CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Ayanna Pressley

Interview

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COOPER: Disturbing photos tonight and a blistering report from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general showing just how rough the conditions are at some migrant detention centers along the U.S. border. Take a look at the photo from a facility in McAllen, Texas, which according to the report is experiencing, quote, dangerous overcrowding, migrants crammed to makeshift cells, when investigators made unannounced visits there and at several other Texas facilities.

A senior manager at one location called conditions a ticking time bomb. Investigators also revealed 30 percent of the children held at the facilities were being kept longer than the permitted 72 hours.

[20:15:03] Some adults were being held in, quote, standing-room-only conditions for a week. After touring a different facility in Clint, Texas, yesterday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet that migrants had to drink out of toilets. Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley was on that tour and spoke afterwards, directing a message to the pro president Trump demonstrators who were there.

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REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MA): I want to talk about their parents, the mothers, the abuelas, the tias, the madres, that I sat with who wept openly in our arms, not even knowing our names! Because of the trauma they are experiencing! And because they don't know where their children are! Keep yelling! This is very appropriate! Vile rhetoric for vile actions! Hateful rhetoric for hateful behavior! Racist words and venom for racist policies!

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COOPER: And Congresswoman Pressley joins us now.

Congresswoman, so you visited that facility in Clint. The photos that we're showing are from the facility in McAllen. There's newer photos. Do they match up with what you saw in Clint?

PRESSLEY: Well, first, let me say I went to El Paso, because this is an issue of consequence. The humanitarian crisis not only at the border, but this is an issue being felt throughout our country. The district that I represent, the Massachusetts seventh, is 40 percent immigrant. The families I spent time with yesterday are from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba.

And every day with this administration, whether we're talking about mixed immigration status, policies from HUD or military policies to separate families or the department of homeland security, every day, they are working hard to criminalize immigrants and to separate them as families. And so, this is why I went to the border.

And what I saw has haunted me. It is unconscionable. And it is very sobering confirmation that the system is broken from A to Z, soup to nut. It is corrupt, it is chaotic, it is calloused.

I spent time with women, one in particular, I'm afraid even to say their names, because even as they were sobbing in our arms, confessing about their daily lived experiences, they feared they would have retribution after we left them.

But one such woman is an epileptic, as a brain aneurism and has been denied medicine. She also shared with me she speaks four languages, including English. But she was not always forthcoming in letting them know she speaks English and she would hear the guards talking about her and the other women using vile, racist and misogynistic language.

And she said, I know I did a wrong thing. I didn't come into your country the right way. But I did it for my son. And do we need to be treated like dogs?

I was with women who have not showered in 15 days, and I asked the doctor at that CBP facility, did he think this was a public health violation? A human rights violation? And his response to me was that it was probably unsavory and unpleasant. But that it was debatable as to whether or not it was a public health threat or a human rights violation.

And that is what we're dealing with, negotiating the most basic decency and humanity.

COOPER: Why -- why is someone going for 15 days without a shower, we've heard reports of no access to soap in some places or toothbrushes at Custom and Border Protection facilities. Are they not designed to deal with the numbers of people they're seeing? With -- yes, the numbers?

PRESSLEY: Well, again, this speaks to how broken the system is. These facilities, to detain asylum-seekers were designed to hold people for 72 hours. And you have people who have been there for 60 days, in sweltering heat, sleeping on concrete floors.

And, you know, cynics and critics have said to me, why do they come here? These parents are doing what any parent would do for their child. The stakes are high and they are taking great risk to ensure a safe, better life for their children. And any parent would do that.

The trauma that I saw, again, we entered into this facility, this cell. We did not even say we were members of congress. We didn't have an opportunity even to utter our names. And the women fell into our arms, grateful for any shred of humanity --

[20:20:03] COOPER: Let me --

PRESSLEY: -- and compassion.

COOPER: Let me ask you, Kellyanne Conway said that Congresswoman

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's claim that -- one woman said to her she had been told by an official to -- to drink out of a toilet. Kellyanne Conway has said that's outrageous and untrue and the acting secretary of homeland security described the allegation as being unsubstantiated, saying the facility is, quote, clean and unmanaged. That was the facility you were at.

I'm wondering how you respond to that. Was it clean and well-managed? Did you hear this person say what Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez says she heard?

PRESSLEY: Well, let me just say this. I believe the people closest to the pain should be closest to the power. And that that is why I went to the border to hear directly from these families impacted.

And in this cell, I went to test the water, and, again, we learned that these women had only been relocated in the last 24 hours, and, again, sweltering heat, over 100 degrees.

And so I asked the question, what is the heat index that prompts you to move someone from these tents inside? They didn't have an answer. I asked them the square footage of the facility, they didn't have an answer. I asked them how the temperature is regulated inside these cells, they didn't have an answer.

I asked why women had been there for 50, 60 days, they didn't have an answer. I asked them why the two women who were crying because they had been separated from their children just yesterday, where are their children, and they couldn't answer.

So I don't want to quibble about the details of inhumanity. When I went to test the water of the sink, no water came out. I challenged the CBP staff there. And said if these women want water, what are they to do?

This is not -- this is unsanitary. It is a public health issue. And it is inhumane. These women have been here for 15 days without a shower and now you have taken them out of tents probably because you knew we were coming.

And this is exactly why I went. I serve on the Oversight and Reform Committee. CBP is the largest law enforcement agency, and they have no transparency and no accountability. And I think this system is broken, because people running the system are blind, and because lawmakers are blind. And so we went to get these stories to bring back in the hopes of getting us on a pathway to a system that works, that is humane, that is compassionate and that keeps families together.

COOPER: Congresswoman Pressley, I appreciate your time. And obviously, we'll continue to follow it as we have been. Thank you so much.

PRESSLEY: I hope so. Thank you.

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