Living Illegally in the U.S.>           • U.S. Economy Shrinks More Than Expected; Lawmaker: Why Can't We Send the Kids Back?; Little Girl Hoax at KFC, Go Fund Me Campaign in Question. • Dad Charged in Son's Death
COSTELLO: Imagine you're a successful journalist and you have a huge secret that you're hiding. What if you were in the United States illegally? Would you come forward, especially in this climate? Well, Jose Antonio Vargas (ph) is going to do just that. He's going to appear in a new CNN film "Documented."</s>JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS: I have become kind of a walking uncomfortable conversation. I get asked questions like, why don't you just make yourself legal? And I think it's really important that we actually go through an application process to become a citizen so that you understand where the problem lies.</s>COSTELLO: Gaby Pacheco can relate. She's an undocumented immigrant and an immigrant rights leader. She joins me now, along with Norman Adams, the co-founder of Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy. Welcome to you both.</s>GABY PACHECO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BRIDGE PROJECT: Thank you.</s>NORMAN ADAMS, CO-FOUNDER, TEXANS FOR SENSIBLE IMMIGRATION POLICY: Good morning. Happy to be here.</s>COSTELLO: Oh, happy you're here too. So, Gaby, tell our viewers why you're in the country illegally?</s>PACHECO: Well, I came to the United States with my family when I was eight years old. And when you're a child, you really don't know what is happening with your status, you're just happy going to school, enjoying your friends and family. And then when you hit 18, you come to this very ugly reality, which is, you don't have documents and there's nothing you can do. There's nothing on the books or the laws that would allow you to essentially get regularized and get a green card and eventually citizenship.</s>COSTELLO: And you believe that people like you, that kids like you, should eventually get citizenship, right? You believe in the Dream Act?</s>PACHECO: I believe in the Dream Act. I believe in America. And I believe that people like myself who are not right in with the law, right, we're not here legally, we don't have documents, we're unauthorized, we should be given a chance, an opportunity to come right with the law and we should be able to fix our immigration system, which has allowed for 11 million people to be here undocumented. We're not just talking about journalists. We're talking about doctors and nurses and people that are working in the fields, people who are neighbors, people who we live with on an everyday basis.</s>COSTELLO: There are those who believe the Dream Act and the possibility that that could be true for all undocumented immigrants in this country is really the thing that's causing this influx of illegal immigrants pouring over our borders right now. What would you say to those people?</s>PACHECO: Well, I think we can hide the sun with one finger. And I think that that could probably be maybe one-tenth of what is the problem and what it's actually allowing for families to send their children to the United States. But the reality is that there are policies and there are things that have happened in those countries way before DOCA (ph) got implemented that is really pushing and pulling those kids to go through all those different borders, go through the desert, and come to look for a better life in the United States. And it's the same thing that Cubans, during the Peter Pan influx that drove Cuban immigrant children to the United States. And it's the same thing that we have seen during the potato famine with Irish families. And so it's the violence that is happening in central America, it's the policies that the United States has implemented in those countries that now has bankrupt some of these families and has created really bad situations for those children and their families.</s>COSTELLO: Yet, Norman, all of these children are causing enormous hardships, especially in states like Texas and in Arizona. One lawmaker suggested we just put these children on a bus and send them right back where they came from. Is that the answer?</s>ADAMS: Well, as far as the latest influx, which is obviously someone in central South America is behind that, we have - we have -- we've given the wrong impression. They believe and they've been told they can come here and unrestricted and we will welcome them with open arms. As much as I would like to do that from a humanitarian standpoint, we cannot do that. We have to send a firm message back to those countries and we have to educate those folks that you can't just walk in here. The problem we have -- we continue to face this. The longer we kick the can down the road on sensible or practical immigration reform, whatever you want to call it, the longer we kick that can down the road, the longer folks like Gaby have a dilemma that you can't solve and the longer there's no system for people to come in here legally. We have no system because our immigration laws are broken and we have to completely overhaul the system. But as far as the young folks that have been dumped at the border, we're going to have to make a firm stand. Certainly we have to take care of them while they're here, but we have to send them home. We have no choice. That's not - that's not part of immigration reform.</s>COSTELLO: How do you we do that, though? You know, they have to appear at a hearing, right?</s>ADAMS: Right.</s>COSTELLO: Some of the kids have to go to special counselling beforehand to see if they're going to go back to abusive situations and things like that.</s>ADAMS: Right.</s>COSTELLO: Is it just a matter of time? Are the laws -- should the laws be changed? Should they be stronger when it comes to these kids and sending them back?</s>ADAMS: Well, I think that the law is clear as it is, right. They've come in illegally and there's no - there's no solution, no quick solution. It's going to take years to get these children replaced in a humanitarian basis. But we will do that. America is not going to drive a bus across a border and kick these children out. And that's - and we can't do that. But the big picture is for folks like Gaby. She - her -- the only way you -- how many people do you hear say, I don't mind you being hear, Gaby, I just want you to get legal. Well, Gaby's only solution under our current laws is to return to her home country where she has no family or income, sit here for 10 years and then get in a line that is five to eight years long. That's no solution. So Gaby, like the 11 million or 12 million others, would rather stay here and live in the shadows. And we have got to fix that. We have got to have immigration reform that has a method of legalization. We don't have to have any short cuts to citizenship. We don't even have to have a guaranteed path. Frankly, I think we have to give them eventual ability for citizenship or we create a second class citizen. These are great folks. She -- Gaby has proved this. We don't want these folks to go home. We need to I.D. them and tax them and let them live freely in this country, go and travel as they may, and not be worried about being deported every day of the week.</s>COSTELLO: All right, Norman Adams, Gaby Pacheco, thank you both for your insight. I appreciate it.</s>PACHECO: Thank you for having us.</s>COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. "Documented," the story of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas, airs Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. on CNN. The next hour of NEWSROOM after a break.