don't forget to get the latest episode of our podcast "why is this happening" with special guest naomi klein. it's all about the crisis that hit puerto rico long before the hurricane made lanldfall. subscribe to the podcast on tune in or wherever you get your podcasts. that's "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. thanks, my friend. much appreciated. >> you bet. this time last night we broke a little bit of news, that the defense department was detailing active duty jags, active duty military lawyers, at the request of the justice department to go to the border to start prosecuting the justice department's immigration cases. we broke that news last night. the defense department has confirmed it. tonight we are going to break some more news that you have not heard anywhere else. this is an exclusive story that we have learned and confirmed today about the handling of the family separation policy by the senior ranks of the trump administration by one senior trump administration official in particular. i'm going to have that breaking news for you in just one moment.

all right. hurricane katrina became a hurricane on a friday. friday august 25th in 2005. by the next day, by saturday a bunch of coastal parishes in louisiana were under mandatory evacuation orders. on that first saturday, day after the storm first became a hurricane, new orleans was under an evacuation order as well but it was a voluntary order. the city auns nod that people should get out. they announced that the superdome would be opened as a shelter of last resort for people who couldn't get out. that was saturday. by the dawn of the following day, on sunday, katrina was not just any old hurricane anymore. it was a category 5 hurricane. and at that point on sunday the evacuation order for new orleans became a mandatory evacuation order. we now know that that of course was too late for many people already. early the next morning, on monday, katrina made landfall. and that day, that monday, the

levees broke. and some places you could only see the rooftops above the water. some places the water was so deep you couldn't even see the rooftops anymore. again, the storm had become a hurricane on friday. it hit land on monday. when the storm unleashed that hell on new orleans and on the gulf coast on monday, it was clear that the evacuation orders, the transit plans, the rescue plans were woefully, woefully inadequate when they were just -- when they were just non-existent. people just had no way out. by tuesday, the day after landfall, the coast guard had pulled hundreds of people off rooftops. by tuesday there were 20,000 people at the convention center, where there was no food, no water, no services. another 20,000 people had made their way to that shelter of last resort at the superdome. by tuesday people were literally -- americans were literally dying in plain view in new orleans. by that point, by tuesday, by the day after landfall, watching

the news was like watching the end of the world. thousands of people were feared dead at that point. and then the following day, on wednesday, condoleezza rice went on vacation. she'd been doing a lot of international travel. she was tired. she decided she would have a new york city luxury vacation where she would stay at the palace hotel. she was secretary of state. she wrote about it in her memoir years later. "i flew to new york. that evening, upon arriving at the palace hotel, i flipped on the television. indeed, the hurricane had hit new orleans. i called secretary of homeland security michael chertoff, inquiring if there was anything i could do. it's pretty bad, he said. we discussed the question of foreign help briefly. mike was clearly in a hurry. he said he'd call me if he needed me. i hung up, got dressed, and went out to see spammalot." spamalot, the monty python musical. the drudge report was first to break the news that that is in

fact what secretary of state condoleezza rice was doing at the apex of the death and destruction in new orleans. this was the original drudge report mention from that day back in 2005. "eyewitness, secretary of state condi rice laughs it up at spam alott while gulf coast lays in tatters. theatergoers on new york city's great white way were shocked to see the president's former national security adviser at the monty python farce last night." that was in the drudge report. "new york daily news" added a little color of their own. "contributing to the fiddling while rome burns impression given by her boss during the disaster, which may have claimed thousands of lives, secretary rice was booed by some audience members at spam paalot, the mon python musical, at shubert theater when the lights went up after performance." that "new york daily news" report was correct. people booed her for being here. you'd think that would be a wake-up call. pp if what you were seeing on tv didn't indicate to you this wasn't a good time for vacation,

getting booed once you showed your face in public, you'd think it would be sort of a wake up moment, given what was going on with the hurricane, which everybody could see on tv and that she had been specifically briefed on as secretary of state. she'd been told in person it's very, very bad. and again, you could watch it on television, which in fact she says she was doing. she was watching it on television at the palace hotel as it spiraled from bad to worse to deadly to even worse than deadly. so that must have been like a real come to jesus moment, right? like oh. maybe i've been reading this wrong. what did condoleezza rice do after she got booed at the musical farce in the midst of all this? let's go back to her mep warr. she says, "the next morning i went shopping at the ferragamo shoe store down the block from my hotel." the website gawker.com is dead now. it was killed off by trump adviser peter teal. the billionaire founder of paypal who is way more radical

than people think he is. he thinks women getting the right to vote is a tragedy. i'm just saying. but-party teal didn't like the way that gawker covered him as a silicon valley guy. so he killed gawker as a news agency. as a news organization. before he did so, one of their many, many, many, many scoops was that gawker was first to report on the scene of condoleezza rice buying thousands of dollars' worth of italian shoes at the ferragamo store in new york city while new orleans flooded and the administration she was a senior member of basically didn't respond at all. this was the gawker report from that day. "just moments ago at the ferragamo on fifth avenue condoleezza rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice new shoes. a fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of rice's timing, went up to the secretary and reportedly shouted, how dare you shop for shoes while

thousands are dying?" gawker continues, "never one to have her fashion choices questioned, rice had her security physically remove the woman." then gawker's report finishes, "angry lady, whoever you are, we love you. you are a true american and we'll go shoe shopping with you anytime." secretary of state condoleezza rice later denied that anybody had actually yelled that at her at the ferragamo store. but she did confirm that that is where she was and that is what she was doing on that morning in new york city at the worst of the hurricane katrina crisis. while the federal government still had basically done nothing to respond. condoleezza rice shopping during katrina was actually later cited as a reason why she could never, ever run for president of this country even if she wanted to. in her memoir she confirmed the ferragamo report from gawker. she confirmed the spamalot report from the "new york daily news" and drudge report. she also confirmed "the new york

daily news" celebrity spotting mention on their gossip page which caught her hitting a few balls with monica seles at the stadium at the u.s. open. she confirmed all of that in her memoir. but to her credit she also in her memoir explained how many she regretted it all. "i sat there kicking myself for having been so tone deaf. what had i been thinking?" that was 2005. now it is 13 years later. we're under the next republican presidency after george w. bush. an au cowerant catastrophe now is not an act of god. this one is an act of donald trump. but our country harrow national moral catastrophe that is driving people to distraction is this new thing that the trump administration started doing weeks ago, which has resulted in the mass separation of little kids and babies from their mothers and fathers. the trump administration apparently started pursuing this

policy in april. they have pursued it through yesterday. we still don't have good numbers, but the data we do have suggests the pace at which they were taking kids away from their parents accelerated from just under 50 a day to just under 70 a day at least before they stopped yesterday. just as in the hurricane, though, where the disaster doesn't end when the wind and the rain stops, this catastrophe that we've got now of parents and kids having been taken apart, forcibly separated by the u.s. government, this is not over now either. by the government's own admission we've got more than 2,000 kids that they have taken. and by all accounts there don't seem to be any procedures in place for how they're going to get those kids back to their parents ever. they've taken these kids. in many cases there's no paperwork following them. they've moved these kids all over this country. and there appears to be no plan for how to get them back to their mothers and fathers. now, one thing condoleezza rice always had going for her in her defense, in the shopping during

katrina scandal, was that even though she was a very highly visible member of the george w. bush administration her job title was secretary of state at the time of hurricane katrina. and hurricane katrina was a lot of things. it wasn't a foreign policy crisis, though, right? this catastrophe we've got now has a very, very specific roster of responsibility. when it comes to these kids who've been taken away from their parents, there is a guy in the government, there's a senior trump administration official who's in charge of the kids who the government has taken. his name is alex azar. he's the secretary of health and human services. right? so it's the justice department and agencies of the homeland security department who arrest people at the border and charge and hold the parents. but this new trump administration policy has the government forcibly taking the kids out of their parents' arms. where the kids then go is to alex azar. they give the kids to hhs, which is the agency that alex azar runs. these thousands of kids who have

been taken away from their mothers and fathers. he's the one who's got them. alex azar. we can now report exclusively tonight on what alex azar has been doing as this crisis has spiked and as he has become responsible for thousands of children who have been taken away from their parents. as the number of kids taken away from their parents has reached critical mass, as the country has started to realize the reality and the scale of this policy, as his agency started to have to open their first new purpose-built facilities that they constructed specifically to hold kids apart from their parents, that first facility was opened by alex azar's agency on friday. that's that tent city they opened in tornillo, texas to hold kids. they opened that on friday. you want to know what alex azar did the day after his agency opened that new facility as this crisis got big enough that his agency had to start opening new

purpose-built facilities to hold all the kids because there were that many as the nation started to absolutely freak out over this policy, as the pace of taking kids away from their parents went from almost 50 to almost 70 a day and beyond? you want to know what he did after he'd just opened up that first tent city for the kids? alex azar spent the next day, saturday, this past weekend, in new hampshire attending his 30th college reunion. alex azar was apparently class of 1988 at dartmouth college in new hampshire. here's the student newspaper at dartmouth announcing when he was confirmed as secretary of hhs. here he is on the dartmouth class of 1988 web page confirming, rsvp-ing that he would be attending his reunion this weekend. you might expect that even if he'd rsvp'ded in advance once a crisis like this broke out and you're the guy in charge of all of the kids that have been taken you might -- i don't know. maybe you wouldn't make good on that rsvp. maybe you would cancel.

no. we have spoke nguyen multiple sources who have all told us that secretary azar in fact spent saturday, this past weekend, in new hampshire at his college reunion. we contacted secretary azar's office to ask where mr. azar was this weekend as the crisis of kids taken away from their parents and held in custody of his agency hit a boiling point as hundreds of kids were moved into secretary azar's brand new purpose-built facility to hold them. secretary azar's office would not comment to us on where he was this weekend. secretary azar has been saying all along throughout this crisis that basically everything's fine here, nothing to worry about. he told the "washington post" yesterday that yes, of course he has personally visited these facilities where the agency he runs is holding all these kids apart from their parents. he said of course he's visited them. he wouldn't say which facilities he has visited or when. but he did tell the "post" definitely he has been there in person, he's seen them. his office today would also not confirm to us which shelters secretary azar has actually

visited or when he was there. secretary azar has also been insisting that there's no reason to worry about these kids being taken away from their parents. there's no reason to worry that they won't end up back with their parents. there's no reason to think that there will be any problem getting these kids back to their parents because his agency is on it. he's keeping these kids and parents in touch. secretary azar told the "post" today, "we keep in touch with the parents. under any circumstances. tone sure placement with relatives or if the parents are released." secretary alex azar may believe that's what's happening with the kids who are being held in his agency's custody, that for each kid held by his agency, held by hhs, hhs is keeping in touch with that kid's parents. but he's the only person who believes that's what's happening. here's jonathan blitzer in the "new yorker" today reporting on a facility in chaparral, new

mexico where there are 50 mothers in one wing of that facility who have been separated from their kids. "few of them even know where their kids are. mothers are going to be leaving this facility with psychological problems." none of the agents has explained to the mothers how they can locate their children. so there's 50 women being held in new mexico who have kids that have been taken away from them. alex azar hasn't been keeping in touch with those parents in terms of them getting their kids back, let alone even knowing where their kids are. the 239 kids being held in new york city, that's become a new york scandal now because public officials here including the meche of new york city and the governor of new york say they weren't notified, they had no idea that 239 kids separated from their parents were being brought to new york city. they say they basically found out when everybody else did, when a local tv station broke the news about all these girls being held in har harlem after they got a tip that several of these girls wrbing moved in the middle of the night. the mayor saying now, "how is it

possible that none of us knew there were 239 kids right here in our own city? how is the federal government holding back that information from the people of this city and holding back the help these kids could need?" the head of catholic charities, which is trying to find ways to get these kids back to their parents, tells "the new york times" today, "there is no system whatsoever to track these family separations. no effort systematically to reunite these families. there's no supervisor. there's no data base saying child here parent there, so they can come back together." "washington post" has now published this account from a federal public defender who described a hearing with a mother whose child had been taken away from her. "one of my colleagues asked the federal agent on the stand about the whereabouts of my client's child. the justice department prosecutor objected to the relevance of that question. the judge then turned on the prosecutor, demanding to know why this was not relevant. at one point the judge slammed his hand on the desk, sending a pen flying. this type of emotional display is unheard of in federal court.

the judge said, i cannot understand this. if someone at the jail takes your wallet they give you a receipt. they take your kids and you get nothing not even a slip of paper?" no. not even a slip of paper. is your kid old enough to have memorized any identifying information about you that somebody somewhere might be able to elicit from them someday to try to help them find their way back to you wherever you are if you don't know where they are, they don't know where you are? is your kid old enough to talk? not even a slip of paper. that is how alex azar, the head of the health and human services department, has thus far been handling the job of getting these 2,000-plus kids who are in his care back to their parents. there isn't a system. there isn't a data base. there's nothing, no paperwork connecting the parent from whom the kid was separated and the kid from whom the parent was separated. nothing. so just hope the kid can talk.

maybe hope the kid gets a lawyer. hope the kid knows mom's detention facility location and her alien number and then maybe they can sort it out on their own after getting somebody to change their diaper. i mean, that's how hhs secretary alex azar has thus far been handling the kids that he is in charge of. in addition to that dramatic report from that public defender today, the "washington post" also published this, which they describe as a map and a list of facilities holding these kids separated from their parents all over the country. the post says they'll update this as they get more information. and it's interesting. they're actually asking "washington post" readers to help them crowd-source this story. "the post is continuing to report on where migrant children were sent after they were separated from their parents. do you know of a facility where these children may be? submit a location. click here to submit a location." and they're building this national map to try to keep track of where these kids have been taken, these kids who have been taken away from their

parents. you've got to get it from people who might have been eyewitnesses or who might have seen kids somewhere being held somewhere, maybe when they dropped the mail off there. i don't -- this is how we're as a nation tracking information about where these kids are. hoping that anonymous sources and eyewitnesses and people who are part of this big secret system will tell the press and maybe if the press publicizes enough of it maybe that can result in lawyers getting to them and maybe the lawyers can figure out some way to connect it with the parents. alex azar says it's fine, everybody's in touch. relax. as we have been reporting, though, you take thousands of kids forcibly away from their parents, no matter where you try to hide those kids, this is a secret that is too big to be kept. last night a passenger on an american airlines flight from texas to new york came to believe that she was on a plane with a bunch of kids who were not traveling of their own accord and who were definitely not traveling with their parents. bit time that flight landed this was the scene at laguardia

airport. hundreds of people showing up to offer support. carrying signs written in spanish. singing songs. looking for the kids. it does seem like the government did bring a bunch of unaccompanied boys into new york through laguardia airport in the very late hours last night. and this is after -- you'll remember american airlines said they wouldn't allow their flights to be used for kids who were being taken away from their families. this is from the "new york times." "protesters held signs at security gates that read [ spanish ] and they sang protest songs in english and spanish outside terminal b not not long after a group of sen boys was spotted getting off american airlines flight 2716 wearing dark hoodies and carrying labeled belongings. a circle of about 200 protesters gathered along the taxi line. an american airlines spokesman said in an interview that the airline had delayed the flight from dallas-fort worth by 33 minutes until the airline could get reassurance from government

officials that these kids were not among those who had been separated from their parents. but a cluster of flight attendants who had been on board stood nearby after the children deplaned, visibly distraught. one flight attendant saying, they lied to us." one of the people who turned up to protest said she had been told that a crew member on one of the flights tried to communicate with one of these unaccompanied kids by writing on a piece of paper, "what are your names? what are your parents' names?" maybe the flight attendants will do it. the local press is now starting to find kids all over the country because they're getting tips from all over the country from people who know something about where these kids are. this is from the "detroit free press." "in the milled of the night two baby boys arrived in grand rapids after being separated from their immigrant parents at the southern border weeks ago. one child is eight months old. the other is 11 months old.

both children have become part of a bigger group of 50 immigrants kids who have landed in foster care in michigan under the trump administration's zero tolerance border policy. the average age of these kids is 8, a number that has alarmed foster care employees who are struggling to comfort the growing group of kids who are turning up in michigan at nighttime. they're younger than ever, they say, and the kids are petrified. these kids are arriving between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. not only are they being separated from their family, they're being transported to a place they don't know in the middle of the night. we have found on many occasions that no one has explained to these children where they are going. these kids are hysterical. they're screaming out for mom and dad. many have gone 30 or more days or more -- excuse me. 30 or more days without talking to their parents because their parents can't be located." but wait, i thought alex azar said they're constantly in touch with the parents. he's got this part under control. this was the "baltimore sun" today where they found more kids. "immigration agents have sent dozens of children to maryland. some are being held in

dormitories in anne aroundal and baltimore counties according to people involved in the process. many of the kids have come with little information. one is 18 months old. several are too young to speak to their new car gifrs or help social workers track down relatives who might be able tyke them in. lawyers are trying to figure out how to put together asylum claims for 6-year-olds who don't know why they fled their countries." regional director for a service organization that's trying to care for about 15 of these kids that turned up in maryland tells the "baltimore sun" that the children they are seeing are "more traumatized than those that this agency has helped before" because of the forced separation from their parents. also tonight we are getting the first reports about kids not just being taken away from their parents and traumatized that way. we're also getting first reports about kids turning up at hospitals. "the new york daily news" reporting tonight that in new york two city public hospitals have treated 12 young kids who were separated from their parents at the border. the children were brought to two hospitals, bellevue and manhattan and north central bronx hospital in the bronx. the director of pediatric

emergency services at north central bronx telling the paper tonight that she and her clinicians have felt helpless in treating children who are generally arrived without any medical records. and so it's michigan and it's maryland and it's new york and it's seattle and portland and phoenix and kansas city and chicago and pittsburgh and all these other places on this map. this map that the "washington post" is still building as we speak. based on tips from the public. because that's how we're going to figure out where these kids are. because apparently it's going to be like flight attendants and people piecing it together to try to get them back to their parents. there is a cabinet secretary who's in charge of taking care of these kids and getting them back to their parents. his name is alex azar. and i don't know if he was wearing ferragamo shoes or if any of monty python was involved but as this crisis exploded over the past week he spent the weekend going to his college reunion in new hampshire. anybody who's got a picture of him there, i will plant a tree in your name if you send it to

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we've seen in the family separation crisis the desire of a lot of ordinary people to get involved, to go to an airport in the middle of the night, to go to their local lawmaker's office and ask that lawmaker to intervene, then to sit there until the police come and get arrest, as these moms did in columbus, ohio. just a few minutes ago senator chris murphy tweeted from a rally he organized on short notice in hartford, connecticut. he says he got a crowd on 24 hours' short notice. people are showing up in response to this crisis. they are turning up. they're also giving money. a lot of it. we talked last night about a campaign started by a california couple who set out to raise $1,500 which they thought might be enough to pay bail for one parent arrested at the border. so that mom or dad could maybe get out on bail and then try to go collect their kid who was being held apart from them. that fund-raiser has now brought in not $1,500, which was the goal. it's now brought in more than $17 million and counting. for a non-profit that provides free legal services to

immigrants. that service typically helps immigrants in texas but with this new shot in the arm they got from so many americans looking to help they now say they're going to look to do this across the country. they're going to very specifically look for every family that has been sefrpted in this crisis. the trump administration started doing this in april. they only stopped doing it, at least they say, yesterday. from april until yesterday when these families are being take anne part they say they want to find every family that got separated. they want to find every family, every kid that got taken away. their goal is to find all of them and get them lawyers and then try to get them released so that the kids and parents can get back together. that is the goal. the government's not trying to do that apparently. so this little non-profit in texas this california couple picked out of a hat, we're just piecing it together here. now they've got $17 million to help with that family by family by family task. right? $17 million and counting given by 450,000 different people.

people are showing up. they're giving money. they're doing what they can. where they have specialized skills that might come in handy at a time like this people are offering their time and expertise and skills as well. we also talked last night about a law firm in washington state, a firm called hkm employment attorneys, that has offered to provide consultation and legal representation pro bono, no charge, to any immigration officer or other government official who refuses to carry out any part of the trump administration's family separation policy. that project is being led by jason rittereiser who is an attorney at that firm. i have to tell you jason rittereises are is also making a bid for congress in eastern washington state, running against three other democrats in an august primary. that seat has been held by a republican member of congress for more than a decade, republican dave reichert. he's stepping down. but the idea here in terms of what rittereiser's firm is doing is they're offering free legal help for anybody in the government who's given orders to

carry out this zero tolerance policy and they don't want to do that as a matter of conscience. jason rittereiser announced this effort two days ago on tuesday. today his office tells us first off, more than a dozen lawyers from different law firms around the country have called and offered to be part of this, they will offer their services as well, they want to help. and we can also break the news tonight that thus far five government employees have reached out to the firm to take them up on their offer. as potential conscientious objectors to what the trump administration is doing. joining us now is attorney jason rittereiser, seattle-based attorney, congressional candidate whose law firm is offering to represent government employees who are refusing to implement this process. thank you for being with us. >> rachel, thank you so much. it's a privilege to be on your show. >> when i was explaining what you and your firm are doing, did i get that right? did i explain it correctly? >> yeah, that was right on. i think we're seeing an immoral

policy carried out by the trump administration and we're doing everything we can to combat it with our expertise in employment law. >> i know your firm does have expertise working with federal employees. how did this idea come about within the firm? obviously when the firm's business is doing this work for pay and you're making a decision as an organization to make a national call that you'll represent people on this matter for free i imagine that's a serious discussion among employees of the firm. how did you arrive at this and what do you make of the response thus far? >> yeah, it's a serious decision. but it was a quick decision for us. we've built a firm at hkm employment attorneys based on standing up for people who need a voice. we can't think of a better calling than to do that for families who are being separated and those employees who are being forced to enforce these immoral policies. so on sunday night we convened on the telephone, pulled together lawyers monday morning

at 8:00 a.m. for a conference call, and rolled out this nationwide pro bono effort by noon that day. >> we understand from your office as i mentioned that there are a handful already, there's at least five federal employees who have reached out to take you up on your offer already. what can you tell us about why these federal employees have reached out to you, what kind of federal employees are there, what are their reasons for not wanting to essentially follow orders and enforce this policy? >> you know, federal law protects employees from being forced to engage in unlawful conduct. and we're seeing employees who are concerned about being forced to engage in policies i think they know are immoral and that violate the law. ultimately we've seen an outpouring of support from the legal community who are offering services as well. and we've seen a response from concerned federal employees.

they've been able to reach out to our firm at hkm.com/child, and we're taking intakes. we have an intake system in place to make sure we're able to respond to them as they come in. >> do you anticipate that the reasons for objecting and the personal -- i guess the personal reasons for conscientiously objecting to these rules and these orders, do you imagine that this will eventually become public, that they'll be public statements or statements to the press from these employees in terms of why they're doing what they're doing? >> you know, i do anticipate that at some point. especially if we get to the level engaging in litigation on behalf of these concerned employees. certainly there will be public filings in that scenario. the important thing, know, is that we're providing them free legal advice so they can decide what the best path forward is at this point. >> jason rittereiser, congressional candidate in washington's 8th district, with

his firm representing government officials who are opposing trump on this family separation policy. thanks for keeping us apprised. please do stay in touch with us. i imagine that you're going to be hearing from more people as this goes on longer. thank you, sir. >> rachel, i appreciate that. thank you so much. >> much more ahead tonight. stay with us. ♪ tired of wrestling with seemingly impossible cleaning tasks? sprays in the bathroom can be ineffective. try mr. clean magic eraser with durafoam. simply add water, to remove soap scum. try mr. clean magic eraser with durafoam.

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last night we reported here exclusively that the defense department had decided to detail a number of active duty military lawyers. judge advocate generals.

j.a.g. lawyers at the request of the justice department. to go down to the border, to go to texas, arizona, and new mexico to essentially be detailed to u.s. attorney's offices there, to be detailed to federal prosecutor's offices there, to work, even though they're active military duty lawyers. the defense department has agreed to send these military lawyers to those u.s. attorney's office basically to bolster the workforce that the justice department has in terms of working prosecutors who can bring all of these extra immigration cases. immigration prosecutions on the border. that's a very unusuals use of active-duty military lawyers. we were first to report last night that the defendant deposit accepted that request from the justice department and was in fact sending j.a.g.s to those three state to help the justice department with investigations. now there has been a bipartisan response. from three united states senators. kirsten gillibrand, democrat from new york. patrick leahy, democratic senator from vermont, joined by

joni ernst, republican senator from iowa. the three of them have just sent a rare as hen's teeth bipartisan request to secretary mattis at the defense department asking him to change his decision. "we are deeply troubled by the department's decision to send active and reserve j.a.g.s to the border on temporary orders to prosecute immigration cases." they're asking basically for the defense department to undo this decision that they've made. "pulling 21 trial counsel from military courtrooms to prosecute immigration cases is an inappropriate misapplication of military personnel. we urge you to maintain these resources within the military justice system." i'm singling out this response because there are so few bipartisan requests in american lawmaking right now, let alone on something that has as red hot a partisan lens on it as this story. but again kristen gillibrand,

patrick leahy joined by joany ernst, republican senator from iowa tonight, in asking the defense department to undo this decision to have military lawyers prosecute these cases on the border for jeff sessions's justice department. we'll let you know if anybody joins this effort or indeed if secretary mattis responds. stay with us. ♪ ♪ legendary jockey víctor espinoza is insatiable when it comes to competing. ♪ ♪ so is his horse. ♪ ♪ when it comes to snacking. ♪ ♪

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(vo) imagine a visibly healthin 28 days. purina one. natural ingredients, plus vitamins and minerals in powerful combinations. for radiant coats, sparkling eyes, and vibrant energy. purina one. 28 days. one visibly healthy pet. this sunday, after weeks of prodding, customs and border protection finally allowed some members of the media to enter a border processing center in mcallen, texas. they allowed the reporters in but no cameras. instead, customs and border protection released their own photos from inside the center. as well as some footage. they wouldn't let the cameras in, but they'd provide government-created, government-approved footage instead. that's fine, right? same difference. it's kind of like having a free press. the day customs and border protection released the tape and those images from inside that processing center in mcallen about 100 people showed up outside that same center to protest the administration's

policy. one of those protesters was someone who actually herself had been inside that processing center many, many times before. she told the "l.a. times" that "they were in cages, 10-year-old boys were skreming and sobbing and trying to control themselves as they could see their mothers in other cages." the woman quoted there is dr. marsha griffin. she's a pediatrician who's worked in the rio grande valley for a decade in the course of her work for the american academy of pediatrics. dr. griffin has invited pediatricians from across the country to come to the border region so they can see what conditions are like there for kids. she tells the associated press this week, "the shelters aren't the problem. it's taking kids from their parents that is the problem." joining us now is dr. marsha griffin, long-time pediatrician working with immigrant kids on the south texas border. she's also the co-chair of the american academy 6 pediatrics special interest group on immigrant health. good dr griffin, i've been looking forward to talking with you. thank you for being with us tonight. >> i've been really looking

forward to talking with you too. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> the reason i wanted to talk to you specifically is because i feel like like so many other americans our eyes are turning to the border region and to the conditions in which immigrants and immigrant kids and families are being held if not for the first time then certainly for the first long sustained look. and i wanted to get perspective from you on how what we're seeing and hearing now, what the country is having such a revolted reaction to, how different is it from how things have been in the past? >> the difference, rachel, is only that they're separating the children methodically and that it is planned. they've separated children in the past from their parents. it's been arbitrary. and the women's refugee commission, kind, and lutheran immigration and refugee services

reported that last year, in 2017. in their report, "betrayal of family values." horrifying stories of children being separated. this is different because they're planning it, they were proud of it, and they told everybody they were going to. >> in terms of how they have been carrying out this policy, obviously now that the president has issued this executive order we are told that they have stopped as of yesterday separating any more kids. but it seems like the scale was escalating. we think that they were separating almost 40 kids a day. or excuse me, almost 50 kids a day last month. the later data showed that this month the pace had increased, it was almost 70 kids per day. did you have any sense that they were continuing to scale up this methodical process of taking kids away from their parents, they were growing the program? >> yes. certainly. >> and how did that manifest? was it the same facilities just having more and more kids

crammed into them? the opening of new stilts? adding more personnel to do it? >> i think it's because they were adding all the tent cities. they were agd beds, extra beds in to the office of refugee resettlement shelters. they were having to add beds and get clearance for additional children. that's when we began to know this has gotten out of control. >> what do you think will be the health consequences for these kids? even if they are now returned to their parents after having been separated them -- separated from them for a time during the duration of this policy. how will these kids be hurt by what they've been through? >> well, this hurt is going to last for a long time. and it will be manifested immediately when they're with their parents. or while they're separated. and the immediate signs can be

that a child who was potty-trained will now be wetting the bed. a child who was eager to play with other children or run around will be clingy and will withdrawn and won't go play. they may have had a great speech. they may regress and not want to speak. they will look withdrawn, they will have flat affects. the long term, when children get this afraid, those stress hormones are flooding and bathing their brain, their heart, every organ. and that changes the brain structure, it changes the heart, it changes everything and if you have children who were separated for just 72 hours or less, if that reaction is going on, children -- that's an eternity

for a child. eternity of -- of terror. and so it will have lasting effects. they can have hyper tension. they will have chronic heart disease. they will have behavioral problems. they will have learning problems. they will have obesity, suicide, stan substance abuse. they will have problems and it will be because of us. >> and those problems we should expect even after relatively short term separation. but i imagine that the longer the separation goes, the more morbidities we'd see? >> absolutely. >> dr. marsha griffin, pediatrician working on the border for years now. thank you for helping us understand tonight. thank you for your lifetime of work and thank you for being

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it happened with the president's muslim ban, it happened with the president's ban on transgender people serving in the military. it happened with the president's order to end the daca program. and now it's happening with the immigration disaster too. today attorneys general for multistates announced they are about to file a new lawsuit

against the trump administration challenging the senizero tolera policy and the executive order order. it says the administration is violating constitution due process rights of the parents and children by separating them as a matter of course and without any findings. and saying the executive order is essentially meaningless. this lawsuit was announced by bob ferguson, who is the attorney general by the great state of washington. does that name bob ferguson of washington state ring a bell for you somewhere? yes, it does because bob ferguson is the state ag, you might remember who filed the first multi-state lawsuit against the trump muslim band back in the first two weeks of the trump administration.

about a year and a half later, this will be the 27th lawsuit that mr. ferguson has brought against the trump administration on behalf of the people of his state. watch this space. whoooo.

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cohen for approval. the post always reports that they took ideas from trump about the opponents. they denied this today saying if it did happen it was rogues and renegades within the company because the company would not stand for that. this might not seem like an important thing, but remember when federal agents raided michael cohen's office, they were seeking communications between michael cohen and executives at the national inquirer. and that w today's revelations are a good reminder we do not know what they're after in the larger russia scandal or specifically when it comes to michael cohen. that's kind of intriguing. that does it for us tonight. we will see you tomorrow now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. we have news in thisou