washington and albany. the allegations, denials and calls for his resignation continue. ♪♪ welcome to monday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm kasie hunt in for chuck the biden administration is facing an urgent crisis. due to a surge in migrant crossings and in unaccompanied mine grant children, the white house is trying to surge resources to the southern border. federal facilities are being overwhelmed. they are deploying fema and building temporary shelters. they are housing migrant children for longer than the law allows. they are facing difficult questions about how much their border and immigration policies might be contributing to the problem. last week the white house coordinator for the border said it might by a response of the softening of the hard line and in some cases inhumane immigration policies. she and other officials have emphasized, the border is not open. as "the new york times" notes, migrants' hopes have been drummed up by human smugglers who promise the administration will welcome them. house republicans are about to hold a press conference in el paso as they look to seize on the crisis politically. immigration, of course, an issue that unites their party and tends to fire up their base. amid the turmoil, house democrats are also pushing a pair of immigration bills this week as progressive democrats try to shape the white house's agenda in its image. the current administration, they are facing an uncomfortable reality. what's happening at the southern border represents one of the most difficult emergency situations to navigate for any new administration because there are no easy answers, politically, morally or legislatively. garrett haake and dasha burns are following this from the texas border. garrett is in el paso. i'm joined by kelly o'donnell. it's good to see you all. garrett, let me start with you. we are waiting on this press conference in house republicans. what have you seen so far as you have been down there at the border in el paso? what are you expecting to hear from republican leaders today? >> reporter: on the ground in el paso, the reality of migration is well-known. this is a recurring issue. it's a seasonal issue. you see more and more people start to come every year as the spring and summer begin. the numbers, as you pointed out, particularly of unaccompanied minors are on a track, ahead of where we should be for february and march, suggesting this problem could get worse and worse into the spring and summer months. people here are i think relieves fema is now getting involved. the emergency disaster specialists, logistic specialists for the federal government who can help alleviate some of the problem. on the politics end, this is an easy to understand why republicans are coming after this issue. this is something that they feel like the biden administration has made meaningful changes to immigration policy, they feel as though they can point to that and unite their voters around an issue on which they are comfortable. the problem i think for republicans is prescriptive. beyond improving border security, what else can they offer here? what do they have as an answer to the humanitarian efforts? are they supposed to wait in the desert until the pandemic is over? if they are coming, what do do you about it? when you are in the minority and you can say, it's up to the other side to govern, that's part of it. i think that's the difference here. that's what i would like to press kevin mccarthy on. if this really is a humanitarian problem, what are we as a united states of america prepared to do to solve it? there's not a lot of good answers. >> incredibly difficult problem that so many administrations have had to grapple with. garrett, what's your take on the democrats' approach to this in congress? this was tricky terrain for democrats to talk about and try and legislate around that took a dramatic shift under the hardline policies of the trump administration. it's difficult for them as well. >> reporter: the house is voting this week on two immigration measures that were broken off from the broader biden administration comprehensive plan. they deal with dreamers and with farm workers. neither deal with this issue at all. there's no obvious easy legislative solution to the problem of these particularly central american younger people working their way up through mexico and coming here or this would have been solved in the bush or obama administrations when these were creeping up. it's a massive problem. you have to deal not just with the pull factors from the u.s., which is what house republicans accuse democrats of doing. making the u.s. more inviting. the idea our policies have changed. more people want to come here specifically. you have to deal with the push factor. the incredible crushing poverty, hurricanes, all of the things that have hit the central american countries so hard to give the people there such a sense of desperation they have to go somewhere. solving both of those problems in tandem has proven too big for congress going back decades. >> garrett, stand by for me. we see the press conference behind you. we will let you go. make sure you don't miss any of that. bring back anything if you get news for us. dasha, let me to you about what you are seeing at one of the facilities. the difficult reality for the children, there are rules about how long they are supposed to be held. they are not being -- we are not able to follow because we don't have the kind of resources or we also have concerns about letting them go into the country potentially into the hands of people who might hurt them instead of people who are going to take care of them. as you have conversations and see what's going on, what's unfolding there? >> reporter: as you heard from garrett there, this is a real test and challenge for the bide biden administration. they want a more humane immigration policy. the reality on the ground that we are hearing from sources is that they are far from that, especially in places like this facility behind me here. the reality right now is, we don't know a lot about what's going on in there. we have asked for access. we have not been granted that. they put out images of the facility before there were people in it. we don't know what it looks like right now. we know that it was set up to be -- to house around 250 people. i have talked to the lawyers who have talked to children inside of this facility. they say there are a lot more people inside this facility than that right now. that's really where we are getting a lot of information, lawyers talking to these children. they say that they are all very distressed, upset. the woman i spoke with met with children as young as 1 to 17 years old. she says they were freaked out. they were hearing children cry. they weren't allowed to leave their partition for most of the day. they were getting limited access to showers and hygiene. i spoke to the mother of a 4-year-old girl who was detained here. she came to the border with her aunt, was separated from her aunt. her aunt was not allowed to enter the country. she was detained here, then sent to foster care, although her mother and father are in the united states here. thankfully, she was able to connect with a lawyer who was able to advocate on her behalf. as i heard from that lawyer, that is a very unique case. most people don't have access to that. the stories i heard from the mother of hearing her daughter on the phone -- they got one phone call. hearing her scared, confused and seeing her and seeing that change within. she was lonely. she was scared. the reality is, nobody thinks this is good. you talk to advocates, democrats, republicans, nobody wants to see this. these are not facilities meant children. these are meant for single men and meant to be temporary. 72 hours. a lot of kids are being held significantly longer than that at this point. hhs, they are supposed to be taking these kids from the border patrol facility, putting them in more appropriate facilities that do have access to education, to outdoor space, places where kids can actually safely be. they are overwhelmed right now. they are not able to keep up with the numbers. that's why the announcement about fema and others coming to help out here is huge. right now, it's a tough situation with not a lot of great solutions in the short-term here. >> of course, the people charged with trying to find solutions at the white house, kelly o'donnell, there has been back and forth and this is a problem that the biden administration inherited from the trump administration. i want to show everyone a little bit of what the white house chief of staff, ron klain, had to say about this. then we will talk about it. watch. >> the biden administration is trying to fix the broken system that was left to them by the trump administration. >> we are working very, very hard on this problem. we inherited a real lack of capacity. it's hard to ramp up that capacity. you can't just take children and put them in a hotel room. they need to be in a place where they are safely protected. >> kelly, you covered all of the trump administration and are now covering the biden administration. what is it exactly that they say was broken? we have seen all of the horrible images. we know about the zero tolerance. this was predictable we would see a surge like this. what work is being done behind the scenes by the biden administration to try to address this as quickly as possible? >> reporter: on top of all the important points that have been made in this conversation, i think when you look from the white house perspective, what they see is a very complex, difficult problem that is really the essence of being in the administration, problems come to your doorstep that are not something you can control. this certainly is one of those. you can talk about the policy issues and things that the welcoming nature of the biden administration as compared to the trump administration toward immigrants broadly and is that an influence. they are trying to surge federal resources from departments with expertise, fema and beyond, hhs and so forth, to be on the ground and look for available spaces that are more suitable for young people. that is something that happens in a very behind the scenes, bureaucratic way to look for resolving this issue. what they are not wanting to do here at the white house is call it a crisis, because words in politics matter. that bumps it up to another level. they don't want to say that their policies are an inducement in any way. some of the migration is always seasonal. some of it is based on conditions on the ground in the country of origin. some has to do with what's happening in the united states and the perceptions about what may or may not be doable at the border may be. this is a complicated problem, one the biden administration knew it would have to deal with over the time. immigration, a big piece of its political agenda. this particular surge of young people unaccompanied in particular and not having the facilities, that's really the kind of problem that a white house and a new white house, even with a lot of people with past government service, this is the kind of problem that pops up. it is nothing but bad options and bad choices for them to try to resolve this quickly. you don't get much credit for moving fast in these situations, because there's so much real world human heartache that's associated with it. >> there is. kelly, you and i have covered just how difficult these conversations about immigration can become on the political level in congress when groups of people try to fix this problem. we have tried over and over again, i don't know how many times in the last ten years or so to grapple with this in a more comprehensive way. the biden administration said we want to do this out of the gate. >> reporter: when you have headlines that are inflaming the situation, that's a very different political playbook than when you are choosing the kinds of issues you want to focus on. if they want to choose things that deal with other pieces of the large immigration picture, whether it's dreamers, who are in the united states, or it's dealing with certain types of visas, those are different issues than a hot, urgent, human problem like this. it compels the administration to have to alter its path to look at these issues, to find resources and to try to both deal with the problem in the basics of what the problem resolves and deal with it politically. the obvious move by house republicans to put an event on at the border is a way for kevin mccarthy and his team to put pressure on the biden administration on this issue and more broadly. while the country may look at the covid relief plan and things where the administration has something to cheer about, this is a big problem and one that will take a lot of work, a lot of expertise and patient which is hard to come by. >> thank you. appreciate your reporting. thanks to dasha and garrett as well. authorities have arrested two men and charged them with assaulting police officer brian sicknick. he later died as a result of the injuries he sustained in the january 6th attack on the capitol. according to court documents, the two men are not, however, being charged with officer sicknick's death at this point. their initial court appearances are scheduled for this afternoon. the case is part of the sprawling federal investigation into the siege, which is expected to result in charges against at least 400 people. coming up next, the chair of the hispanic caucus joins us. what he is doing to help get vulnerable americans vaccinated. the latest out of new york as governor cuomo continues to resist the calls for his resignation. president biden weighs in on the investigation. as we go to break, look at something positive. positive signs of life after lockdown. ♪ the calming scent of lavender by downy infusions calm. laundry isn't done until it's done with downy. this is the planning effect. as carla thinks about retirement, she'll wonder, "what if i could retire sooner?" and so she'll get some advice from fidelity, and fidelity will help her explore some different scenarios, like saving more every month. ♪♪ and that has carla feeling so confident that she can enjoy her dream... right now. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. welcome back. any minute now we are expecting house republicans to speak at the border in el paso, texas. happening right now, jen psaki is holding her daily briefing. she faced questions about the response to the growing humanitarian crisis at the border. republicans are looking to pin the situation on the president. perhaps with an eye toward 2022. joining me now is california democratic congressman raul ruiz. he is a medical doctor who today is administering covid-19 vaccines, which i think helps explain your backdrop. thank you for that. i want to get to it in one second. let's start with the situation at the border, because while we are obviously seeing a political display here, i want to keep the focus on the humanitarian challenges that are facing people who clearly are making an incredibly gut wrenching decision to have their children try to cross the border alone because the situation, the place where they are coming from is so -- the risks are so terrible to their own health. i'm wondering for you, what are the action items you think need to be taken right now? is bringing fema in a good step? what more do we need to be doing? >> it's very important to understand that this is a humanitarian issue, because children are fleeing persecution and violence. we hear stories about how the children aren't joining gangs or other criminal activities, that they would rape their family, their sister or they would be killed. parents are scared. they are trying to get their children to safety. what we need is a humanitarian response that puts the welfare of the children first. that's what the biden administration is doing by ensuring that fema is there and they will also increase staff with caseworkers, social workers, child specialists, psychiatry. they are looking at expanding short-term housing for children in order to expedite their ability to get to a loving, safe and caring relative's home in the united states while their case is being processed through the courts. >> congressman, i want to show you something the department of homeland security secretary said earlier this month about how the new administration's tone toward this may or may not be affecting what we are seeing. let's watch. >> we are not saying don't come. we are saying, don't come now because we will be able to deliver safe and ordinarily process to them as quickly as possible. >> congressman, should the biden administration be telling people not to come? >> i think whether the biden administration says it or not, we know that this has nothing to do with who is in office and more to do with environmental and the failed states in their nation and the violence there. this happens every so often. usually in spring. it happened during the president. what we witnessed for the past four years is a policy of hate, fear, cruelty, family separation, intimidation and a useless border wall that was ineffective. it still didn't work. i think that the focus here is to follow our own asylum and refugee laws and to ensure that the children are safe, to treat them with dignity, unlike the last administration that contained them and detained them in inhuman, subhuman standards which led to several deaths under their responsibility. the approach is the right one. it's very clear that this is not the time to come to the united states, because the system has been dismantled by the trump administration. therefore, it needs to be built in a way that can process the claims as quickly and efficiently as we can according to our laws. >> congressman, the house is set to consider a couple of immigration-related pieces of legislation, including one that could offer a path to citizenship for migrant farm workers. this is something that there has been some republican support for in past congresses. do you think now is the right time to be moving legislation like that through the house? >> absolutely. it is the right time, because we're in the middle of a pandemic. i'm the son of farm workers. i grew up in a trailer park. i know how hard they work. i understand the risk they are taking in getting infected and dying from covid-19 in order to feed america. this bill will stabilize the workforce. it will help our economy. it will help us rebuild during this pandemic. for dreamers, we know dreamers are doctors and nurses. there may be dreamers here administering vaccines to save people's lives in this event. this is the right time to pass the dream and promise act and form workforce modernization act. i'm proud the congressional hispanic caucus have been leading the way to defend these human rights and to create pathways to citizenship for our hard working immigrants who want nothing more than to work hard, contribute to america, keep america safe and to contribute to our economy. this is a great accomplishment. it is a bipartisan effort. we will pass it out of the house. we will give it to the senate to make sure that they also pass it this year. >> congressman, you mentioned vaccinations. i know you are a physician who is there administering doses now. what have you seen in terms of how these vaccinations are getting into arms, the logistics of that? have you learned lessons? i'm particularly curious if you had any conversations with people who have been reluctant to take the vaccine, where you had to reassure them that, in fact, it's safe? how we are doing that, especially in underserved communities. >> there is no doubt that we are in a turning point under the leadership of president biden