CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Jeff Merkley

Interview

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COOPER: As we said -- as we said at the top, there is action in Congress on this tonight. The Democratic-controlled House expected to vote on about $4.5 billion in funding for the border situation. The White House is threatening a veto.

Joining us now is Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. He serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and spends considerable time on the border.

Senator Merkley, I just want to start by asking about the photograph that we showed earlier, a father, his almost 2-year-old child who drowned while trying to cross into the U.S. Obviously, the passage is incredibly dangerous for many people.

But when you see something like this, the reality of the situation for so many, it's hard to ignore.

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Anderson, this father, this child were victims of American metering, where they attempted to cross at a port of entry. Reportedly, they were refused the ability, put back into Mexico and where they had no family, no friends, no resources, so they did what so many others try to do in that situation and say we've just got to try to get across the border.

And that means some people who approached the wall, crossed the river and in this case, we don't know all the specific details, but it's my understanding that this is a family that was rejected at the border.

COOPER: We just heard about some of the conditions that Dr. Sevier, a pediatrician, heard from some of the children at facility in Texas. Who is to blame for all of this and why -- is it just a question of numbers of people and that they are just, that these facilities aren't set up to deal with that or what is the problem? What is the kind of the breakdown? I mean, you know, not having soap and toothpaste seems a ridiculous problem.

MERKLEY: No, this is a huge level of incompetence and lack of compassion. The Flores standards for sanitation, for food, for medicine, for water, for cleanliness have been violated repeatedly and it seems like intentionally. I think any American would be horrified to see these conditions.

These are -- many of these things that are fairly easily remedied with bottles water, with soap, with access to a bathroom, with taking small children who have a medical condition and getting them to medical care.

So, I don't think we can simply say that it's the level of the influx. I just think that we need to have a thorough investigation of what has happened and hold people accountable for failures, whether intentional and deliberate. This is absolutely unacceptable.

COOPER: What do you make of the president's comments saying he didn't know the acting head of Customs and Border Patrol, that he had never spoken to them? You know, he clearly has made being tough on the boarder or what he considering tough on the boarder to be a major part of his administration, I can understand them not knowing a lot of lower level front line officials. But the acting head of Customs and Border Patrol, you would think he would know who that person is.

MERKLEY: Absolutely. With all of his attention on the border, you would expect he would have heads in there of ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, the head of Customs and Border Protection and then say, we got to solve these problems. What resources do you need? We're moving them over. Take care of these things.

But under line administration's approach has been the argument that if people suffer as immigrants, it will discourage them from immigrating. That was the base of child separation, mistreat or inflict trauma on children and it will discourage immigration.

So when you start from that perspective, there isn't this sense we would expect of our government in which they are doing everything possible to address these problems. They are not doing everything possible and the result is the horrific conditions we're seeing now. Many of these conditions would be neglect and prosecutable in any other setting.

COOPER: Senator Merkley, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

MERKLEY: Thank you.

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