zone. >> dr. fauci's right. the pandemic is not over. and even when it is the mental health effects of it could be with us for a long time. we put your questions to a clinical psychologist in tonight's installment of "dear doctor." from nbc news world headquarters in new york, i'm joshua johnson. welcome to "the week." well, we are making progress getting america closer to 4erd immunity as our national vaccination effort accelerates. yesterday 4.6 million doses were administered nationwide. that's a new high point. way up from 2.9 million shots last week. so far the u.s. has given more than 107 million shots. the seven-day rolling average is more than 2.5 million per day. about a fifth of americans have received at least one dose. as shots are going in arms, checks are going in the mail, or direct deposit. you can check for your stimulus payment on the irs's website. go to irs.gov/coronavirus and then click on the get my payment tool to see if you're eligible for this stimulus and for the two previous ones. again, that's irs.gov/coronavirus. now, the payments are one more reason the white house is preparing this pr blitz. tomorrow vice president biden -- president biden, vice president harris, the first lady and second gentleman, begin a tour of battleground states and they plan to promote and explain what's in the american rescue plan. but presidents always have to handle more than one crisis at a time. and soon the white house might need to refocus on the southern border. from this january to this february border crossings of unaccompanied migrant children rose 57% in one month. right now border patrol is detaining about 3,000 minors. the situation is so serious president biden sent fema in to assist. some republican lawmakers are calling this biden's border crisis. that is why tomorrow house minority leader kevin mccarthy of california will lead a house gop delegation to the border. >> next week we'll be traveling to the border myself with 12 other members to see firsthand, to come back with solutions, to make sure our border is secure. >> and here is what house speaker nancy pelosi had to say to that. >> i don't know what his purpose is but i do know that the biden administration is trying to fix the broken system that was left to them by the trump administration. the biden administration will have a system based on doing the best possible job understanding this is a humanitarian crisis. >> next week speaker pelosi and house democrats plan to vote on two immigration bills. one would provide a path to citizenship for dreamers and those with protected status. another would provide legal status for farm workers. let us begin in el paso, where we find nbc's garrett haake standing by. garrett, tell us what's happening where you are. >> reporter: hey, joshua. so el paso is not new to migrants coming and going, particularly in the spring. they're not new to surges of unaccompanied minors. but what they're seeing now was described to me as a time bomb, essentially set by the trump administration and now going off where you had four years of a fairly draconian rules about who could cross, who could apply for asylum and who could stay while they do so and now you're seeing this influx of unaccompanied minors in a system where combined with covid-19, which has stretched the border patrol facilities, hhs shelters, everything to its limits, you have enormous trouble here essentially integrating these people into the existing system. earlier tonight i interviewed congresswoman veronica escobar who represents this part of el paso and she talked about the challenge and the frustration she feels with the republican colleagues who she thinks aren't accepting responsibility and aren't taking this seriously enough. take a listen. >> obviously, this is a problem that has predated -- i mean, this is a problem that goes back forever. but did the united states waste the last four years building walls instead of trying to address the root causes of this? >> 100%. when you think about the tens of billions of dollars that we have spent in the last four years alone and if you look at the approach to border and immigration policy over more than a decade, the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been expended, what's changed? right? >> joshua, i think that's one of the questions that presents itself for mccarthy tomorrow is what wasn't done over the last four years. and if you accept the premise of the house republicans that this is indeed a new crisis at the border, what are they willing to work with democrats to get done about it now? i think those are the unanswered political questions at this point. >> garrett, i spoke to human rights advocates about the dangers that asylum seekers are facing right now. what did you hear? >> reporter: it was interesting to learn about the dangers that the remain in mexico policy has created for asylum seekers. we know that so many of these migrants, particularlit unaccompanied minors, are coming up from northern triangle countries. these are not mexican citizens. these are people from guatemala or honduras or el salvador walking through mexico essentially to try to present themselves here at the fence, here at the border in the united states and apply for asylum. under the trump administration many of those people including people who had absolutely no background in mexico were essentially picked up and dropped off on the other side of the fence in juarez where they were subject to really dangerous and difficult conditions that were described to me this way. >> for the past two years i've tracked over 1,500 incidents of asylum seekers and migrants who were returned to mexico under what's called the migrant protection protocols. and many, many of them were kidnapped. people were raped. the dangers for asylum seekers and children among them who are being sent back to mexico is extreme. and the biden administration should act quickly to ensure that those people are able to find protection in the united states as is required by our laws. >> reporter: and joshua, american law currently includes something called title 42, which is important. this is the covid regulations that essentially say the border is closed and that almost no one is being allowed in. under the biden administration that order has been lifted for children. unaccompanied minors are essentially allowed in. but for families and single adults a lot of those old rules do still apply, which means all of those dangers you've just heard described still persist. >> speak of what the law says, garrett, let's talk about these two house bills that are scheduled to be voted on this week. what more can you tell us and what are the prospects for it like? >> reporter: covering congress is my day job and the reality is the comprehensive immigration reform plan that the biden administration would like to move through congress doesn't have the votes yet. it's not a finished product. democrats aren't uniformly on board. republican support has not been whipped. so what they're doing is breaking it into component piece that's they hope will be more popular. so the house is expected to vote this week on a pathway to citizenship for dreamers and also to a legal status structure if you will for farm workers, for temporary workers in the united states. elements of a comprehensive immigration proposal that could potentially pass, could alleviate some of the challenges that exist in the border region in communities that rely heavily on farm labor, for example. but neither of those provisions will do anything to stop the unfolding humanitarian process that we're experiencing down here at the border now, joshua. >> and very, very briefly, garrett, are we hearing anything from house republicans in terms of their ideas for immigration? >> reporter: the one house republican proposal that's been put forward is something called the pause act which essentially takes that title 42 that i was talking about earlier and reapplies it across the board. so while that would stop these migrant children from being allowed into the country it doesn't do anything to put them anywhere except on the other side of this fence. so democrats, immigration activists say that's a solution but not a particularly humane one and not in sync with american immigration law. >> thank you, garrett. that's nbc's garrett haake starting us off from the border in el paso. let us continue now with democratic congressman ro khanna of california. his district in silicon valley includes the headquarters of apple, intel and linkedin. congressman khanna, good evening. >> josh, great to be in. >> we finished talking about policy. let me pick up there with you in terms of where we stand and what needs to be done, particularly about what's happening at the border now with fema being sent to assist. what is your sense of where we stand in terms of longer-term solutions for what's happening at the border including the two bills that house democrats plan to move forward this week? >> well, josh, we need the two bills but we need to first look at what's happening at the border and say it's unacceptable what's happening to some of these children. i mean, i just read a report that some of the children don't have food. they aren't being able to shower. they're being held for more than 72 hours without going to refugee resettlement. they aren't being given access to lawyers. these are human rights violations. we need to expedite and make sure they're allowed to apply for asylum. we need to expedite their reunification with families and put them in a place that isn't behind boors as unaccompanied minors and at least there's food and proper shelter. >> there's a facility in your district called moffett field, big old nasa facility. if you drive down 101 heading down silicon valley you can see it, it looks like these two gigantic airplane hangars. and it's currently being considered as a site by hhs as a detention center for migrant children. tell us more about that and how you feel about the prospect of it being used as a temporary detention facility. >> well, josh, the administration contacted us. i'd much prefer that we have a reunification with the family and in the office of refugee resettlement, which is not as much of a detention. but if they are going to use moffett, they need to make sure that they have the proper safeguard. what we're reading is children don't have food. they don't have proper nutrition. they don't have access to lawyers. none of that is acceptable. so he would've said you have to meet very high standards and congress needs to fund the refugee resettlement places so that we can have proper care for these children while they're applying for asylum. >> we should be clear. moffett field is not designed for housing people. it's designed as like a california national guard facility. it's designed for housing aircraft. so this would be a makeshift solution for an ongoing problem. with regards to that, i wonder how you see the other immigration issue in your district, which i think has to do with immigration of high skilled workers. there was a lot of controversy over what are called h-1 b visas which are the kind of visas a lost tech companies use to get tech workers to work in the u.s., highly skilled workers. and there are some reports that suggest that the policies that allow for highly skilled worker visas could be threatened depending on the wait house goes about seeking immigration reform, whether it's the big sweeping bill the biden administration is proposing, a series of smaller ones. talk about this other aspect of immigration, high skilled labor immigration and policy. what would you like to see done there? >> josh, i believe whether you're looking at immigrants in tech or whether you're looking at immigrants who work in hospitality the economic studies are overwhelming that they actually create jobs, they contribute to the economy. one of the things people often miss out is that these -- the immigrants are spending money. and that actually leads to more business and more job creation. and there are economic studies that show when you restrict the immigrants from coming and working you're actually hurting consumer demand and hurting jobs. it's actually california in 1964 banned farm workers from coming. it didn't lead to more u.s. employment. if anything, it just led to autd maigs. so i think we start with the fact that immigrants contribute to the economy. now, what we want is for them to not be abused in the marketplace. so where you have h-1b visa holders being paid below market wages i'm for reform and accountability. if we can expedite that, and have them have the proper bargaining power, i think we should look at immigrants as an asset to our economy. >> a few more things i want to ask you before i let you go including about covid. we know that california is allowing some counties to lift some restrictions in the next few days and weeks depending on how infection rates look. your district kind of hugs the southern end of the bay, the san francisco bay, kind of part of silicon valley north of san jose. talk about what's happening in your district in terms of closures, reopenings, and what you're hoping for if some of these restrictions are lift. >> josh, i'm with dr. fauci that we need to be very careful and not rush into this. dr. cody who's our public health official in santa clara county, actually had the earliest shutdown of the economy. it saved numerous lives. and what we need to do is make sure we get vaccinated before lifting the restrictions on dining and lifting restrictions on large gatherings so that we don't deal with variants leading to more deaths in the next couple months. so, i am for a cautious approach, as are a lot of the public health officials i talk to in santa clara county and alameda county. >> before i let you go i wonder what you make of this recall effort targeting governor gavin newsom. the supporters say they have way more petition signatures than they need to put this before voters. what do you think will happen there? >> well, it's a republican effort. they haven't won a statewide election. and instead of being constructive in dealing with covid and in dealing with the economics, they're trying to recall a governor. i've seen polling the governor is going to easily defeat the recall. he's got a unified party. there are times i disagree with him. but everyone on all of the spectrum are behind him on this. it's a waste of resources and it's not going to succeed. >> democratic congressman ro khanna of california and silicon valley. congressman, thanks very much. >> thank you, josh. you know my district better than anyone. >> well, we'll keep talking about that district as the weeks and months go on. thanks very much. coming up, how are you feeling during this pandemic? not physically. mentally. we've got a number of questions about how covid affects our mental health. a clinical psychologist joins us ahead in tonight's "dear doctor." up next, new york city has a lot to get done. getting people vaccinated, fighting violence against asian-americans, getting that beautiful vibrant business district reopened again, and addressing the rise in homelessness. andrew yang is among the top contenders to be new york's next mayor. he will join us when we come back. but first, cori coffin is here with the headlines. hey, cori. >> hi, joshua. stories we're watching at this hour. nfl quarterback drew brees has announced his retirement. he played for the new orleans saints for 15 of his 20 years in the league. brees ranks first all-time for career passing yards and second for touchdown passes. a california man came to the aid of a teacher who lost his job in the pandemic and became homeless. steven nava said he noticed the man living in a vehicle in a parking lot. it turned out to be his childhood teacher. nava started a gofundme that raised over $25,000 in three days. and finally tonight, air travel is at its highest level since march 2020. the tsa said it screened over 1.3 million passengers on friday. that, though, is still down 38% from precovid levels. more of "the week with joshua johnson" right after the break. k [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today. 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