Thinks the media is cherrypicking these images and the president s aides are actually bringing him pictures showing these detained children smiling and plays games. More on that in a bit. The president has falsely blamed democrats for the situation on the border. He did so again today. I say its very strongly the democrats fault. Theyre obstruction. Theyre obstructionist, and they are obstructing. The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugeeholding facility. It wont be. You look at whats happening in europe. You look at whats happening in other places. We cant allow that to happen to the United States, not on my watch. Secretary of Homeland SecurityKirstjen Nielsen has been the point person to enforce the latest policy, and she has insisted the white house is enforcing the law, a point she made repeatedly in the white
i am considering exactly that. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you, and that child may be separated from you as required by law. What do you say to people who worry about the impact of separating parents and children . Dont break the law. I mean, thats why theyre separated because theyre breaking the law. The criticism and scorn are now withering. And about those first ladies, its laura bushs Opinion Piece in the Washington Post thats getting the most attention. I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zerotolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral, and it breaks my heart. These images are eerily reminiscent of the japaneseamerican internment camps of world war ii, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in u. S. History. Members of congress from both sides have also weighed in. They havent acted, mind you. But tonight senator lisa murkowski, a republican from alaska, issued a statement
saying in part, the time is now for the white house to end the cruel, tragic separations of families. They are not consistent with our values. To blame previous administrations for a wrong committed today is not acceptable. Reminder, shes a republican. Other members of the senate agreed with that sentiment. The president has the ability to stop this if hed like. I understand that he wants to get a comprehensive fix of immigration. So do i. All of us who are seeing these images of children being pulled away from moms and dads in tears, were horrified. This has to stop. Kids need their moms and dads, and we can keep the Families Together while these cases are pending. Its not necessary. The law does not require it, and certainly ethics and morals dont require it. This is not reflective of who we are as a country. Meanwhile, a new report in politico indicates the president may be thinking of getting even
tougher on immigration. Top aides to President Donald Trump are planning additional crackdowns on immigration before the november midterms. The goal for Senior Policy AdviserStephen Miller and his team is to arm trump with enough data and statistics by Early September to show voters that he fulfilled his immigration promises even without a physical border wall or any other congressional measure said one republican close to the white house. Well, after the day weve had, lets bring in our leadoff panel on a monday night. Msnbc correspondent Mariana Atencio in mcallen, texas, for us tonight. In brownsville, texas, manny fernandez, Houston Bureau chief for the New York Times. And here with us in new york, eli stokols, White House Reporter for the l. A. Times. Understanding we have a bit of a Satellite Delay down to texas tonight, mariana, tell us how you spent your day there and the kinds of stories youre hearing. Brian, i was at a shelter run by Catholic Charities a couple of blocks from the Ursula Processing Center behind me, where i just want to emphasize over 1,100 children are spending the night alone, away from their parents. These are the childrens parents who were prosecuted for crossing the border illegally. But at this shelter, where ive actually spent four days now, you see people who cross the border illegally with their children, were processed by i. C. E. , and actually released with Ankle Monitors because nbc has learned that the zerotolerance policy isnt even at 100 capacity yet. Dhs told our Jacob Soboroff that theyre at 60 capacity. So there are still families that call themselves the, quote, lucky ones because they crossed the border illegally. Theyre not prosecuted, and theyre released by immigration officials. But i saw a disturbing new trend that didnt happen during the obama administration, and that
is mothers separated from their children by agents at the border, even when theyre not being prosecuted. I spoke to three mothers today who told me the same thing. Separated from their children, younger than 18 years old, something that is new to this administration that were trying to understand why its happening. And when you hear, brian, the stories of these children, because we are able to speak to them, who were separated from their parents at facilities like the one that you see behind me, you start to get a sense of the Emotional Trauma these kids are going through. A little boy today, 10 years old, his name was robert. His mom, christina, brought him from el salvador because gangs had tried to recruit him, threatening him with killing his mom and sister if he didnt join. He told me that he cried himself to sleep every night. He told me that he slept on the floor with a blanket made of tin foil, that he would ask immigration officials, you know,
where is my mom . And they wouldnt even tell him where she was or when he could speak to her. So, again, it was a horrific day because it just gives you a glimpse of what these families and especially the children are going through. Manny, youve covered a lot of stories in your time from the bronx to brownsville, texas. You were on that tour of the converted walmart. Be our eyes and ears because we couldnt get there, and far from the president s accusation that were cherrypicking these stories, were getting only the pictures and stories the government allows us to get. We cant walk freely with cameras. What did you see in the converted walmart that we all need to know about . Well, theres a couple things, brian. I mean, first, its sort of its sort of like touring a troubled school. You know, the problems are not written on the walls. You know, overall that walmart, that former walmart building, was clean. The kids were being well fed. You could tell that they had fresh clothes. They had showered. They were getting haircuts. But, you know, there was 1,500 kids in that one facility. Five beds in one room. And that had been a rapid expansion from the last couple weeks. And so the size of it, the rapid expansion of it, and then, you know, in hindsight, theres a couple things that, you know, were sort of learning after the media tour, the stuff that they didnt tell us. One of those just one example of that is that facility failed two Fire Inspections in april and may. It passed the most recent one, but it failed two of them, and that obviously did not come up in the tour. Eli stokols, lets switch to politics because its a necessary part of that. Talk about the strategy today. The briefing was delayed by almost four hours. They finally then put out the secretary of Homeland Security. Who had to fly back from new orleans to do this. Thats right. The president talked about this. Talk about their ownership of it, in some cases doubling down. It was a doubledown from the president earlier in the day and from Secretary Nielsen after 5 00 p. M. In the Briefing Room after reporters had waited a long time as the administration behind the scenes was trying to figure out what that briefing was going to look like, what the messaging was going to be and who would do it. I understand that Secretary Nielsen was advised not to do it by some people close to her, including Chief Of Staff kelly. But ultimately went out there and became, for better or worse, the face of this policy that is essentially at its heart Stephen Millers immigration policy. The zerotolerance thing. I mean, as they continue to blame the democrats and say, congress, if you want to change this, change the law. Thats fair. You can change this law. It has been on the books since the bush administration. But the bush administration, the obama administration, and the Trump Administration up until two months ago were not enforcing this law in the way
they have been for the last two months, where now were seeing the actual separation of families. And you played all the clips of all the people. Miller, Chief Of Staff kelly, talking about this is a deterrent. And youve got the president out here disingenuously blaming democrats. I think the president , people around him always tell me, look, the Immigration Issue is a winner for us. It always has been. Democrats look soft on immigration. This is a button were going to continue to press up until the election. Hell probably always continue to press, but i think hes so insulated from the reality. You talked about cherrypicking. He thinks the media is cherrypicking these images. His staff, theyre cherrypicking the images they show to him because they have to continue to allow him to keep that magical thinking going. Theres just not a realization that this is different. Yes, the immigration hasnt worked and theyve demagogued it in the past. But these images, the audio, these are children and it is playing in a very different way to the voters that they think have always sided with them on this issue. I dont know if thats the case
at this point. Mariana, lets take a whack at kristen welkers question that went unanswered. Where are the infants and toddlers . We know theyre out there somewhere. Where are the young women and girls . Weve seen no pictures of them. Brian, we heard this horrific audio today from propublica that 4 to 10. And one of the most disturbing pieces of that audio was the 6yearold girl from el salvador saying, please at least get me to my aunt, you know. Get me out of here. And then just seeing these agents in there being so dismissive at these childrens cries, saying, you know, we have an orchestra here all were missing is a conductor. Those were children ages 4 to 10. Its the very first time were hearing from them. So you can just imagine these toddlers, children much younger and how they must be feeling and coping with. And then when you also think about the logistical nightmare that this has become for this administration, the very few caregivers that are inside facilities like the one behind me, actually caring for these children properly. And, manny, we heard that ratio was four social workers for about 1,000 kids. We also heard that any tactile contact is kind of being discouraged, that a lot of these kids just havent had any human touch. Yes, thats true. And, you know, going back to what you said before about the question about the girls, i talked to a number of democratic members of congress who toured a Brownsville Shelter that had about 80 children in it today. Most of those children were young teenage girls, and there was also toddlers and infants
there. And these members of congress are very emotional, very upset about it. They talked about seeing one boy that they called baby roger, who is about 8 or 9 months old, who was a product of this Trump Administrations family separation policy. They talked about another girl named baby leah, who is about 12 months old. And Congressman Lujan from new mexico got very emotional talking about it. He said he had to leave the room during the tour because it made him so upset to see this little girl and this little boy. Eli, ive got 30 seconds left. Again, cold hard facts. This is polling twothirds against the president now. Does he continue to ride his onethird on such a deeply unpopular thing . He might. He is that, you know, indebted to his base, and that is his concern first and foremost. Its not trying to be a president for the entire country. Its trying to make sure that base doesnt leave him. Thats where his power is. Thats what has kept republicans in place. I think what youve seen from ted cruz, from other republicans who are not normally critics of this president , to go out and say this has to end and its not acceptable to blame democrats. This is something the administration can end. That is different, and it is reflective of those poll numbers and the fact that this is not seen in a positive light by most americans. This is horrifying to most americans based on polling and just based on your Gut Instincts as a Human Listening to that audio, watching those images and knowing how most people will react. We are deeply indebted to our leadoff guests, especially those of you after a long day covering this story out in texas. Mariana, manny, eli, my thanks to all three of you. Coming up, one of President Trumps republican opponents in 2016 is these days an outspoken critic of the president s policy to separate these families. Hes with us next. And later, while it didnt get much coverage today, the
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agents, trained in america, paid by american taxpayers, following orders from an administration that ran on this policy and was elected by americans. So this is who we are now. Im sure that we would very much like to be a Beacon Of Hope to the world, but that brought us too many strangers banging on the door. So it appears we will snuff out that light at least for now and change the locks. As a democracy, we have the power to reconsider, but in the meantime, we are the country you see. And according to the attorney general, its exactly how the bible wants it. We talked about all of it tonight with ohios governor, john kasich, the republican, the rumored 2020 president ial candidate, who visited us here in new york. I suppose youre up on what weve seen transpire all weekend and today. And i want to start with a very basic question. What is happening . What is it you think were witnessing right now . Brian, you and i are, you know, kind of contemporaries. Weve never seen anything quite like this. You know, the Heart Of America has always been about caring. You know, and here we are in new york, and right out here is the grand old lady welcoming people. I was on ellis island, i guess about a year ago, and my own family, my grandparents came over, and they were welcomed. And then when you look at the border and you see Young Children being taken from their mothers and fathers, you know, as a young kid, could you imagine if you were yanked away from the people that were raising you . No. And i hope theres just and this problem has existed for a while, but this solution is insane, its ridiculous. You cant start dividing families. And, brian, the thing that is so interesting not so interesting but good and
heartening now is the outpouring of support from both parties. You know, laura bush wrote a piece in the Washington Post. I think finally youre beginning to see some congressmen raise cane about this, and then hopefully they i dont know if theyll get this Immigration Bill through, but youd like to see the administration say, the solution to this problem at the border is not to separate families and to create conditions that are intolerable. This is not the america that you and i are known throughout our lifetime here. A lot of people feel that this one, this crisis will leave a mark. This feels different from anything before it during the trump years, and like it or not, this president has an r after his name, which for a long time has been your political party. Brian, there have been a lot of things that have happened since this administration has taken office that i thought would never be accepted. I dont know how this is going to go down with the base. And heres the problem. I think base politics now in our country is different than ive ever seen it. I mean, i was in congress for 18 years. We never decided, i cant remember when we ever decided, okay, we cant do this or we can do this because of the upcoming election. If there was anything that was incumbent on us, it was to do something good. And i just hope that the base will look at the facts and take off partisan glasses. But i have to also tell you, you know, i said earlier today on one of the shows here on the channel, i remember when we went through the government shutdown, and i felt as though the democrats had walks away from daca. Were not seeing the kind of courage that were so used to seeing, the kind of courage embodied by somebody like john mccain or bob dole or people that said Am