Gutierrez: Children Surrendering Themselves to Border Patrol Proves ‘the Border Is Secure’

Gutierrez: Children Surrendering Themselves to Border Patrol Proves 'The Border Is Secure' (RealClearPolitics)

GUTIERREZ: "I think the President should have gone down there, stated what the law is. In 2008, Bob, we-- look, Louie Gohmert from Texas hasn’t ever seen an immigrant that he hasn’t thought wasn’t bringing disease to this country. And went on the, no, went on the House Floor this week to compare the invasion of children to our encouraging into Mexico to seek out (UNINTEL), to our reaching the beaches of Normandy. So they put it in these terms. But Steven King from Iowa, he always says they're criminals. He can never say "immigrant" and "criminal" without putting them together. They voted for the 2002 and 2008 law that say, "Protect." So when there were calmer times, right, levelheaded people thinking about the issue, we put the children's interests first. Remember bipartisanship? This wasn't a Democratic bill--"
SCHIEFFER: "Well let me just say. Let's start with this, okay, don't you have to secure the border, though and take care of these children that are already here? How do you do that?"
GUTIERREZ: "The border is secure; the fact is, the children are handing themselves over to the Border Patrol Agents, and under our laws, they must be treated. So all I have come here to say is two things: America, there's American Exceptionalism, right? I believe in it, and I say we are the strongest, wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world and children are coming into our borders and we should protect them. Now I will say this, follow the law, and the law said that we must put the children's interests first, which is what President Barack Obama is doing. I find Governor Perry interesting in that Republicans keep saying, "Well, we can't fix the immigration issue because we don't trust the President to enforce the law." And then, when the President actually follows the law in 2002 and 2008, the very law that was signed by President Bush, they said, "Well, he should do something different.""