essentially amounts to child abuse?

GOMEZ: This is -- it does amount to child abuse because you`re causing trauma to these kids they`re coming into this country that have rights under international law to seek asylum. And these people are fleeing domestic violence, gang violence, economic hardship, and they`re asking for our help. So they are causing harm to these children and it needs to stop and it needs to stop right away.

MELBER: What`s the next step briefly?

GOMEZ: You know we`re going to ask for a review of the conditions of these -- of these children in custody. So we want to make sure that they`re being treated fairly, they`re treated humanely and we have real concerns. And especially we want to go and actually visit them. We want to be able to talk to them and see what`s really going on. And what we`ve seen is we`ve seen U.S. Senators and Members of Congress being turned away. So we want to have an opportunity to talk through these kids directly and investigate the conditions they`re being held under.

MELBER: Congressman Gomez, I know you and some other members have been working on this. We`re going to continue to stay on the story and I appreciate you telling us about your work.

GOMEZ: Well, thank you so much. And you know, this fight isn`t over and it`s on a variety of fronts. It`s on these drastic bills that are coming up when it comes to DACA. I call it the bad and the ugly when it comes to these bills that are coming out of this compromise. So we`re going to sit here and fight every step of the way on the DACA front, on the parent front, on every front so we`re going to make sure that we win, and thank you so much.

MELBER: Congressman Gomez, thank you and I hope we could discuss it again.

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