CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: immigration Crisis

Interview

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KEILAR: And joining me now another lawmaker whose state has been impacted by the surge in undocumented children coming to the United States, Republican Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona.

Senator Flake, thanks for being with us this morning. And you really know firsthand, we've seen these pictures obviously this hits home for you, children transferred to your state after Texas shelters became overwhelmed. Tell us more about this situation that Arizona is facing. SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: You know, Arizona has kind of been ground zero on this immigration issue for a long time. The Tucson sector finally after years and years of programs to try to change and stem the tide there we were able to do it and the Tucson sector hasn't been as busy on the border region as it has been in the past, but then all of a sudden, because we have some of the infrastructure there that's not being utilized and we have these unaccompanied minors shipped from Texas, and so we're right in the middle of it again. And Arizonians are saying, boy, when do we get a break here? So yes, it's really impacting the state.

KEILAR: The president is asking Congress for $3.7 billion to deal with this crisis.

FLAKE: Right.

KEILAR: When you look at the president's request, what do you think?

FLAKE: Well, my -- my problem with it is $1.8 billion of it, so the bulk of it, when you remove the fire suppression funds, that's about $600 million, the vast majority of it is goes to HHS, which has no role at the border at all. In fact, it's only charged with taking these children and warehousing them and then settling them throughout the country, and so anybody looking at this document from the president would say we're keeping the status quo.

We're going to continue to take these kids and warehouse them and then settle them around the country. That's exactly the wrong message to send to those in Central America, to those parents, to those families, to the cartels and others, because it tells them, keep doing what you're doing. We'll keep doing what we're doing, and that's just the wrong message.

KEILAR: So your concern and the concern of many Republicans is that these children will be absorbed, that they won't be deported. But I also wonder, is there some tension as well in the Republican Party? There are a lot of folks on the border or borders from border states and they know certainly in the short term something has to be done.

FLAKE: Right.

KEILAR: Even if you don't like President Obama's proposal, this is a crisis. Something needs to be done. And then you have many budget hawks, Republicans. You're in the unique situation of being in both camps.

How do you deal with that divide, maybe not $1.8 billion to HHS but the money --

FLAKE: Right.

KEILAR: This is going to cost money, right?

FLAKE: Right. Yes. And I don't anybody believes that this isn't an emergency and it doesn't require some additional spending. The question is, are we going to solve the problem with it? There's a great corollary here. A couple of years ago we had a big influx of Brazilians, so-called other than Mexicans coming across the Mexican border into the U.S. It was a big, big problem, and the way we solved it is actually had a program to repatriate those Brazilians back to Brazil, to hold them, detain them and do that.

And in 30 days the problem was cut in half. In 60 days, the problem was cut by 90 percent. We need a similar focus here and we just haven't got that from the president yet.

KEILAR: But many people, Senator, look at that and they say you're just setting up a revolving door and if you apply it here it's on a much grander scale and that that's not realistic. Would we really be where we are if Congress had gotten its act together and been -- been able to shepherd immigration reform through both chambers?

FLAKE: Well, I do think the situation would be better had Congress moved like us or had the House moved like the Senate did. I was one of the authors of the Senate bill. I believe in immigration reform, I agree with the president there. We need to do it. I hope the House acts, but having said that, we've got an immediate crisis that needs to be addressed, and we're not going to stem the tide of these unaccompanied minors coming until there are planeloads of children and their families being returned to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. That's the bottom line.

KEILAR: Yes. Very complicated situation. Complicated even more by politics in an election year.

Thanks for joining us, Senator Jeff Flake, appreciate it.

FLAKE: Thank you.

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