CNN "Wolf" - Transcript: Immigration
Interview
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BASH: Mr. Chairman, doesn't he have a point? I mean I walk those halls. Usually I watch what goes on or maybe doesn't go on. It's pretty hard to get anything done up there.
REP. BOB GOODLATTE (R), VIRGINIA: Well, first of all, his apple pie analogy doesn't apply to this situation. He knows that the House Judiciary Committee has worked with him on patent litigation reform, on NSA reform. He endorsed both the bills that we passed out of the committee to address those issues. And we are --
BASH: Yes, but on immigration, you well know, that you - I know you've passed some bills out of your committee, four of them, but on -
GOODLATTE: We have. We have.
BASH: But on the main issues that divide everybody, really, when it comes to immigration, you haven't moved and you're not going to move this year.
GOODLATTE: Well, the issue here is stopping a surge at the border that is brought on by the president acting administratively with his pen and his cell phone to give administrative legalization to people, to not enforce the laws and not investigate asylum fraud. We have a long list of things the president could do right now.
And let's look at what the governor said to him yesterday. He said, why not call up the National Guard? Well, the president had two answers. He said, first of all, the National Guard is only a temporary solution. But this problem of the surge of the children coming to the border and, by the way, it's more than children, lots of parents and families coming could be addressed. The personnel shortage could be addressed with the National Guard.
And then the second thing he said I think was most insulting. He said was, why don't you talk to the Texas delegation and maybe we could do the National Guard if the Congress would pass the bills I want. He doesn't need the Congress to do anything to take the actions that the law already affords him, including sending a very strong message that I didn't hear during his press conference yesterday, that if you come from Central America to our border, you are going to be sent home. He needs to keep reiterating that point.
BASH: Mr. Chairman, you know, it does sound like you're sending the White House a mixed message. On the one hand, you're saying the actions that you, Mr. President, took has created, on your own, has created this crisis. On the other hand you're saying, please take actions on your own to mitigate this crisis. And on that point I want to play another clip from the president last night talking about the conundrum that he thinks he is in with regard to executive action.
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BASH: Mr. Chairman, I know you've been working with the speaker since January on a lawsuit. I'm not exactly sure what you're going to see him on. But how do you respond to that?
GOODLATTE: Well, first of all, Article 2 of the Constitution that gives the president his power is very clear. The presidential shall faithfully execute the laws. And that means enforcing the laws that have been passed and signed into law and not creating new laws or changing laws that already exist. There are laws on the books today that the president is not enforcing that would solve this problem. So he's being very clever to try to mix these two issues. But the fact of the matter is that when it comes to calling up the National Guard, when it comes to investigating asylum fraud, when it comes to not giving administrative legalization, when it comes to messaging, that this is something that's not going to be rewarded by admission to the U.S., that people are going to be turned around. All of those things can be done by the president within the law right now, and they would stop this problem.
Now, if there is targeted funding that's necessary, the governor is correct, the Congress will find the appropriations to do the things that are necessary. But not $3.7 billion. Not pass the entire Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill, which actually is a part of the cause of this problem, that people believe that they're going to be admitted to the country because other people are being given legal status without enforcement, that's a huge problem.
BASH: Mr. Chairman, real quick, yes or no answer. Given - I understand what you said about the White House and the president doing what he's doing. Will Congress act on anything the president wants in the next month, particularly with regard to the crisis and the money he wants?
GOODLATTE: I think that we will do targeted appropriations, and we are willing to sit down and work out targeted tweaks. But now the speaker -- the former speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the leader in the Senate, Mr. Reid, and others have said that they don't support changing the 2008 law. So we're willing to work with him to do those targeted changes that may be necessary to help what he has to do to carry out the law, and we are willing to do targeted appropriations. But we have a list of practically 10 things that he can do right now before anything else happens, and they would be the number one thing to do to solve this problem.
BASH: Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
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