CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Immigration Policy

Interview

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BRENNAN: We turn now to Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan. He's a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He's just outside Columbus this morning.

Congressman, thank you for joining us.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R), OHIO: You bet. Good to be with you.

BRENNAN: Thank you. How should Americans view those fleeing across the border? Should they view them as victims or as criminals?

JORDAN: I think we should -- America's the most welcoming country on the planet. But you got to follow the law.

And Secretary Nielsen has been real clear. You show up to a port of entry, your family will be kept together, you will go through the process, and we will see if you're actually a legitimate asylum seeker.

What I do know is, when ICE was in our office just a week-and-a-half ago, they told me 80 percent of the folks seeking asylum wind up not getting it, they are not actually eligible for it.

So, we want to sort that all that, do it in a way that is consistent with the law

(CROSSTALK)

BRENNAN: Well, the administration also has narrowed the definition for claiming asylum as well. You can no longer claim you're a victim of gang violence.

JORDAN: This is 80 percent, 80.

This is straight from the folks at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So they're telling me the number; 80 percent aren't actually legitimate asylum seekers. We need to sort that out.

But, yes, we want to welcome folks who come here for legitimate reasons. We want to do it by the rule of law, who follow the law. We want to welcome them here.

But, mostly, what we want to do, Margaret, is the mandate from the 2016 election was real clear. The American people made Donald Trump president, made Republicans the majority in the House and the Senate to build the border security wall, stop chain migration, end the sanctuary city policy, reform our asylum laws, get rid of the visa lottery, and then also deal with the DACA population.

That legislation, which was consistent with that mandate and the promise we made to the American people, was on the floor just three days ago, and fell a few votes short of passing. Got 193 votes. That's the focus that we should be...

(CROSSTALK)

BRENNAN: Well, it failed.

JORDAN: That should be our focus. And that should be the legislation that should be passed in House.

BRENNAN: It failed. And the president now says this compromise bill is kind of a waste of time. What are you going to vote on that?

JORDAN: Well, the compromise bill was pulled because it was going to get a lot less votes.

If our leadership had whipped -- had put the same whip effort behind that immigration legislation, Chairman Goodlatte's legislation, it would have passed. It was that close to passing. So, let's focus on that.

BRENNAN: Do you know something we don't know? Has that vote on the compromise bill been canceled?

JORDAN: It hasn't been canceled. But the reason it was -- it wasn't -- it was supposed to happen Thursday night.

BRENNAN: Right.

JORDAN: Then it was supposed to happen Friday. And it still hasn't happened.

BRENNAN: Right.

JORDAN: And the reason it hasn't happened is because it would have got a lot less votes than the conservative bill, the one that is consistent with the mandate of the election, consistent with what we told the American people we would do if they put us in office. That bill got 193 votes and was just 19 votes short of passing on last Thursday.

BRENNAN: Right.

But when it comes to that question of a narrow issue that Senator Corker was talking about, simply allowing families to be detained together, and getting rid of this 20-day limit...

JORDAN: Yes.

BRENNAN: ... that has affected this separation policy, would you support something like that in the House...

JORDAN: We're all...

BRENNAN: ... like is being proposed in the Senate?

JORDAN: Yes, but Chuck Schumer is the problem.

My colleague Mark Meadows has a bill that would address the situation, keep families together, but do it in a way where we can actually find out and follow the rule of law.

Senator Cruz has a bill. But Chuck Schumer says, no, no, no, we're not going to bring it up, because the Democrats, really deep down, what they care about is catch and release. What they want is open borders and what they want is the political issue. They don't want to solve the problems.

They don't want to keep families together and adjudicate this and have it go through the hearing process and do it in a way that's consistent with the rule of law. They don't want to do that.

Chuck Schumer was clear. He held up the pen and said, we're not going to support Mr. Meadows' legislation or Senator Cruz's legislation. So, yes, I'm for fixing that.

BRENNAN: Do you think the administration has handled this...

JORDAN: My good friend Mark Meadows has introduced a bill.

BRENNAN: Do you think this -- the administration's handled this family separation issue well? Should there be an investigation into how this was carried out?

JORDAN: The president has issued his executive order. The problem is...

BRENNAN: It's a temporary fix, as you just said.

(CROSSTALK)

JORDAN: The problem is the 20-day rule, the Flores decision.

BRENNAN: Right.

JORDAN: And now that is in conflict with keeping families together for a longer period of time, because the rule says you have to -- you can only detain children for 20 days.

We want to do that in a way that keeps the families together, so we have legislation to address that. But, again, as I said, Senator Schumer doesn't want to support any legislation to fix the problem.

BRENNAN: Well, I want to -- there's so much more we could talk about on this topic, but I want to ask you about one of the committees you're on and a deposition this week, or some testimony this week from the FBI agent...

JORDAN: Peter Strzok.

(CROSSTALK)

BRENNAN: Exactly, Peter Strzok, who, for our viewers, was removed from the special counsel investigation for some disparaging text messages he had sent about the president.

What do you want to know from him?

JORDAN: Yes.

Well, we're going to have a lot of questions for him. But I think some of the things are, who did he talk to in the course of the Russian investigation? Because remember a couple of key things, Margaret.

On July 31, 2016, Peter Strzok opens the Russia investigation. He was the lead agent on that investigation, after being, of course, the lead agent on the Clinton investigation as well. He opens that investigation. Eight days later, there's a text message that says, we will stop Trump.

One week after that, on August 15, is the text message that says, we have an insurance policy. So, obviously, we will want to dig into that. We will want to know, who were you talking to at the time? How many times did you travel overseas? Did he talk to key people?

For example, do you think Peter Strzok may have talked to Glenn Simpson or Christopher Steele? Those are the kind of questions that I think need to be asked. And I will look forward to this deposition. It's scheduled for Wednesday of this week.

BRENNAN: We will be watching for that.

Congressman, thank you.

JORDAN: You bet. Thank you.

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