No Numbers on Separated Kids
CAMEROTA: The Trump administration has three weeks to reunite parents with their children who were separated at the border. But the Department of Health and Human Services refuses to say how many separated children are in their custody or what this process will be. Joining us now is Rick Santorum, a CNN senior political commentator and former Republican senator from Pennsylvania. Rick, great to have you.</s>RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.</s>CAMEROTA: You understand how, of course, the federal government works. Do you have any faith that these 2,000 plus children will be reunited with their parents?</s>SANTORUM: Well, I -- yes, eventually they will. But, you know, there are a lot of complicated circumstances here. I mean you have -- you have the Flores, you know, settlement agreement, which says that you can't detain children with their parents for longer than, I think, a 20-day period. And so there's, you know, the -- just housing situation, how do you -- you know, enough for families to be -- to live together in that kind of setting where children right now are, you know, in -- in places where they're safe and they're being taken care of and they're not in a detention facility.</s>CAMEROTA: Sort of. I mean, Rick, hold on. Hold on. I just want to check that. They're in -- some of them are in foster care. As you know, some of them were transported to New York.</s>SANTORUM: True.</s>CAMEROTA: New York City and New York state, thousands of miles from where they last saw their parents. We don't know if there's a process that's tracking them. In fact, we've heard there is no tracking mechanism. And the governor of New York doesn't know where these kids are or who they are or how they're going to be restored. So I don't hear the process by which this is going to actually be able to happen.</s>SANTORUM: Yes, look, I don't think the Trump administration has handled this particularly well. There's no question that, you know, that there are a lot of unanswered questions. I think the secretary is trying to manage this situation. But the reality is that, you know, there are -- there are legal impediments in place right now for the administration to be able to reunite these families and -- and you also have the issue that these -- these -- you also -- well, you also have --</s>CAMEROTA: No. There's -- old on. There aren't legal impediments, there are logistical impediments. Legal, they didn't have to separate these families and they can reunite them. They just don't know how.</s>SANTORUM: Yes, well, that's a -- that's -- that's sort of a broader question. Legally, did they have to separate them? No. But if they don't separate them, and they simply release them, which is the alternative, because there is a settlement agreement in place that you can't detain them longer than 20 days as a family, then you have a policy that we've had up until this point, which is a catch-and- release policy --</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>SANTORUM: Which says to everybody that comes across the border, if you have a child, you're going to get it into this country. And the administration said, look, we're not going to continue that policy. So there is -- there are policy reasons for doing what they're doing.</s>CAMEROTA: Understood. And so, hold on, Rick, one thing -- I just want to -- I just want to check the things that you're saying individually. So I'm sorry to interrupt, but I just want to sort of fact check what you're saying.</s>SANTORUM: Sure.</s>CAMEROTA: We just had the former director of ICE on who said that one of the things they could have done was speed up the court docket. They could have put resources instead of into separating children, some babies from their parents, they could have put resources into the court docket and sped up that process so that the catch and release thing wasn't what it had been under President Obama. But, listen, here we are, OK, here we are today where the last numbers --</s>SANTORUM: I agree with that. They should -- they should have done that.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, great. The last numbers that we had were that it was 2,000 plus. OK. And, guess what, they're not even telling us the actual numbers because it seems like they don't know. Do you know of a process whereby these parents will ever see their children again?</s>SANTORUM: You know, the answer to that question is that, yes, some parents will and some parents won't because some parents have already been deported, as we know.</s>CAMEROTA: Right. And just -- I mean just get your head around that.</s>SANTORUM: I mean that's been -- that's been reported. And those --</s>CAMEROTA: Just get your head around that these parents don't know where their kiss are. Can you imagine not knowing where your kids are?</s>SANTORUM: Well, I understand that. But let's just -- you know, the parents are not blameless in this situation. The parents came across the border illegally and knowing full well that they -- that they were putting their children and themselves in jeopardy by doing so. And, by the way, most of these --</s>CAMEROTA: Not really, Rick, some of them were asylum seekers. Some of them were asylum seekers. That's legal.</s>SANTORUM: Yes. Asylum seekers are not separated. That -- I mean that's been very clear and that's --</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, they are. Yes, they are, Rick. Yes, they are.</s>SANTORUM: No, they're not.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, they are.</s>SANTORUM: If you -- if you come to the border and appeal -- and make an appeal for asylum, you are not separated from your children.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes. Rick, no, I wish that that were true. They have been separated. Here's the "L.A. Times." They've sent reporters there to try to do the digging that obviously the Trump administration is not doing and not wanting us to know. Here it is. This was yesterday. The practice of separating families appears to have begun accelerating last year, long before zero tolerance was announced in the spring. Among these cases, according to records and interviews, there are many that happened at ports of entry. They weren't coming across just randomly. These were at ports of entry. Court filings describe numerous cases in recent months in which families were separated after presenting themselves at a port of entry to ask for asylum. They did it to everyone. This was a zero-tolerance policy, Rick. It was even for asylum seekers.</s>SANTORUM: Well, I don't know what happened. I can tell you what the administration's policy is with respect to its ASLE (ph) applications, and that's -- now whether that policy was followed on the ground, that's a problem. But the --</s>CAMEROTA: It wasn't.</s>SANTORUM: The policy is that they shouldn't -- well, again, I mean, you know, their -- that's a problem with enforcement, it's not a problem with the policy.</s>CAMEROTA: No, it was a zero tolerance policy. It was -- it was stated as that. We've heard John Kelly say that. We've heard Stephen Miller say that. It was a zero tolerance policy. Everybody would be separated from their children. That's zero tolerance. It was supposed to be a deterrent and it has blown up into this, you know, human crisis.</s>SANTORUM: Look, there's no doubt that it's blown up to a human crisis and the media has reported on that in many ways. But what the media doesn't report on is the human crisis of these children coming to the borer themselves. I mean the fact is that most of these folks are coming from Central America, not from Mexico, and they made a 2,000 mile journey through Mexico. They had to cross the Mexican border, which is no picnic.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes. Yes.</s>SANTORUM: And so the idea that putting these children in detention is the worst thing that's happened to them since they -- since they've made this long trek, I'm not sure that is necessarily the case. These kids have been traumatized a lot over the past several months in getting here.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, that's who desperate they're -- we agree, that's how desperate their situation was --</s>SANTORUM: And I agree that's how desperate --</s>CAMEROTA: That they were willing to risk their life to try to get here. But, Rick, we're out of time. We've had a lot of breaking news. Always appreciate getting your perspective on this. Thank you very much. John.</s>BERMAN: All right, mounting ethical scandals for Scott Pruitt, the EPA administration. New ones -- I mean new ones out just overnight. His calendar, did he have people at the EPA scrub it to remove records and evidence of controversial meetings?