WEBVTT 00:00:00.913 --> 00:00:03.501 Anne Milgram: Congressman, I was about to introduce you 00:00:03.525 --> 00:00:04.825 and say a little more -- NOTE Paragraph 00:00:04.849 --> 00:00:06.470 Will Hurd: Hey, Anne. How are you? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:06.494 --> 00:00:09.698 AM: Hi, how are you doing? Thank you so much for joining us tonight. 00:00:09.722 --> 00:00:12.068 We're so lucky to have you here with us. 00:00:12.092 --> 00:00:14.810 I've already explained that you're actually in Washington 00:00:14.834 --> 00:00:16.041 because you're working. 00:00:16.065 --> 00:00:17.501 And I was about to tell folks 00:00:17.525 --> 00:00:20.575 that you represent the 23rd district of Texas. 00:00:21.339 --> 00:00:24.809 But maybe you could tell us a little bit about your district 00:00:24.833 --> 00:00:26.367 and describe it for us. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:27.903 --> 00:00:33.482 WH: Sure, my district in Southwest Texas is 29 counties, two time zones, 00:00:33.506 --> 00:00:37.442 820 miles of border from Eagle Pass, Texas 00:00:37.466 --> 00:00:39.268 all the way to El Paso. 00:00:39.292 --> 00:00:43.808 It takes 10 and a half hours to drive across my district at 80 miles an hour, 00:00:43.832 --> 00:00:46.126 which is the speed limit in most of the district. 00:00:46.150 --> 00:00:48.133 And I found out a couple of weekends ago, 00:00:48.158 --> 00:00:50.299 it's not the speed limit in all the district. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:50.324 --> 00:00:51.815 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:51.839 --> 00:00:55.819 It's a 71-percent Latino district, 00:00:55.843 --> 00:00:58.283 and it's the district that I've been representing 00:00:58.307 --> 00:01:01.087 for now my third term in Congress. 00:01:01.111 --> 00:01:04.294 And when you think about the issue of the border, 00:01:04.318 --> 00:01:07.556 I have more border than any other member of Congress. 00:01:07.580 --> 00:01:11.482 I spent nine and a half years as an undercover officer in the CIA, 00:01:11.506 --> 00:01:14.498 chasing bad people all across the country. 00:01:14.522 --> 00:01:16.442 So when it comes to securing our border, 00:01:16.466 --> 00:01:18.688 it's something I know a little bit about. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:19.141 --> 00:01:22.450 AM: One of the things I learned recently which I hadn't known before 00:01:22.474 --> 00:01:25.371 is that your district is actually the size, I think, 00:01:25.395 --> 00:01:27.323 of the state of Georgia? NOTE Paragraph 00:01:28.741 --> 00:01:29.907 WH: That's right. 00:01:29.931 --> 00:01:33.590 It's larger than 26 states, roughly the size of the state of Georgia. 00:01:33.997 --> 00:01:35.479 So it's pretty big. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.093 --> 00:01:38.577 AM: So as an expert in national security 00:01:38.601 --> 00:01:39.990 and as a member of Congress, 00:01:40.014 --> 00:01:42.783 you've been called upon to think about issues 00:01:42.807 --> 00:01:44.442 related to immigration, 00:01:44.466 --> 00:01:48.092 and in recent years, particularly about the border wall. 00:01:48.434 --> 00:01:51.221 What is your reaction to President Trump's statement 00:01:51.245 --> 00:01:55.498 that we need a big, beautiful wall that would stretch across our border, 00:01:55.522 --> 00:01:57.955 and at 18 to 30 feet high? NOTE Paragraph 00:01:59.812 --> 00:02:03.193 WH: I've been saying this since I first ran for Congress back in 2009, 00:02:03.217 --> 00:02:04.407 this is not a new topic, 00:02:04.431 --> 00:02:07.019 that building a 30-foot-high concrete structure 00:02:07.043 --> 00:02:08.687 from sea to shining sea 00:02:08.711 --> 00:02:11.545 is the most expensive and least effective way 00:02:11.569 --> 00:02:13.117 to do border security. 00:02:13.467 --> 00:02:15.870 There are parts of the border 00:02:15.894 --> 00:02:19.180 where Border Patrol's response time to a threat 00:02:19.204 --> 00:02:21.831 is measured in hours to days. 00:02:21.855 --> 00:02:25.655 If your response time is measured in hours to days, 00:02:25.679 --> 00:02:28.369 then a wall is not a physical barrier. 00:02:28.671 --> 00:02:30.932 We should be having technology along the border, 00:02:30.956 --> 00:02:34.584 we should have operation control of our border, 00:02:34.608 --> 00:02:38.013 which means we know everything that's going back and forth across it. 00:02:38.037 --> 00:02:39.998 We can do a lot of that with technology. 00:02:40.022 --> 00:02:43.025 We also need more folks within our border patrol. 00:02:43.427 --> 00:02:45.609 But in addition to doing all this, 00:02:45.633 --> 00:02:50.625 one of the things we should be able to do is streamline legal immigration. 00:02:50.649 --> 00:02:53.323 If you're going to be a productive member of our society, 00:02:53.347 --> 00:02:55.371 let's get you here as quickly as possible, 00:02:55.395 --> 00:02:56.561 but let's do it legally. 00:02:56.585 --> 00:02:59.535 And if we're able to streamline that, then you're going to see 00:02:59.559 --> 00:03:02.014 some of the pressures relieved along our border 00:03:02.038 --> 00:03:07.312 and allow men and women in Border Patrol to focus on human trafficking 00:03:07.336 --> 00:03:09.980 and drug-trafficking organizations as well. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:13.304 AM: Congressman, 00:03:13.328 --> 00:03:18.305 there's also been a conversation nationally about using emergency funds 00:03:18.329 --> 00:03:19.623 to build the border wall 00:03:19.647 --> 00:03:23.202 and taking those funds from the United States military. 00:03:23.226 --> 00:03:25.652 What has your position been on that issue? NOTE Paragraph 00:03:26.321 --> 00:03:30.841 WH: I'm one of the few Republicans up here that has opposed that effort. 00:03:31.182 --> 00:03:34.575 We are just now rebuilding our military, 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:36.927 and taking funds away from making sure 00:03:36.951 --> 00:03:40.966 that our brothers and sisters, our wives and our husbands 00:03:40.990 --> 00:03:42.998 have the training and equipment they need 00:03:43.022 --> 00:03:47.172 in order to take care of us in far-flung places -- 00:03:47.196 --> 00:03:51.630 taking money away from them is not an efficient use of our resources, 00:03:51.654 --> 00:03:55.041 especially if it's going to build a ... 00:03:55.065 --> 00:03:58.785 you know, I always say it's a fourth-century solution 00:03:58.809 --> 00:04:02.110 to a 21st-century problem. 00:04:02.134 --> 00:04:05.627 And the reality is, what we should be focusing on 00:04:05.651 --> 00:04:08.791 is some of the other root causes of this problem, 00:04:08.815 --> 00:04:11.672 and many of your speakers today have talked about that. 00:04:11.696 --> 00:04:17.553 Some of those key root problems are violence, lack of economic opportunity 00:04:17.577 --> 00:04:19.077 and extreme poverty, 00:04:19.101 --> 00:04:23.609 specifically, in the Northern Triangle: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. 00:04:23.633 --> 00:04:25.166 We should be working -- NOTE Paragraph 00:04:26.760 --> 00:04:28.974 AM: I was going to ask what you would recommend 00:04:28.998 --> 00:04:32.029 United States government does to address the underlying, 00:04:32.053 --> 00:04:34.462 what we call push factors, or root causes 00:04:34.486 --> 00:04:37.160 in those three countries in Central America? NOTE Paragraph 00:04:37.914 --> 00:04:41.072 WH: One of the things I learned as an undercover officer in the CIA 00:04:41.096 --> 00:04:43.810 is be nice with nice guys and tough with tough guys. 00:04:43.834 --> 00:04:46.415 And one of the principles of being nice with nice guys 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:49.946 is to strengthen our alliances. 00:04:49.970 --> 00:04:53.347 We have a number of programs currently in these three countries 00:04:53.371 --> 00:04:58.990 that USAID and the State Department is doing to address this violence issue. 00:04:59.014 --> 00:05:00.688 And we know, in El Salvador, 00:05:00.712 --> 00:05:03.655 one of the problems was that the police were corrupt. 00:05:03.679 --> 00:05:08.059 And so we've worked with the Salvadorians to purge the police, 00:05:08.083 --> 00:05:10.459 rehire new folks, 00:05:10.483 --> 00:05:14.490 use community policing tactics. 00:05:14.514 --> 00:05:19.339 These are tactics the men and women in the United States of America 00:05:19.363 --> 00:05:20.545 and police forces 00:05:20.569 --> 00:05:22.204 use every single day. 00:05:22.228 --> 00:05:24.368 And when we did this in certain communities, 00:05:24.392 --> 00:05:25.552 guess what happened? 00:05:25.576 --> 00:05:29.077 We saw a decrease in the violence that was happening in those communities. 00:05:29.101 --> 00:05:30.265 And then we also saw 00:05:30.289 --> 00:05:33.385 a decrease in the number of people that were leaving those areas 00:05:33.409 --> 00:05:36.059 to try to come to the United States illegally. 00:05:36.083 --> 00:05:40.774 So it's a fraction of the cost to solve a problem there, 00:05:40.798 --> 00:05:43.553 before it ultimately reaches our border. 00:05:43.577 --> 00:05:47.728 And one of the reasons that you have violence and crime 00:05:47.752 --> 00:05:49.307 is political corruption 00:05:49.331 --> 00:05:53.966 and the lack of central governments to protect its citizens. 00:05:53.990 --> 00:05:56.807 And so this is something we should be continuing to work on. 00:05:56.831 --> 00:06:00.009 We shouldn't be decreasing the amount of money that we have 00:06:00.033 --> 00:06:01.863 that we're sending to these countries. 00:06:01.887 --> 00:06:03.974 I actually think we should be increasing it. 00:06:03.998 --> 00:06:07.173 I believe the first thing -- we should have done this months ago -- 00:06:07.197 --> 00:06:10.643 is select a special representative for the Northern Triangle. 00:06:10.667 --> 00:06:12.459 That's a senior diplomat 00:06:12.483 --> 00:06:17.871 that's going to work to make sure we're using all of our levers of power 00:06:17.895 --> 00:06:20.404 to help these three countries, 00:06:20.428 --> 00:06:22.912 and then that we're doing it in a coordinated effort. 00:06:22.936 --> 00:06:25.849 This is not just a problem for the United States and Mexico, 00:06:25.873 --> 00:06:28.347 this is a problem for the entire western hemisphere. 00:06:28.371 --> 00:06:30.665 So, where is the Organization of American States? 00:06:30.689 --> 00:06:32.807 Where is the International Development Bank? 00:06:32.831 --> 00:06:37.466 We should be having a collective plan to address these root causes. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:37.490 --> 00:06:39.196 And when you talk about violence, 00:06:39.220 --> 00:06:44.077 a lot of times, we talk about these terrible gangs like MS-13. 00:06:44.101 --> 00:06:49.180 But it's also violence like women being beaten by their husbands. 00:06:49.204 --> 00:06:52.514 And they have nobody else to go to, 00:06:52.538 --> 00:06:55.776 and they are unable to deal with this current problem. 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:58.125 So these are the types of issues 00:06:58.149 --> 00:07:01.434 that we should be increasing our diplomacy, 00:07:01.458 --> 00:07:04.236 increasing our economic development aid. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:04.260 --> 00:07:06.537 AM: Please, I want to take you now 00:07:06.561 --> 00:07:09.839 from thinking about the root causes in Central America 00:07:09.863 --> 00:07:12.936 to thinking about the separation of children and families 00:07:12.960 --> 00:07:14.360 in the United States. 00:07:14.807 --> 00:07:16.752 Starting in April 2018, 00:07:16.776 --> 00:07:20.561 the Trump administration began a no-tolerance policy 00:07:20.585 --> 00:07:24.342 for immigrants, people seeking refugee status, asylum 00:07:24.366 --> 00:07:25.797 in the United States. 00:07:25.821 --> 00:07:29.781 And that led to the separation of 2,700 children 00:07:29.805 --> 00:07:32.656 in the first year that that program was run. 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:34.450 Now, I want to address this with you, 00:07:34.474 --> 00:07:39.182 and I want to separate it up front into two different conversations. 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:41.942 One of the things that the administration did 00:07:41.966 --> 00:07:43.345 was file legal court papers, 00:07:43.369 --> 00:07:47.784 saying that one of the primary purposes of the separations 00:07:47.808 --> 00:07:49.941 was to act as a deterrent 00:07:49.965 --> 00:07:52.774 against people coming to the United States. 00:07:53.252 --> 00:07:57.760 And I want to talk for a moment about that from a moral perspective 00:07:57.784 --> 00:07:59.250 and to get your views. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:01.378 --> 00:08:05.085 WH: We shouldn't be doing it, period. It's real simple. 00:08:05.109 --> 00:08:07.491 And guess what, it wasn't a deterrent. 00:08:07.515 --> 00:08:11.164 You only saw an increase in the amount of illegal immigration. 00:08:11.188 --> 00:08:14.918 And when you're sitting, debating a strategy, 00:08:14.942 --> 00:08:18.029 if somebody comes up with the idea 00:08:18.053 --> 00:08:21.609 of snatching a child out of their mother's arms, 00:08:21.633 --> 00:08:24.117 you need to go back to the drawing board. 00:08:24.141 --> 00:08:27.990 This is not what the United States of America stands for, 00:08:28.014 --> 00:08:31.553 this is not a Republican or a Democrat or independent thing. 00:08:31.966 --> 00:08:34.553 This is a human decency thing. 00:08:34.577 --> 00:08:37.116 And so, using that strategy, 00:08:37.140 --> 00:08:39.544 it didn't achieve the ultimate purpose. 00:08:39.568 --> 00:08:44.379 And ultimately, the amount of research that is done 00:08:44.403 --> 00:08:47.299 and the impact that the detention of children has -- 00:08:47.323 --> 00:08:49.601 especially if it's over 21 days -- 00:08:49.625 --> 00:08:52.608 has on their development and their future 00:08:52.632 --> 00:08:53.785 is disastrous. 00:08:53.809 --> 00:08:57.192 So we shouldn't be trying to detain children for any more than 21 days, 00:08:57.216 --> 00:09:00.473 and we should be getting children, if they're in our custody, 00:09:00.497 --> 00:09:02.663 we should be taking care of them humanely, 00:09:02.687 --> 00:09:04.601 and making sure they're with people 00:09:04.625 --> 00:09:08.703 that can provide them a safe and loving environment. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:08.727 --> 00:09:11.633 AM: I would challenge you even on the 21-day number, 00:09:11.657 --> 00:09:14.283 but for the purposes of this conversation, 00:09:14.307 --> 00:09:16.529 I want to follow up on something you just said, 00:09:16.553 --> 00:09:19.434 which is both that it's wrong to detain children, 00:09:19.458 --> 00:09:21.601 and that it's not effective. 00:09:21.625 --> 00:09:25.547 So the question, then, is why does the administration continue to do it, 00:09:25.571 --> 00:09:29.363 when we've seen 900 additional children separated from their parents 00:09:29.387 --> 00:09:31.672 since the summer of 2018? 00:09:31.696 --> 00:09:33.163 Why is this happening? NOTE Paragraph 00:09:34.163 --> 00:09:37.260 WH: Well, that's something that you'd have to ultimately 00:09:37.284 --> 00:09:38.451 ask the administration. 00:09:38.475 --> 00:09:40.482 These are questions that I've been asking. 00:09:40.506 --> 00:09:43.514 The Tornillo facility is in my district. 00:09:43.538 --> 00:09:50.445 These are buildings that are not designed to hold anybody 00:09:50.469 --> 00:09:51.894 for multiple days, 00:09:51.918 --> 00:09:53.357 let alone children. 00:09:53.679 --> 00:09:57.201 We should be making sure that if they are in our custody -- 00:09:57.225 --> 00:10:00.259 a lot of times for the uncompanied children, 00:10:00.283 --> 00:10:02.403 we don't have a ... 00:10:02.427 --> 00:10:07.704 we don't know of a patron or a family member in the United States, 00:10:07.728 --> 00:10:10.388 and we should make sure that they're in facilities 00:10:10.412 --> 00:10:12.053 where they're able to go to school 00:10:12.077 --> 00:10:14.942 and have proper food and health care. 00:10:14.966 --> 00:10:18.138 And if we're able to find a sponsor or family member, 00:10:18.162 --> 00:10:20.416 let's get them into that custody, 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:24.258 while they're waiting for their immigration court case. 00:10:24.282 --> 00:10:25.882 That's the other issue here. 00:10:25.906 --> 00:10:27.705 When you have a backlog of cases -- 00:10:27.729 --> 00:10:32.000 I think it's now 900,000 cases that are backlogged -- 00:10:32.024 --> 00:10:34.609 we should be able to do an immigration hearing 00:10:34.633 --> 00:10:35.890 within nine months. 00:10:35.914 --> 00:10:39.344 I think most of the legal community thinks that is enough time 00:10:39.368 --> 00:10:40.783 to do something like this, 00:10:40.807 --> 00:10:46.677 so that we can facilitate whether someone, an individual, 00:10:46.701 --> 00:10:48.441 is able to stay in the United States 00:10:48.465 --> 00:10:51.616 or they're going to have to be returned back to their home country, 00:10:51.640 --> 00:10:53.958 rather than being in this limbo for five years. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:53.982 --> 00:10:56.522 AM: If we think about the asylum system today, 00:10:56.546 --> 00:11:00.069 where people are coming and saying that they have a credible threat, 00:11:00.093 --> 00:11:02.109 that they will be persecuted back home, 00:11:02.133 --> 00:11:04.283 and we think about the fact that on average, 00:11:04.307 --> 00:11:07.410 it's about two years for someone to get an asylum hearing, 00:11:07.434 --> 00:11:11.789 that many people are not represented as they go through that process, 00:11:11.813 --> 00:11:13.400 it makes me think about something 00:11:13.424 --> 00:11:15.856 that they say in the health care space all the time, 00:11:15.880 --> 00:11:18.527 which is that every system is perfectly designed 00:11:18.551 --> 00:11:20.728 to get the results it gets. 00:11:20.752 --> 00:11:22.188 And so as you think about this 00:11:22.212 --> 00:11:26.387 and think about how we would redesign this system 00:11:26.411 --> 00:11:27.853 to not do what we're doing, 00:11:27.877 --> 00:11:33.050 which is years and years of detention and separations and hardship 00:11:33.074 --> 00:11:34.275 for people seeking -- 00:11:34.299 --> 00:11:38.761 and again, asylum being a lawful United States government process -- 00:11:38.785 --> 00:11:42.285 for people seeking to enter our country lawfully. 00:11:42.309 --> 00:11:43.509 What should we do? NOTE Paragraph 00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:47.230 WH: I tried to increase by four billion dollars 00:11:47.254 --> 00:11:50.457 the amount of resources that HHS has 00:11:50.481 --> 00:11:54.275 in order to specifically deal, ultimately, with children. 00:11:54.299 --> 00:11:59.474 I think we need more immigration judges in order to process these cases, 00:11:59.498 --> 00:12:04.585 and I think we need to ensure that folks can get representation. 00:12:05.009 --> 00:12:09.527 I've been able to work with a number of lawyers up and down the border 00:12:09.551 --> 00:12:13.980 to make sure they are being able to get access to the folks 00:12:14.004 --> 00:12:16.711 that are having these problems. 00:12:16.735 --> 00:12:20.464 And so this is something that we should be able to design. 00:12:20.488 --> 00:12:23.051 And ultimately, when it comes to children, 00:12:23.075 --> 00:12:26.255 we should be doing everything we can when they're in our custody, 00:12:26.279 --> 00:12:28.519 in order to take care of them. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:29.030 --> 00:12:30.958 AM: So I have two more questions for you 00:12:30.982 --> 00:12:33.037 before I'm going to let you go back to work. 00:12:33.061 --> 00:12:37.315 The first is about our focus in the United States 00:12:37.339 --> 00:12:39.188 on the questions of immigration. 00:12:39.212 --> 00:12:41.395 Because if you look at some of the statistics, 00:12:41.419 --> 00:12:44.403 you see that of people who are undocumented 00:12:44.427 --> 00:12:45.736 in the United States, 00:12:45.760 --> 00:12:49.268 the majority of people have overstayed on visas, 00:12:49.292 --> 00:12:51.096 they haven't come through the border. 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:53.879 If you look at the people who try to enter the country 00:12:53.903 --> 00:12:55.709 who are on the terrorist watch list, 00:12:55.733 --> 00:12:58.704 they enter overwhelmingly through the airports 00:12:58.728 --> 00:13:00.045 and not through the border. 00:13:00.069 --> 00:13:02.410 If we look at drugs coming into the United States, 00:13:02.434 --> 00:13:04.712 which has been a huge part of this conversation, 00:13:04.736 --> 00:13:08.014 the vast majority of those drugs come through our ports 00:13:08.038 --> 00:13:10.220 and through other points of entry, 00:13:10.244 --> 00:13:13.806 not through backpacks on people crossing the border. 00:13:13.830 --> 00:13:15.092 So the thing I always ask 00:13:15.116 --> 00:13:17.242 and I always worry about with government, 00:13:17.266 --> 00:13:20.623 is that we focus so much on one thing, 00:13:20.647 --> 00:13:23.831 and my question for you is whether we are focused 00:13:23.855 --> 00:13:26.158 in this conversation nationally about the border, 00:13:26.182 --> 00:13:28.791 every day and every minute of every day, 00:13:28.815 --> 00:13:32.357 whether we're looking completely in the wrong direction. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:34.021 --> 00:13:36.180 WH: I would agree with your premise. 00:13:36.537 --> 00:13:37.687 When you have -- 00:13:37.711 --> 00:13:39.585 let's start with the economic benefits. 00:13:39.609 --> 00:13:41.717 When you have 3.6 percent unemployment, 00:13:41.741 --> 00:13:42.908 what does that mean? 00:13:42.932 --> 00:13:45.067 That means you need folks in every industry, 00:13:45.091 --> 00:13:47.600 whether it's agriculture or artificial intelligence. 00:13:47.624 --> 00:13:50.593 So why aren't we streamlining legal immigration? 00:13:50.617 --> 00:13:53.196 We should be able to make this market based 00:13:53.220 --> 00:13:55.526 in order to have folks come in 00:13:55.550 --> 00:13:58.312 and be productive members of our society. 00:13:58.336 --> 00:14:01.291 When it comes to the drug issue you're talking about, 00:14:01.315 --> 00:14:02.966 yes, it's in our ports of entry, 00:14:02.990 --> 00:14:04.871 but it's also coming in to our shores. 00:14:04.895 --> 00:14:07.032 Coast Guard is only able to action 00:14:07.056 --> 00:14:10.696 25 percent of the known intelligence they have 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:13.085 on drugs coming into our country. 00:14:13.109 --> 00:14:16.572 The metric that we should be measuring [is] 00:14:16.596 --> 00:14:21.630 are we seeing a decrease of deaths from overdose from drugs overseas, 00:14:21.654 --> 00:14:25.283 are we seeing a decrease in illegal immigration? 00:14:25.307 --> 00:14:30.839 It's not how many miles of fencing that we have ultimately built. 00:14:30.863 --> 00:14:32.927 And so we have benefited 00:14:32.951 --> 00:14:34.966 from the brain drain of every other country 00:14:34.990 --> 00:14:36.497 for the last couple of decades. 00:14:36.521 --> 00:14:37.910 I want to see that continue, 00:14:37.934 --> 00:14:40.759 and I want to see that continue with the hardworking drain. 00:14:40.783 --> 00:14:41.957 And I can sell you this: 00:14:41.981 --> 00:14:46.672 at last Congress, Pete Aguilar, a Democrat from California, and I 00:14:46.696 --> 00:14:49.132 had a piece of legislation called the USA Act: 00:14:49.156 --> 00:14:52.506 strong border security, streamline legal immigration, 00:14:52.530 --> 00:14:57.260 fix DACA -- 1.2 million kids who have only known the United States of America 00:14:57.284 --> 00:14:58.458 as their home -- 00:14:58.482 --> 00:15:00.727 these kids, or I should say young men and women, 00:15:00.751 --> 00:15:02.052 they are already Americans, 00:15:02.076 --> 00:15:05.982 let's not have them go through any more uncertainty 00:15:06.006 --> 00:15:08.117 and make that ultimately happen. 00:15:08.141 --> 00:15:12.161 We had 245 people that were willing to sign this bill into law, 00:15:12.185 --> 00:15:16.010 it wasn't allowed to come forward under a Republican speaker, 00:15:16.034 --> 00:15:19.836 and also the current Democratic speaker hasn't brought this bill 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:22.534 through in something that we would be able to pass. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:22.558 --> 00:15:24.183 AM: So I want to close, 00:15:24.207 --> 00:15:29.067 and you are, perhaps, most famous -- I don't know if that's fair -- 00:15:29.091 --> 00:15:31.390 but you took a road trip with Beto O'Rourke 00:15:31.414 --> 00:15:34.068 from your district to Washington, DC, 00:15:34.092 --> 00:15:36.576 and you've become known for reaching across the aisle 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:39.822 and engaging in these bipartisan conversations. 00:15:39.846 --> 00:15:42.760 And one of the things I've seen you say repeatedly 00:15:42.784 --> 00:15:46.156 is to talk about how we are all united. 00:15:46.180 --> 00:15:49.181 And I think, when we think about the language of immigration 00:15:49.205 --> 00:15:53.455 and we start hearing words about enemies and militarization, 00:15:53.479 --> 00:15:58.275 I think the real question is: How do we convince all Americans 00:15:58.299 --> 00:16:03.209 to understand what you say that more unites us than divides us? NOTE Paragraph 00:16:04.274 --> 00:16:07.228 WH: Crisscrossing a district like mine that's truly 50-50 -- 00:16:07.252 --> 00:16:09.261 50 percent Democrat, 50 percent Republican, 00:16:09.285 --> 00:16:13.187 it's been very clear to me that way more unites us than divides us. 00:16:13.211 --> 00:16:15.529 And if we focus on those things that we agree on, 00:16:15.553 --> 00:16:16.894 we'll all be better off. 00:16:16.918 --> 00:16:19.823 And I'm not going to get a perfect attendance award 00:16:19.847 --> 00:16:21.038 for going to church, 00:16:21.062 --> 00:16:24.272 but I do remember when Jesus was in the Second Temple 00:16:24.296 --> 00:16:27.426 and the Pharisees asked him what's the most important commandment, 00:16:27.450 --> 00:16:30.815 and he said to "Love thy Lord God with all your heart, mind and soul." 00:16:30.839 --> 00:16:33.800 But people forget he also said, "Equally as important, 00:16:33.824 --> 00:16:35.926 is to love thy neighbor like thyself. 00:16:35.950 --> 00:16:40.119 And if we remember that and realize what it would mean, 00:16:40.143 --> 00:16:42.159 and what you would have to be going through 00:16:42.183 --> 00:16:44.508 to be living in a situation 00:16:44.532 --> 00:16:49.498 that you may send your child on a 3,000-mile perilous journey, 00:16:49.522 --> 00:16:53.014 because that's what you think the only thing for their future, 00:16:53.038 --> 00:16:56.188 the only thing that you can do to make sure their future is bright, 00:16:56.212 --> 00:16:58.299 if we all remember that situation, 00:16:58.323 --> 00:17:01.492 and think what we would do in that situation, 00:17:01.516 --> 00:17:03.262 I think we'd also be better off. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:03.905 --> 00:17:07.372 AM: Thank you, Congressman. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:07.396 --> 00:17:09.753 (Applause)