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with the kpix 5 news app. captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: i'm margaret brennan in washington. and this week on "face the nation," the covid pandemic amplifies inequality in america. it is powerful, pur vav pervasi, so what can be done. by some measure, the gap between the haves and the have nots is greater than it has ever been, and it shapes every aspect of the american life. >> biden: the pandemic only made the division so much worse and more obvious. >> brennan: president biden put equity at the center of this pitch for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. but can he get another massive spending bill through congress? we'll talk with cecilia

rouse, the head of the white house council of economic advisors. we'll look at global access to the vaccine with dr. seth berkeley, the head of. and jonathan nez joins us to discuss the impact covid is having on native-american communities. sister norma pimentel runs the catholic charities of the rio grande valley. we ex her about the crush the situation of migrants at the u.s. border. plus, have americans becme too complacent with covid? we'll check in with dr. scott gottlieb. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." ♪ >> brennan: good morning. and welcome to "face the

nation." on this easter sunday, we'll take a special look at some of the many inequities exacerbated by covid-19. we begin with the virus itself. last week c.d.c. director dr. rochelle walensky spoke about her fear of impending doom, and pleaded with americans to hold on a little longer. the c.d.c. also gave vaccinated americans a green light for air travel, but the t.s.a. reported the highest number of airline passengers since the pandemic began. 18% of americans have been fully vaccinated. case numbers are still rising in 27 states and washington, d.c. in some of those places, the largest number of new cases is among children for the first time. we want to begin with former f.d.a. commissioner dr. scott gottlieb, who sits on the board of pfizer, and joins us from

connecticut. good morning to you. >> doctor: good morning. >> brennan: doctor, we're vaccinating four million people a day, but when you look at the infection levels, do you see a fourth wave? >> doctor: i don't think it is going to be a true fourth wave. i think we probably delayed the point at which we can get this behind us for the summer. i think with the rate of vaccination that we're having right now, we're vaccinating, as you said, four million people a day, and it will probably reach five million people a day. the level of immunity we have in the population, we vaccinated 150 million americans, but you have somewhere around 200 million americans who have some level of immunity among them already. what we're seeing a pockets of infection around the country, particularly in younger people who haven't been vaccinated. if you look at what is happening in michigan and minnesota and massachusetts, you're seeing outbreaks in schools and infections in social cohorts who haven't been exposed to the virus,

and now they're out and about getting exposed to the virus and they're getting infected. so the infection is changing its contours in terms of who is being stricken by it right now. >> brennan: you have been a proponent of in-person learning, but given what you're seeing, do you think schools need to shut back down? >> doctor: i don't. schools aren't inherently safe, but they can be made more safe. the schools that use masks, the schools that can use some type of distancing, go the full "harry potter" and try to keep them from intermingling in large groups. if you're taking those measures in schools, i think the schools can be made more safe. i think the benefits being in school outweigh the risk. but we have to be cognizant that schools are a risk factor, and children are vulnerable to the infection, and schools can become focal points for community infection if we're not careful. i think we're seeing some of that in massachusetts,

where the greatest proportions of infections are among school-aged children. and you're seeing in the same thing in mission. michigan. >> brennan: dr. fauci said by the end of this year we should have enough information to safely vaccinate kids of virtually any age. what do you think of this timeline? is it moving faster than anticipated? >> doctor: i think it is moving quickly. i don't know that it is faster than we anticipatedment we're going to have da data that will inform the c.d.c.'s guidance on issuing the vaccine. pfizer, the company i'm on the board of, recently unveiled a clinical trial of 2200 kids of ages 12 to 15 that looks encouraging. i think that could come in time to have the vaccine

available for 12 to 15 before the school year. do we vaccinate high-school-aged kids? right now the pfizer vaccine is approved down to 15. do we start to vaccinate into the middle school? the c.d.c. is ultimately going to have to make a recommendation on where they think the vaccine can be used in children. thehigh school being the most obvious and perhaps middle school. i think we're going to be in a position to vaccinate 12 and above before the fall. i think younger than that could take more time because you're going to wat to test more doses to provide the lowest possible dose that is providing a robust immune response in kids. >> brennan: there are a lot of people traveling with their kids right now for spring break, people who didn't celebrate christmas are celebrating right now, even though dr. faucm

said it is high risk to walk into an airport. do you think health officials are losing their influence at this point? >> doctor: i think you need to be careful as a public health official to issue guidance that you know the public is going to largely follow. you don't want to be so out of step with the aspirations and where the public is and what they will ultimately engage in that the guidance just gets ignored. i do think it is important that people like dr. fauci and the c.d.c. director urge caution. i think we should continue to be cautious. we're still in a high prevalence environment, and we still have these variants circulating. we don't know if people are getting reinfected by some of the new variants. we hould have that information, but we don't. we don't want to be in a position where we extend the epidemic because we weren't prudent about the steps that we were taking right now. that said, people are sensing will is less risk overall. as people get vaccinated, they feel themselves

they're at less risk, and they are based on the vaccination, so they're willing to start engaging in things they put off for a full year. so we need to issue the guidance the way people can conform to it. they want to see family again and socializing and they want to start traveling a little bit. >> brennan: last night johnson & johnson said it would assume full responsibility of vaccine manufacturing at this plant in baltimore that apparently ruined about 15 million doses of the covid vaccine. our sarah cook is reporting that it is at the orders of the biden administration. how significant is this problem? >> doctor: i don't think it should hurt confidence in people's perception of the safety of the vaccine. this was ultimately detected as part of the quality check that they do in that facility. i don't think they should have been manufacturing two different vaccines in the same facilities. viruses are sticky. we saw this with the

c.d.c. in terms of their failed rollout of their diagnostic test because they were manipulating too many viruses in one facility, and there some cross-contamination. it appears to be the case that some component of the astrazeneca vaccine got into the johnson & johnson vaccine. that is the public reportedly from the official administration. they shouldn't ha have been doing that in the same facility. we had to use that one facility to do these both things. >> brennan: dr. gottlieb, thank you. "face the nation" will be back witith dr. ceciliaia rouse, c chair of the council oof economic advisorsrs. ststay with usus.

>> brennan: friday, there was good news in the jobs report. as more than 900,000 jobs were added back in march. overall, we're still at 8.4 million fewer jobs than a year ago. dr. cecilia rouse is chair of the white house council of economic advisors and

says that improvement is due to the acceleration in vaccinations and schools reopening, which allowed some women to re-enter the workforce. we spoke with her saturday. >> what we saw in the last month was that there was an improvement in labor force participation that was entirely due to women. at the same time, when we look at the job gains, it was widely shared, so there were gains across the economy. >> brennan: so inside this job bill that the biden administration is pushing, there is about $25 billion for upgrading child care centers and to incentivize child centers being built by private employers. how is this supposed to work? >> what the jobs plan recognizes is that care is an important part of our infrastructure if workers are going to be able to go back to work. so the idea is to provide incienincentives for child care centers to be built where

there are none, and for employers to develop their child care centers so it is easier for their workers, so they can drop off their children and they can work outside of the home to do the work they find fulfilling. >> brennan: only about 5% of the funding goes to infrastructure. viewers can take a look at the breakdown here of all of the programs that are called for funding on. but of the 620 billion for infrastructure upgrades, it includes incentivizing purchases of electric cars. can you honestly call this a focus on building roads and bridges? >> i think it is important that we upgrade our definition of infrastructure, one that meets the needs of a 21stcentury economy. we need to be funding and incentivizing those structures that allowed us to maximize our economic activity. so incentivizing electric vehicles is really important because we need to be addressing climate change.

if we think about the opportunity costs of not doing so, we're going to just keep paying for it. we know we need to be encouraging or industry to be tilting towards greener production and greener technology. >> brennan: president biden is throwing around this projection that the entire bill will create about 19 million jobs. what does that number come from? which industries are going to be doing that hiring? >> that is an estimate from moody's analytics. we know those jobs will be coming from the traditional infrastructure. we can call it traditional, the roads, the pipe-fitters, the electricians, those who will be paving the roads and building the bridges, but some will be coming from the research and development, the scientists and engineers, who will ensure that our economy is being smart and is developing solutions to the problems we need to solve if we're going to

really address climate change and be prepared to continue to flourish as we go forward. but now that men and women are in the labor force, we need for our loved ones to be taken care of. otherwise women cannot go to work, as this pandemic has highlighted. >> brennan: the moody's analysis says that the economy recovers the job loss from the pandemic in early 2023, but it is not much different without the plan. the president has said raising taxes on corporations won't hurt the economy. but a slew of employers disagree. i'm sure you have seen these statements. the chamber of commerce called this dangerously misguided and saying that the tax increase will make us less competitive, and that it will fundamentally undermine our ability to lead our economy. these are the employers you need to create these jobs. >> the president believes that everybody should be paying their fair share in

taxes. in the moody's analysis you cited, looking over the 10-year plan, the analysis incorporates the president's proposal and the tax components as well. on that, we see there is an improvement in our economic growth. we see there is an improvement in labor force participation. we see there is an increase in the number of jobs and decrease in the unemployment rate. so net/senat/net we think that the president's proposals are good for the economy, even including the corporate tax increases. >> brennan: the corporate tax rate would go up to 28%, probably even higher than that. and taxes on corporate income earned overseas would also increase. this is 15yea years of higher taxes to pay for eight years of spending. >> typically when one makes an investment, one pays for an investment up front and the returns

gather over time. i would say that the reason why the president is proposing these corporate tax increases is because it is just the right thing to do. he believes we should be encouraging these corporations to pay their fair share. they all use the roads and bridges and the public goods that are going to be created by these investments, and they should be paying their fair share of the taxes in order for us to be able to do so. >> brennan: this past week we had a number of corporations weigh in on this controversial move in a number of states to change voting rights laws. the president said that he would like to see the all-star game move out of georgia, and the very next day, major league baseball did just that. is the white house urging corporations to use their economic power to take political positions? >> well, look, the president has said very strongly that he is opposed to these state laws restricting voting rights. he has called them the jim

crow of the 21st century, period. in terms of these companies, they are exercising their right to vote with their feet. it's a little early to judge what the economic impact will be, but they have a right to vote with their feet and to express their dissatisfaction with the laws. >> brenn >> brennan: but for a popcorn stand worker in atlanta who learned he is not going to be hired in july, it comes at a cost, does it not? >> there is going to be a cost. that is the point that major league baseball was trying to make. they will move their game and workers at another place will benefit. that is exactly the message that major league baseball was trying to send. the president opposes these laws. he believes that they are restrictive. they are discriminatory.

these companies have the opportunity to vote with their feet, and they're using their economic power to express their satisfaction. >> brennan: understood. doctor rouse, thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> brennan: our full conversation with dr. rouse is own o our websitite at facethenenation.com.m. we'l'll be rightht back. soso they can n hire vilmama. and wendndy... anand me. so, , more peoplple can n go to workrk. so, more d days can starart with kisisses. when youou buy this s plant at walalmart. ♪♪ when youou buy this s plant at walalmart. ♪ mom and dadad left costa ririca, 1971.. anand in 1990,0, they openened . when thehe pandemic hit, pickup and delivery was still viable.

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divide, those in the bronx who have no access to the internet, have much less access to information about vaccination sites and have no real ability to participate in online registration systems. >> brennan: so how do you quickly fix that problem? because it sounds like you're saying that the fact that yankee stadium is open doesn't mean anything because your constituents can't log on to make appointments in the first place. >> we're making progress, but we have to rely on community-based institutions that can serve as incredible messengers in places like the south bronx. i'm optimistic we are making progress. >> brennan: this highly contagious new york variant has hit your area of the city. do you have any indications about how widespread it might be? >> from my understanding, it is more than 70% of the coronavirus cases in new york city, and the new york city variant is more than 40%, and the british

variant is more than 25%, and so i'm concerned we're beginning to see an increase in the number of cases because of these variants, which are much more transmissible. so that's why we impress upon the importance of wearing a mask and we have to continue testing. we have to continue practicing social distancing. there is widespread covid fatigue, and i worry too many people have become complacent as we have come closer to normalcy. >> brennan: you're district is majority latino. this week treasury secretary janet yellen said if someone tried to design an economic crisis that would unduly target the hispanic community, they would probably come up with something that looks like covid-19. 50% of revenues for latino-owned businesses were impacted by the shutdown. one in five latino households say they don't

have enough food to eat. the list of challenges is huge here. where do you begin with your constituents? what is issue number one? >> you're right, covid-19 has held up a mirror to the deepest inequalities. the unemployment rate could be as high at 25%. to me, nothing is more corrosive to civil society and our economy than long-term unemployment, and that's why the american jobs plan is so critical because it would create 15 million jobs over a 10-year period. and the vast majority of the jobs would be available to those without a college education. so we're targeting the communities that historically have been left behind by economic disparity. >> brennan: but you have also said the biden plan is not nearly big enough. are you saying you do support it, even though you have also criticized it? >> well, it is an historic investment in our country. we've been plagued by

decades of disinvestment that has made the united states less productive, less competitive, less innovative, and less resilient in the face of catastrophic climate change. the president's plan represents the largest investment in our infrastructure in more than a century. no plan is perfect. i have constructive criticisms, but there is no question it would fundamentally change the trajectory of our country not only here but abroad. >> brennan: what is your criticism? >> specifically only the affordable housing piece. i'm a product of public housing, so i'm on a mission to ensure that public housing gets its first share of the american jobs plan. in new york city, public housing has been so savagely starved of federal funding, it has $40 billion of need. your children have been poisoned by led. you have senior citizens freezing in their homes because of federal disinvestment. the plan only proposes $40

billion. public housing in new york city alone has a $40 billion capital need. so we need at least $70 billion to fully address the humanitarian crisis in public housing. >> brennan: new york democrats, and speaker pelosi herself, have said they want to see some changes to this bill, including tax relief for state and local governments, the so-called salt tax. chuck schumer has called this a dagger at the heart of new york. are they out of step with your constituents? or is the white house out of step with your constituents? where do you fall on this? >> i certainly support salt deductibility, but my priority is the child tax credit. i represent what is the fourth congressional district in america, and there is no policy that would do more to lift the south bronx out of poverty

than the child tax plan. it was so aggressive that it left behind a third of the children. 27 million children in america. i want to see a permanent expansion of the child tax credit, because for me it would be for children where social security has been for senior citizens. >> brennan: to be clear, what you're asking for is not in this bill, and not is addressing the salt tax that i asked you about. thank you, congressman, for your view today and to your district. we'll be right back. ♪ and that has carla feeling so confident that she can enjoy her dream... right now. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. right now. you know that lolook?

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♪ >> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation." as long as the virus circulates around the globe, it remains a threat. according to the world health organization, more than 30 countries have not yet started vaccinating their population, including almost, as you can see there, the entire continent of africa. covax is the largest global vaccination program in history, and plans to distribute vaccines to those who may not be able to purchase them. dr. seth berkeley joins us from geneva where it is into the evening on

sunday. thank you for joining us. >> doctor: thank you for having me. >> brennan: we're talking about that glol immunity gap here. april 7th, that is wednesday, when the world health organization wanted all countries to begin administering vaccine. is there any way to meet that goal? >> doctor: well, we are on our way. we've vaccinated 84 countries, or brought vaccines into 84 countries over the last about six weeks. we hope to get over 100 in the next couple of weeks. but i think the big challenge here is the inequity that we talk about between developed countries and developing countries. of course, as you said, we are only safe if everybody is safe. and nothing tells us this like the new variants because if we have large populations that are not vaccinated, then there is the risk that we will see new variants pop out, and they will continue to spread across the world, as we've seen with this

virus, what it has been able to do up until now. >> brennan: so the first covax-provided doses began arriving on the continent of africa in february. as we just saw of that map of the 54 countries there are big deserts where vaccine doses are not being distributed. is it the supply or the logistics to deliver shots in arms? >> doctor: the logistics have come along. we work -- the gavi alliance, which i head, is a public-private company, and we present about 50% of the world with vaccines. we've been able to launch 500 million vaccines over the last few years, so the logistics is not bad. the big challenge now is access to the vaccines. we have gone ahead and placed orders for more than two billion doses, but the majority of those

are coming in the second half of the year. and in the first half of the year, there are less doses available. that's our big challenge now. if we had more doses, we could make those available. >> brennan: you're talking about governments essentially favoring their own population rather than shipping necessarily their doses abroad. the outbreak in india, i know, has caused some real slowing of their exports. how badly has that set you back? >> doctor: so india is, by volume, the largest supplier of vaccines for the developing world. and because of the new wave of outbreaks in india right now, the indian government has stepped up their vaccination programs, and that has meant that they've required more doses, which means that they've made less doses available for the rest of the world. we had expected, in march and april, about 90 million doses, and we suspect we'll get much,

much less than that, and that is a problem. but we're in a race because we also see wealthy countries beginning to cover much of their population. and our hope is that they will begin to make their vaccines available to the rest of the world, including ones that they may not use. for example, the u.s. not only has moderna, pfizer, and j & j, but they also have vaccines from novavax and from astrazeneca. and those could be made available and they would make a big difference in terms of the supply for the world. >> brennan: are you going to ask the u.s. government to donate its supply of astrazeneca? >> doctor: well, the u.s. has been a fabulous supporter of gavi and of covax. they recently provided a very substantial financing of about $4 billion. >> brennan: right. >> doctor: what we're talking about now is ultimately getting access to the large manufacturing facilities. i mean, the u.s. invested

heavily at the beginning, and scaled up manufacturing, and invested again and scaled up. once the u.s. needs are met, those facilities really could be used to come on line for the rest of the world, which could help stop the acute pandemic. our goal would be that by the end of this year to stop the acute pandemic, that is critical for global health security. >> brennan: so president biden, though, he has an american first vaccine policy, which is we will not ship our doses out and donate them until americans are fully vaccinated. that is a policy. the u.s. taxpayer has provide the $4 billion, as you said. so what are you doing with the money you have now? >> doctor: so the financing we have now is what we're using to pay for the two million doses, but many of those are in the second half of the year. it is critical for the rest of the country who are seeing new variants

and spread, to get vaccines to protect their elderly and their most vulnerable. that's what we want to do as quickly as possible in every single country. >> brennan: china has gotten a lot of attention for its efforts to push their vaccine, and europe is really struggling itself, and that is a wealthy area. is there an alternative to u.s. supply, or do you really need america to step up? >> doctor: so, there are many suppliers across the world. it is not just the u.s. that has an opportunity to share doses they may not be using. so this is not about taking doses away from america. this is about strengthening america's global health security by taking advantage of some vaccines that may not be used. so it is unlikely -- and anthony fauci said the other day he thinks it is unlikely that the u.s. will ever get to the

astrazeneca vaccine given the supplies it has of the other vaccines. so if that's the case, and those vaccines can be made available quickly, that would then help other countries. for us the challenge is making sure that the only vaccines that we use are ones that are of high quality and we know are efficacious. so we require stringent regulatory approval, and that is why it has taken some time. because as new vaccines come on line, they have to go through that complex regulatory process to make sure they're safe and effective. because if we had a problem with a vaccine, it could affect all vaccinations around the world. so we have to be very careful with safety as our key priority going forward. >> brennan: all right. dr. berkeley, good luck. we appreciate your time today. >> doctor: thank you so much. >> brennan: we'll be right back with a lot more "face the nation." stay with us.

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hospitalizations, and deaths of any racial or ethnic group in this country. jonathan nez is president of the navajo nation, which considers itself the largest tribe by land and population in northeast arizona, utah, mexico, and colorado. good morning to you. >> good morning, margaret, and happy easter and happy resurrection sunday to all of your viewers. >> brennan: thank you for that. why have indigenous people been hit so hard by covid? >> well, margaret, i think this pandemic here has revealed some of the deficiencies in all of our health care systems throughout the country. more so in native-american cmmunities, 400 -- over 500 tribes throughout the country have been working hard to push back on this virus. and as many viewers may

kow, the indian health services oversees the health care system. and it has been underfunded since its inception, and so we are the health care professionals who are utilizing the limited resources they have. they have been doing an outstanding job, and i want to say thank you to our health care workers on the navajo nations, our frontline lawyers and the employees for doing outstanding work, pushing back on the virus, as well as bringing confidence to the vaccine. >> brennan: at the middle of last year, the navajo nation had a high infection rate than any single state in the u.s. but you're saying you are, it seems, having some success with distributing the vaccine. how have you persuaded your community to take it? >> well, right now the indian health service, the navajo area here, has received 200 -- i'm sorry,

246,000 plus doses. of those, 219,661 have gone into the arms of our navajo people. that is 89.3% what was given to the nation are given to the navajo people. 88,000 8,889 of our people are vaccinated. we had dr. fauci in our townhall meeting, dr. beryla from pfizer, just answering the navajo people's questions about the virus. and also our leadering leaders taking the vaccinene on television. i think just because of how hard hit the navajo nation was, we've seen a big increase in participation in taking the vaccine. so i really commend the

people that have been fighting and pushing back on this virus. as you may know, margaret, 30% to 40% of our navajo people don't have running water here in the most powerful country in the world, and that has contributed to the high cases early on. but, you know, with the help of everyone, including our congressional delegation, our leaders, educating them, they have been forthcoming with resources. and we see that in the american rescue plan act that has been recently approved. >> brennan: i just want to underscore that because it was a shocking statistic when your communications director told us 30% to 40% of your people do not have running water. do you have assurances on how the money will be spent, the federal aid that you're talking about? and added to that, the biden administration still doesn't have an appointed head of the indian health services, so why are you

so confident these things are going to be addressed? >> well, the acting director right now has been working directly with navajo nation, as well as we've been working straight with the white house. we have final -- we finally have a seat at the table here in getting our information and our advocacy addressed. and so, really, with the funds that are coming to the citizens of this country in terms of recovery and rescue, this time around it is fininally helping our nation grow. it is all about nation-building in communities throughout the country, and focus focusing on self-determination. our economy has been hit hard because we were able to implement some really strict protocols. we have lockdownsns, we have a mask mandate, which hurt our economy, but we are moving out of that high cases. and just a couple of weeks

ago, for the first time ever in six months, we had zero cases and zero deaths in 24 hours. so i commend the navajo people for listening to the health care professionals and their leaders. and i wish that other jurisdictions throughout the country would do the same. >> brennan: the c.d.c. says native americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, have a greater prevalence of obesity and alcoholism, and are more likely to be smokers. all of these things attribute to covid-19. what are you doing to promote a healthier lifestyle? >> well, in indigenous communities, we are returning back to a lot of our teaching. if you look through our world lens or world view, a lot of our teaching can really push back on these health issues, some of these -- we call them

monsters here on the navajo nations, alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide. and we're really encouraging our navajo citizens to return to some of our teachings, our way of life teachings, so that we can be able to push back. i think that is one of the big reasons on the navajo nation we were able to push back on this virus. it wasn't about restricting people's freedoms when we told people to wear a mask or to stay home. it was looking at the greater good. and the greater good here was to protect your family, protect your community. and i think because of that, we were able to let our people know that we will get through this pandemic, just as we have gone through some very tough times in our history. and all indigenous peoples -- il human beings have some difficult times in their history, and more so in native-american communities. but i just want to

highlight, margaret, that indigenous peoples throughout the country are very resilient, even though sometimes the federal government is slow to react in the indian country. but we didn't roll over. we didn't give up. we fought hard. and i commend the navajo citizens for doing their best to push back this virus. >> brennan: all right. president nez, good luck. thank you for your time this morning. >> they. >> brennan: we'll be back in a moment.

>> brennan: arrivals of unaccompanied children at the southern border reached an all-time monthly high in march. and the pace of migrants crossing the border does not appear to be slowing down. sister norma pimentel is the executive director of the catholic charities of the rio grande, and she joins us this sunday morning. happy easter, sister. >> thank you, margaret. thank you. >> brennan: for our audience, i want to describe jo your organization, you provide assistance to migrants seeking assi assistance here in

the u.s. they are often told to come back for a court appearance when they're asking for asylum. i'm wondering, since you have been on the border for so long, what are you seeing with your own eyes now? what are migrants like when they're arriving here? >> yes. what i'm seeing today is what we've seen for several years back, surges of families arriving to our border that leave their country because of what is happening in their country has not changed. it is a place that they are afraid to be there for their children. what we see a lot here at the border -- in 2014, we saw in great surges children unaccompanied, and families and moms with their kids, and even in 2019, and throughout. and today it is no different. and we're seeing it again. and so it is just families that are hopeful that entering the united states they may be safe. and that's what they're looking for. it is no different. that is why we have so

many children here at the border and now again. >> brennan: what states are the migrants arriving in? >> the conditions that they arrive -- in 2014, it was devastating what i was seeing with the families and the children, dirty and muddy and crying, and dehydrated, and scared. and today they definitely are -- you can see in their faces that they're scared, and they've been through so much. but they're hopeful, hopeful that maybe now they have a chance to be somewhere safe because they have been through a lot. the journey that they take from their country, all along the path they go through, people taking advantage of them, you can see it in their faces, what they've been through, and having to wait in mexico for so long, also, makes them very vulnerable and at high risk. >> brennan: what you're

referring to there is the so-called "remain in mexico" policy that president biden just lifted. when you said they were asked to remain there. as you know, immigration is so politically fraught, and president biden has been heavily criticized for lifting that trump era policy, and for allowing children who arrive unaccompanied to stay here, even though on paper the policy is to push back, during the pandemic, anyone coming to claim asylum. i know you're not political, but i'm wondering what you think is driving migration right now? is it the message from the u.s. or is it what is happening at home? >> you know, the message from what is happening in the united states is just utilized by those who take advantage of these families, who exploit these families, who try to use whatever is happening here to convince them that whoever is in office, no matter what is happening

here, it is used to their advantage o get these families and encourage them to come. and they're desperate to leave their countries because of the situations there. it is almost as if we have never seen it addressed, the root causes. why do families come? we'll continue to see them come, and the great numbers of children, especially children, here at our border, and the traffickers use it to their advantage. so it doesn't matter who is in office or what is happening here, the message is twisted and used for their advantage. and so i think that contributes a lot as to why these families all of a sudden are surging at some point. there are so many factors involved, but that may be one of them. >> brennan: the biden administration has outsourced a good day of the covid testing to local agencies and to organizations like yours. i know you have to provide a lot of these services.

how challenging is that? what kind of resources do you need? >> you know, there are so many families arriving, so many children, and so being able to provide hundreds and hundreds of toothpastes, toothbrushes, just basic things that a person needs just to be okay is a challenge in itself. but thanks to the generosity of so many people that reach out and say how can i help you, and even the present government is reaching out and wanting to help as well. so i think that together we can respond and we can address what is happening at the border. and that's what is happening right now. definitely the numbers are high. and i can see why the children are not being sent back, because of the fact that they run a big risk. you have to keep a child safe. especially if they're unaccompanied, you cannot just send them back like you're sending everybody else. they need to be processed.

correctly to make sure they're handed over to the right family member. that's why we're seeing such high numbers of children right now. >> brennan: "time magazine" referred to you at the pope's favorite nun. i know when you met him some years back, you presented him with a painting of a mother and child. i wonder what your message to him was about this unique part of america, and whether you would like the current president and vice president to come down and meet with you at the border? >> i always encourage everyone to come down and see for themselves. because if you get close enough, like i get close enough to the families, and you can see for yourself, you can truly understand better what is happening. and feel what i feel so that we can reach out to help, you know. because, honestly, this should not be about politics. it needs to be about people because that's what we're seeing here at the

border. the holy father's recognition was recognizing all of us doing what we were doing, where we reach out to those we see before us suffering. so i certainly hope that our present president joins us and comes down and accompanies us so he can see for himself. >> brennan: thank k you, sisister, for r your time todaday. good luck toto you. we'l'll be rightht back. >> t thank you. tremfya® may increrease yoyour risk ofof infections and d lower yourur ability to fightht them. tell y your doctoror if you he an infnfection or r symptoms or if yoyou had a vaccine e or plan toto. tremfya®. emerge t tremfyant™. janssen n can help y you exple costst support o options.

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the 7pm news, weeknights on kpix 5. this is the cbs overnight news. good evening, today marked the second easter disrupted by covid. while there's hope vaccines will help end the crisis, highly contagious variants are threatening to pro long it. tonight, europe and canada are experiencing a new wave of infections in lock downs. here in the u.s., it's an arm's race, 18% of american's, that is over 60 millionpeople are fully vaccinated. but the cases are rising in 27 states and washington, d.c. cbs's is in los angeles tracking all of