Congressional Hearing on Halting Undocumented Children Entering U.S.
BLITZER: Lawmakers are trying to find a solution to what's being called a humanitarian crisis. A huge crisis indeed. This year alone, more than 52,000 unaccompanied children have cross the southwest border into the United States. Now, what to do with them? That was the question on capital hill today. Listen to this exchange between Republican Congressman Mike Rogers and the Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.</s>REP. MIKE ROGERS, (R), MICHIGAN: Why aren't we putting them on a bus like we normally do and send them back down to Guatemala?</s>JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Because the law requires that I turn it over to HHS, sir.</s>ROGERS: Well, the law required Obamacare to be kicked in two years ago and that hasn't stopped the administration before when it wanted to do something different. This is a humanitarian crisis.</s>BLITZER: Let's discuss what's going on. Polo Sandoval is joining us. He monitored this hearing. It got pretty tense. I must say, it is a humanitarian crisis, what's going on. There are separate rules for children who come across the border unaccompanied, undocumented, as opposed to adults.</s>POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That was a huge talking point that was discussed today, Wolf, and that was the process that the kids go through on a daily basis after they are apprehended. After they hit a certain age, they fall under the adult category. They are held as children for 72 hours as the law requires. After than, they are eventually released into several detention facility across the country. And eventually, after that, new reports from our congressional sources are reporting about 85 percent of them are eventually turned to their parents likely in the United States.</s>BLITZER: In the United States. If they are parents are there, they can go live in Baltimore or Cleveland, any place else Separate rules, as we've all come to learn, for the kids as opposed to kids as opposed to the adults. And the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Mike Rogers, he had new numbers, huge numbers anticipating what could happen in the coming years.</s>SANDOVAL: The numbers are showing that it's expected to rise up to 90,000 kids by the end of this year. The chairman of that committee, he was very quick to point out that the numbers they are seeing, but he was also making it clear that there needs to be a solution here. Right now, the states -- for example, Texas, which is perhaps the busiest, now forking over some major money, about $1.3 million almost on a weekly basis, for state authorities to try to tackle this issue. But I thought the main take away here was, for the first time, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson acknowledging public that he was aware the numbers were growing. Essentially, a ticking time bomb when he took office about six months ago. Now, the numbers have ballooned into a major issue that the administration is quickly trying to especially deal with. I can personally tell you, living along the border and reporting, this is nothing new, these families driving north. What is new now, though, is the sheer numbers that are overwhelming the system and costing major money to actually handle.</s>BLITZER: A heartbreaking story indeed. These little kids, some as young as six, seven, eight years old, they are being sent across the border. They are saying don't run away, when you see a police officer or border agent, go up there, they'll take good care of you, you'll be able to reunite with your family. That's a huge influx of people coming in. It's a huge story for us.</s>SANDOVAL: And last point, another take away that I noticed today was they also addressed the cartel issue. Remember, a lot of these children -- not only the unaccompanied children but also the family units, which is basically the adults with their children, they are using smuggling route that's are owned and operated by either the Gulf cartel or the Zeta cartel. It's heavy along --</s>BLITZER: These are drug cartels.</s>SANDOVAL: The drug cartels. And all of this money -- each of these individuals that we see as potentially a headache for the U.S. administration, those are big dollar signs for the cartel. So they addressed that as well. That's also a major concern is, how do they keep these organizations from spreading.</s>BLITZER: We will stay on top of the story. Polo, thanks very much. Don't go away. And other news we're following, members of the Boko Haram terror group attacks a remote village in Nigeria. They held the villagers hostage for several days while they looted it for supplies. After setting the village on fire, they took 60 women and girl captives. This happened almost a week ago but word is just getting out now because communications towers in the area have been sabotaged by these insurgents. We'll be right back.