cuomo primetime starts now, chris. >> thank you, anderson. welcome to primetime live from hidalgo, texas. this is the rio grande valley. this is the place you need to see. you're going to witness the systemic failure and tragic potential for our immediate future. this is called the crisis but that word is overused and doesn't do the situation justice. we're going to show you what's happening here. it's not easy to see but the

only thing harder to realize is what's not happening. shameful inaction. there's a reason for that as well and you're going to find out. the time to see the reality and call for action is now. let's shine a light on what is obvious. what do you say? let's get after it. >> all right the numbers tell you the story. there's believed to be more crossings in the last month here than in any month in over a decade. as i said, here in the rio grande valley this is the hot spot. right behind us is mexico. it's this weird area where it's north of texas. the authorities say they have never faced the combinations of threats, challenges and federal inaction that they're facing right now. wall them off. cut funds to the countries involved. he's threatening to do the last one this week.

fencing matters. put that to the side. it's not immoral to build barriers where they are needed. what's immoral is doing nothing but thinking about whether or not to have senses. doing nothing is what is immoral and that's the situation here by our highest leaders. there are bad guys in the mix. all varieties but the brown menace that the president depicts is a gross exaggeration. well over half the crossers are kids and the people that love them. the real monster here is the system and everyone involved is begging for help. the question is where is it? homeland security is speeding up to help manage the flow but manpower is one aspect of a multilevel lapse. take a look for yourself. here is what happens every day all day here.

>> this border is so complicated. it isn't just about whether you feel strongly one way or another about the fence and the system that goes along with it. what your politics are. no matter what, the people that are caught in the middle are certainly the migrants that are coming because they're getting, you know, manipulated by the smugglers, by the cartels, all the way from, you know, point of origin to destination and then ice agents and border patrol. that's a tough one. >> how do you deal with knowing that the people in power could be doing stuff they're not doing? >> we keep reminding our work force that what we protect is

not just the border. we're protecting the nation. i tell people all the time. you have a humanitarian crisis that creates a border crisis for us. this is all being driven by a policy crisis and until we fix the policy crisis, we're going to continue to do that. >> i'm saying the men and women in the job of knowing the reality, do you think that they get what they're sleeping on here? >> yes. yeah there is certainly political jockeying that's going on and they're sleeping on it and ignoring it to some extent and it's sad that we have a work force that's stretched thin. having dod resources come in and other agencies support us is helpful but it's not the same as

replacing them with a border patrol agent or ice officer or customs office. they're not interchangeable. >> these guys set up so far as guys looking here for opportunity. they were coming through for work. >> economic migrants. most of these folks that we experienced here along the southwest border are economic migrants. >> if these are women or children whoever they were, you believe if you changed the rules you would change the flow? >> there has to be an adjustment to the policy. you have to be able to retain people longer than 20 days so their case can be heard by an immigration judge or asylum officer so they can make a determination as to whether they should receive relief. >> you guys get hit with the stick all the time. i'll tell you why you want to keep them more than 20 days. to send a message of harshness and let people know to be afraid that they're going to catch you and keep you hate where you are.

>> we're not in the detention business. we have the process and turn them over to the other agencies that are out there. >> it's a domino effect. you can only keep them 20 days. you don't have resources to keep this many people anyways. that feeds the chance that we should come and it just keeps going. this is played out in 201. it's playing out again here in 2019 and until we fix the system this is going to continue to be a problem. >> another problem that i don't hear that often is you're worried about them. being able to take care of them and being able to take care of the kids. being able to give them the things that they need because that means you can't give the care you want to give.

>> i don't have enough medics or enough to make sure that these folks are getting processed in the 48 hours. our agents are getting assaulted. potentially could be a liability. even one of the individuals in custody could be assaulted and detention facilities that are overcrowded. these folks just crossed the river. the river is about half a mile. maybe a quarter of a mile south of us. >> obviously they know we're here. >> they turn themselves in. they're looking for border patrol agent to turn themselves in right now so you have this group and another group behind

them. >> i know you have to shut off part of yourself when you do the job. you have a job to do and you have to be professional. i know this breaks your heart. seeing people that have nothing and have come here with nothing. most of them are desperate and all carrying these babies. how do you handle this? >> i'm a father. i'm a grandfather. somebody needs to do something about this. this goes on each and every day. our officers are dealing with this each and every day and until folks address the situation at the border, it's a border security crisis. it's being driven by a policy crisis. it certainly pulls at our heart strings. they're very vigilant and dedicated to the mission. this is tough. >> you care about these people. >> most definitely. most definitely. >> you're not a cop looking at

perpetrators. >> these folks have done nothing other than cross the border illegally. understanding all of that but they shouldn't have to do it this way. they should be able to apply for some sort of immigration relief in their home country without having to travel you know, 3 or 4,000 miles. i keep hearing that you make a point to go up to kids and say you'll be all right. why is that so important? >> for once, in their journey. this is the first time that they're not going to be exploited. they're not going to be manipulated by a smuggler. they're not going to be forced to pay a bribe. officers are going to make sure that they have clean clothes and they're looked at by a doctor. so we're doing everything that we can in our power to ensure that they're safe. that's all.

we want to let them know that they're safe now. >> look, this is just one aspect of the problem. but i hope you take away a coup of things. one, don't demonize cbp. can police officers make mistakes? those are possible. i have never seen them under dur address li durdurress like this. that man has been doing this job for 30 years and i watched him with those people and them looking at them. the situation is deplorable. how these people are being kept it's horrible. you'll hear more about it later from rosa flores but it's not about having bad cops on the border. it's not about these people being some brown menace. they are mostly women and kids. we are not a sense away from this being fixed.

this is a system that the men and women in congress and in this administration, they know the problems and they're ignoring them. why? they're going to have to answer for that starting tonight. now what is being perceived as a solution from the president is strength and his big threat of the moment is i'll shut the border down. that will show them. if he does that, it will have all kinds of consequences, especially nick ones in a economy where we're going to take you next. ed has that story and later you'll hear directly from some of the families that have crossed over. we met with them in a shelter. they wanted to talk about what they're told to expect when they come here. it's very important in understanding why they risk it with their kids and why they are so disappointed by what they learn. dangerous lies, coming up.

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any time soon and the president's threat to close the border could make it even worse. >> well the news of the threat is already having ramifications up and down the border where wait times are starting to slow down as they are being moved and relocated to help out border patrol agents in those areas between the ports of entry. he is a former border patrol sector chief down in the rio grande valley and in el paso. he spent nearly 30 years as a border patrol agent and he says sounding the alarm that custom and border protections have been doing for the last two weeks is overblown. he says back in his day that they had far fewer border patrol

agents, far less money in the budget. far less resources and were able to process many more undocumented immigrants coming to the u.s. southern border. so he questions why all of this talk of system wide failure and why border patrol agents and immigration officials say they're so overwhelmed by what is happening at the border. he says they should be able to handle it. >> we were able to manage it at the increased influx in the mid 80s. it can be good now for the president of the united states to be threatening and talking about shutting down the border is nuts. that effects people on both sides. and it would be catastrophic

economically. >> there's no question that they have seen big flow today. what we understand is that they have never seen this many categories of need. there's a material difference which is that back then it was mostly mexico. so you had very easy repatriation. now you have so many countries that are a flight away it's not so easy. it slows everything down because of the requirements that are in place to keep people safe. so there's that practicality but we'll let that be argued out. the idea of the impact of a border shutdown, what do you think the economic impact is? the societal impact. >> it's hard to overstate how often and how much these ports of entries and bridges between communities on the u.s. side and mexico side are dependent upon. they're a lifeline for many border communities. thousands of people go back and

forth to go to schools, to go to doctors and their jobs and to see family and friends. the economic impact is staggering. $77 million in trade. responsible for 128,000 jobs in the area as well. contributed $18 billion to the gross domestic product. that is a huge -- one of the biggest inland ports in the united states. more than 4 million trucks go through the ports of entry. there are students here that live on the other side. many people here reporting time

and trying to get back and forth because of the threat here this week. >> the president wants to show strength, he should take it to congress and start making them work on this. they should be debating what to do here and taking action and justifying why they're not. thank you for the perspective and what could still come to pass. thank you. i'm telling you we haven't seen people on the border, cbp, dhs, asking for help like they are now. they have been doing it for months. the question is not just what is congress going to do but why are they doing nothing? we're going to get after that question. it's time to speak truth to power, next. advice for what you need today and tomorrow. because when you're with fidelity, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward.

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to our leadership. the administration knows. congress knows. why isn't anything being done? we have a special guest tonight. he is a former undocumented immigrant himself. he is an american success story. forget about your left, right or reasonable partisan strife. he's what this country is about at its best and the promise of opportunity. it's always a pleasure to see you. i'm not misstating the facts here. you guys know what is going on and what they have been asking for for months. >> that's correct. we were there the day before in el salvador to speak to the leadership there. and this is a crisis that for far too long cried out for help.

but the children and women crossing the border that need an answer and congress has been silent and complacent about this. >> the reason i asked you to come on is you're not the problem here. but your party and the other side have done nothing. i looked at the schedule for hearing this week. all kinds of hearings. not one on the situation here. why? why is nothing even being discussed, let alone done? >> we should have full hearings about this. we have to find out troot cause of this migration crisis. we were down, as i said earlier in el salvador.

everybody is upset about the potential that the funding will be cut. they made some progress. less than 12% are from mexico. so we have to see the route of these problems and we have to bring resources for these border patrol agents and all the folks there. >> yeah but it's not happening. you have new members of the left that are up against the wall. they fight and they shout but now the real need, judges, more resources, thinking about these rules that allow people to jump the line when they claim asylum even if they enter illegally without demonstrating cause and there's nothing. there's silence. even separating the kids.

i know you guys came. i'm not blaming you for this. but where is everybody? there's opportunity for your party in this. they know there's inaction on the right. they know that party won't move without the president. where is everybody? >> you're right, chris. we went down there when she lost her life there. she was ill. the border patrol were not equipped to handle that health crisis. when we went yesterday to e el paso we saw that there's now some evidence that there's medical services being provided there. it shouldn't take someone crossing the border months and months and months to establish critical fear for going back to his or her country. i think that the resources need to be put right there in place to ensure that that happens rapidly in a relatively fast period of time. that's not happening right now and that's why the crisis, if the boarder is closed, if the funding is cut it's going to go

on. this is a crisis that we have not yet seen the magnitude of it if this happens. if the boarder is shutdown and if the resources don't get to the border as quickly as possible, it will go on steroids. >> listen, my question to you is, how do you shake up your own party? how do you get some people to start arguing about what should happen? debating the rules that little girl losing her life is horrible. i don't know how we don't see more of it. god forbid i hope i'm wrong. but i don't know how you don't see more. they're stretched so thin. there's so many people coming in. nothing is happening. not even a single hearing this week. i don't get it. what can you do? >> we should have hearings immediately about the conditions on the border. full blown hearings with all the ramifications. listening to advocates for

immigrants and people on the ground that have to face this on a daily basis. we have to consider funding to make sure that people don't have to wait months and months and months. that people that get sick are attended by physicians. this is the kind of efforts that we have to bring forward. we have to do it rapidly and we have to do it now. >> i want you take on something. please feel free. tell me if you think i'm off. i think the democrats are quite because you think -- not you so much. i don't see you as a bad guy. you have been fighting for this your whole life. but your party, i think they think trump owns this and they want to be quite and watch it fester and they want to say this is on him. didn't get it done. look at all these kids. he owns this because that's why they're so quite. otherwise it doesn't make sense. you have young women and men

that just got elected, mostly women, into the congress. they want to fight about everything. but not this. on this they're quite. do you want to call the wall immorale fine. nancy pelosi did that. doing nothing about this is immoral. i don't understand why the party is quite. i don't get why they're quite. help me understand. if it's not the cynical explanation that i have? >> there's trepidation on both sides. they want to fan the flames of fear and on the other hand, our side of the political spectrum may think that perhaps this is something that doesn't poll well. >> well it's a crisis. we're a government. we should address it. we need comprehensive immigration reform. nobody is talking about that. >> because you can't get it done. >> we have to get it done. >> you have the men and women keeping us safe screaming out to

you guys help us, help us, help us. the cbp guy, they go up there and they say help us, help us, help us and nothing happens. now you're going to do comprehensive reform? i don't see how if you can't address something so obvious how you're going to attack something so complex and subtle. >> we need to do the little things first. we met with the fbi and law enforcement in el salvador. they don't want the funding cut. we have to make sure that the border patrol gets the resources they need to treat these folks humanely. some of them were housed there for several days. we want to see that location. we need to do these fundamental things but ultimately we need to get to the route causes in honduras and guatemala. ultimately we need immigration reform. >> there's no worse message than

if people start getting hurt and abused. he's been living this problem and advocating for it. i have no problem going after people about this but i brought you on not to blame you but to beg you to talk to your party about seeing this situation for what it is. i'll say the same thing to the other side. thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> i appreciate your ear. >> thank you for shedding light on this at the border. you have to go down there to see what's going on and i think that your reporting will shed some light that many people are not aware of what's going on down there. >> that's the job. thank you. we'll follow up with you. you have to fix this. it can be done. that's the shame in it. this isn't a hard one. this isn't something where there isn't a solution.

that is the big problem. why is nothing being done? here is the other part. why is this happening now? what's going on? what is the catalyst? we have the best answers to those questions from the experts. the migrants themselves. we met a young dad with a 9-year-old son. why is he here? why is he here with his son? what is he told about what would happen when he got here? it's really instruck tif. we're going to take that on next. nothing says spring like fresh flowers, so let's promote our spring travel deal on choicehotels.com like this: (sneezes) earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring. allergies. or.. badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com.

she is overwhelmed. too many people. too many kids. now with the government turning friends and families free, they

have to. they're overcapacity and they have nowhere to put them. 2,000 were released in this area alrea already. so now the shelter is bursting. i want you to hear what she thinks about this and what is going on and i want you to hear from the people inside that shelter. here it is. >> why do you think more are coming now? first of all, do you believe that more are coming? do you believe the big caravans being organized and all the kids we're seeing now, do you believe it? there's more kids in bigger groups than you have seen? >> there's a lot of people arriving every single day today. it's never happened before. >> did they tell you why now.

they only say they're here because of their country. >> he wants to work but if he gets asylum he's willing to ask for asylum. >> why did he take his kid if it's just to work? [ speaking foreign language ] >> it's what we were talking about. if he comes here with his son he thinks he's allowed to stay. >> he thinks he's allowed to stay. [ speaking foreign language ] >> so this is word of mouth?

>> the smugglers are telling them you bring your kid you can get in. >> the kids is the hardest part. they don't understand the situation that they're in. they don't understand. they're just kids. >> they're just kids and they're suffering. they have gone through so much. we must bring that smile back to their smile and to their hearts. >> sofia. hola sofia. >> 2 years? >> wow. 6 and 2. boy oh boy. mine were that size like yesterday. now have you been having trouble in here? rival gang factions that want to fight? >> not at all. >> people hurting? >> we have been here for five

years and of the 150,000 plus, 200,000 people that have come to our doors, not once have we called the cops to say we can't handle it or there's something going on. never. >> nuns are so tough. as a catholic boy myself. i always feared the nuns. are you worried that the government is overwhelmed and they don't have what they need to deal with the flow. thank god for you but there's not enough. if he closes the border and the president says we have to stop it right now, there's too much, we can't handle this, are you worried about what that would mean? >> of course. we are a community right here next to mexico. we live together. if you close the border so many things stop and it effects everybody. it doesn't make sense.

people are saying what do you mean we're not going to be able to go back and forth. it's our society and how we live here. >> they want their mother. >> how long have they been here? >> yesterday. [ speaking foreign language ] >> he'll be here until tomorrow. >> >> one of the things here is you enter illegally but you are not an illegal thing. that's one of the things that we're struggling with. >> that's important to know that. >> many people do not agree with what i just said. >> but it's true. a human person cannot be illegal. you enter because you obviously want to be able to have opportunity to find protection so you're asking to enter

through the points of entry and they don't seem to allow you to enter the point of entry so you want to ask for an opportunity to be saved and so that's what most of these families are here for. >> what is your hope for all of these people? >> that they are safe and that people treat them with respect in the process of determining why they're here and whether they should be here or not. >> you know what the argument is. you heard it all of your years doing this is that you want to come, come the legal way. come the right way. you did this. you put yourself in this situation. you put yourself in this situation. what do you say? >> well, if we want them to come the legal way -- >> they just won texas tech. >> we must build capacity at the points of entry so people can actually come in. if you go to the border you'll see many families waiting to try to cross over and ask for asylum the legal way and they wait for weeks if not months already. so we're not really providing

them that option. >> you know it's interesting -- she's not saying that everybody has to come in. there's law and there has to be a right way or a wrong way. the system is broken right now. you saw that man. i can't tell you how many people say i want to work but if i can't i want asylum. that allows you to jump the line. you can enter illegally. you ask for asylum and you wein up ahead of the people waiting that have gone the legal process. it doesn't make sense. congress knows this. they're doing nothing. you saw somebody that was instrumental. you saw rosa flores there. she grew up near here. her family understands the connection to mexico and we got to see something together that you won't get to see. a place nicknamed the icebox. and rosa is going to tell you what it's like in there for the people that are detained and the people that have to watch them. you have never seen anything like it. stay with us. got it? got it. nooooo... nooooo...

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so we're here. you have me, chris cuomo and rosa flores. we met this young father here with his son. now he brought his son because he had been told by somebody as rosa and i learn that if you come with your kids you'll get in. they're gaming the system and very often it winds up being faster but he told us about being in a place that was so cold and how he was treated and how tough it is there. so we asked the authorities to let us -- if we could go and see it. but it is a place that it's probably better that people don't see it. it would be tough to accept it as a reality. >> it would be.

we've seen photos of this because of the surge of migrants in 2013. >> they look like kennels you can see women and children with bloodshot eyes. a lot of them we noticed were closer to the heater because it's one heater because it's very cold in there. there's men holding young infants wrapped in blankets and you could see the pain in not only the migrants but also the border patrolmen and one of the things that you and i have been talking about because in this case it's not just the migrants that are suffering but it's the border patrol agents. >> they have been villainized. they want to keep them like this and then you listen to the rhetoric of the president and it

starts to fit together. treat them harshly. disrespect them. they won't come back but they don't want to keep people like this. >> they don't. >> many people have a similar experience. you're born in mexico and your family knows both realities. they're begging for help. i'm talking about the authorities. >> the people are begging for help of course. what's so frustrating and you know this because you have been covering this for so long we see the politicians get the photo ones. we get the stats from the federal government and these

officers have been asking the federal government to do something. what did the chief tell us today? he said we need first of all resources so that we can deal with the issue now and then a change in policy to make sure that this doesn't happen again. >> who gets i'll tell you what i've never seen anything like it. i've seen much worse than this, thank god. where this is headed, i've never seen the people in charge, an extension of our government looking back towards their leadership and saying you've got to help us out. where are they? this is your opportunity. where are the people on the right who say they care about this? up i don't know how much more strength can get you, it's time for tenderness and thinking about better solutions. what we saw today of those people being held, my fear is people will not stay like that for long. they're letting them go, which is a whole other problem but we're going to see bad situations. kids are going to be sick. people are going to be angry and

they're going to turn on the people keeping them there. then what will we do? >> it's not just a failure on the immigrants, thest a failure on the u.s. citizens, the hard working men and women of dhs who are working day in, day out. >> six days a week. >> some of them getting teary eyed helping these migrants. it's a failure on u.s. citizens, not just a failure on migrants. >> thank you for helping me today, rosa. i literally would not have understood what was going on if i weren't there with you. it matters and hopefully people get the message tonight. thank you, my friend. >> thank you so much. i don't need to do a closing argument tonight. there is no argument here. there should be no sides. it demands both sides, right, as dora the explorer taught us. you've got to work together in a situation like this and it's not happening. i'm going to lay out what should now be painfully obvious to all of you. then comes the really disturbing part. everything that we showed you tonight, the administration in

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i thought it was an april fools joke when i first looked at the schedule for hearings in congress today. there is nothing listed for the entire week that deals with what's happening here, what you've seen for yourself. all week. why is there no urgency? 2014, obama administration, they had the unaccompanied minors, we remember those pictures, right, people panicked seeing them in pens, overcrowded, politicians flocked. no lessons were learned.

then came kids in cages. family separation, the pictures shook us. the stories haunted us, rightly so if you have warm blood pumping through your veins. people in power said no more. what about now? this is worse. more people, more challenges, more danger, more distress, and yet all the shows aren't here. this isn't flooded with media. this isn't flooded with politicians pumping their fists, demanding to do something. where are they? they care, right? the compassionate conservatives, the new left who rail against demonizing what this president describes as the brown menace, in my opinion. what are you? why are you so quiet? where are you now? a nun, a border chief, a mother, and a child, all have the same message for you. do something. if it's about more fencing, loud voices, debate, forced action, and emergency declaration. the president is on scene. the same men and women who were

with him then are literally begging for action, begging for attention now. and they're not asking for like bigger guns. they're asking for help to treat these poor people with care and compassion. so they can have a decent place to keep them, to give them medical care and the people to process them. do not think for a second that the people protecting us on the border like to abuse migrants. i have never seen anyone get an ounce of joy out of doing the job they're forced to do right now. their main job of weeding out the bad guys and the drugs, they are here, they're not what the president told you, that's not the main threat. drugs and terror walking across the border. it's kids and families. these men and women have to do both, they have to protect against both and they're equipped for neither adequately. okay. so they can't do their job. they're begging you for help. the politicians are doing nothing. it makes no sense.

for the democrats there's opportunity here. if you want to oppose trump and show you have a better way to deal with this then do it and do it now. you don't even have a hearing scheduled. you want to call building walls immoral. what about doing nothing in a situation like this? what do you call that? and for people on the right, i get it, i get it. once you start talking about fencing, once you stop talking about that you don't want to talk about anything with this. you think you're going to get in the president's way, i know you fear what he can do to you in a primary. think about that. now, the men and women that we met down here, i say, man, this is so hard, it's tearing you up so much, what keeps you doing the job. they say i love my brothers and sisters, i care about these people and i took an oath. didn't all of you in congress take an oath? didn't the president, those in the white house, aren't you supposed to serve our interests, didn't you take an oath to something bigger than yourself, how do you explain what is to

painfully obvious, not a single hearing on the calendar this week. you could pass temporary rules, avert another layer to this crisis, coming illegally, then claiming asylum allows you to jump the line for people who wait the right way and you think they're going to keep doing that. what's wrong with keeping families together longer than 20 days if you have the right places to keep them? debate it, make an argument. our army corps of engineers can build up ten cities, i've seen them do it all over the world in squalor. they do it in days, they're not here, not doing it. why not? debate it. why isn't the emergency declaration the president insisted on, legal or not, why isn't it being used to marshal assets for the wall, it is. why isn't it being used to marshall assets for this? i don't see how tragedy isn't averted here. i hope i'm wrong. i take no pleasure in that kind

of outcome. this isn't a natural disaster, it's manmade. closing the border, other flourishes of strength bely a fundamental weakness. if you don't want this many people coming in, do something. if you want people to be treated better, for kids not to be traumatized and worse, do something. if you respect our law enforcement, and the rule of law, do something. there is so much need, so many gaps, you almost can't go wrong politically. there's nothing but opportunity for a politician looking to show they can identify the right thing and act on it. the only mistake is the decision to do nothing and that is a mistake that too many in power are making tonight. thanks for being with us. down here in texas. unfortunately, i think you're going to see a lot more people covering this situation because it's not getting any better. cnn tonight with don lemon starts right now. you're right on the