Rep. Susan Davis Weighs In On U.S. Immigration Policy And More

MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Our top story on Midday Edition, we've invited members of San Diego's congressional delegation to join us during the July 4th break. Today, I would like to welcome Representative Susan Davis. We will talk about the emergency of unaccompanied children crossing the border, to the advance of ISIS insurgents in Iraq, and the challenge to ObamaCare by the Hobby Lobby decision. Democrat Susan Davis is a senior member of the House armed services committee and serves as rate the member of the military personnel subcommittee. She serves as a representative of California's fifty-third Congressional District. Susan Davis, welcome to the program. SUSAN DAVIS: Thank you very much, Maureen. Always good to be with you. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: When you return to Washington, Congress will be resented with a formal request from the White House for about $2 billion in emergency funds to care for the young people and families coming across the border from Central America. Will you be voting yes on that request? SUSAN DAVIS: As always I will need to look at the legislation, and I need to look at what is really involved there. I think that there are costs that we have incurred, and that we will incur, and this is obligated because there is a former law that was passed by Congress in 2008 under the Bush administration. We need to look at those issues and see how they are impacting us now and see what we need to do. I feel that passing immigration reform is really an economic imperative for our country. If you look at the numbers and what it means in terms of job creation and a whole host of other issues including family reunification, we need to move forward on that. Whether or not this will help us to do that, I'm not sure. We see great blocks in Congress in order to do that. We also think it is important to put this piece of legislation on the desk of the president. We already have a Senate bill, we can conference on another bill, that would send a very important message that were trying to solve this, not just doing nothing. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Now, the president says until the day comes where he sees that legislation on his desk, he will continue to do what his executive powers allow him to do on immigration. Do you know what measures he plans to make? SUSAN DAVIS: I think that is unclear at this point, although he has talked about a few areas that he wants to look at. That is good, I think we need to do that. Maybe that will open a dialogue. I am not sure what that is going to be at this time, but what we need to do is bring people together and take a step back, and see what is happening today, and be concerned about the children. There are real humanitarian costs with families here, but at the same time, we need to be sensitive to the fact that my constituents and all of us look at this broken system, and say Congress, do something about this. You can. That would be much more preferable for the president, that Congress would act and get engaged. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Some people say, some people very close to the humanitarian crISIS, the number of young people crossing the border unaccompanied into the US, they say that this executive action on deferred deportation that the president made is one of the reasons we're seeing this crISIS on the border. SUSAN DAVIS: Well, I do not know that is clear. We know that there are messages going out to people in Central America, but there was a law passed in 2008 to under the Bush administration. The trafficking victims protection reauthorization act. That is having an impact, that is something we do need to look at. The difficulty there is that there is a change in how children, unattended minors are dealt with, they need to be screened, that we need to be sure that the people who are screening them have an understanding of the issues that they are facing. There is a question of how we do that. That file provided some guidance, and it was passed with a big bipartisan bill. We know with laws that have been passed this year, in a bipartisan way, people are very concerned about trafficking issues. They wanted to send a message that we're going to do with it as we can in this country. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What is your reaction to the protest against processing these young immigrants here in Southern California? SUSAN DAVIS: Border patrol agents have a job to do, it is important that the families, especially the children, women with young children, that they are processed and not just sent back. At this point, we really do not know where we are sending them back to. I think we need to let them do their job. That is the most important thing right now. Let Congress work through some of these other issues. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Do you think that these flights, I just spoke about one in the update, that are bringing immigrants had arrived on the border of Texas to San Diego for processing. Should these flights continue? Should they be brought here for processing? SUSAN DAVIS: The question we face is how they are still with in the interim. Certainly there is a path through Mexico that people are taking advantage of. Everyone is concerned about this issue, it is very sensitive, we need to face it and work through it. That is why I think we also need to have a step one, that is happening right now, and step two has to be how do we reform the system. How do we fix it? If we can bring those two together, we might find in the course of this year perhaps, that we would begin to find a solution. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Resident Obama has been authorizing a buildup of the US advisors and security forces in Iraq because of the advance of ISIS militants towards Baghdad. Do you agree with that decision? SUSAN DAVIS: We will not have any information about what is happening on the ground if we do not have advisors engaged. That is important, but like everything else, I have been against the war in Iraq, because I felt we did not really understand what we're getting ourselves into. Clearly, that was correct. We also need to have the best intelligence that we can at this point, and get a real handle on what is happening, but we also don't want to be so engaged. The important question always is what comes next? With the advisors and that information, is that going to be helpful? For us to be able to have some impact, I think the message that we have had to president Maliki, to try to bring the parties together, the stakeholders together. That is something that has not occurred, we need to do everything we can to bring it about. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: The US is using a great deal of drone surveillance in Iraq right now. The president is getting a lot of pressure to at least authorize the use of airstrikes in Iraq. Would you agree with the president authorizing airstrikes in Iraq? SUSAN DAVIS: That is the same kind of question, what comes next, and what do we mean by that? Whenever you have airstrikes, you can have situations you are not expecting. Dealing with unintended consequences is important. The kind of airstrikes that maybe contemplated are the ones where you have large groups of people who are causing chaos, away from the civilian population. You can never guarantee that. That is why it is always a difficult decision. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Up until this point, it is a decision that the president has been making on his own. At what point do you think the president should consult Congress about additional military action in Iraq? SUSAN DAVIS: I think it is clear that he has certain latitude to do that. We as Congress have been looking at this issue and trying to understand better how to move forward. The difficulty is called when you do have advisors, when you have engaged people on the ground, to say that we are not going to support that effort, I think at this point means that we have to continue to ask questions. That is what is happening. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Do you have a game plan in your mind about the question the president can go this far and no further? He needs to consult Congress if he wants to authorize any airstrikes or call up ground troops, I know that it is a fluid situation, but is that forming in your mind that the president has to go to Congress? SUSAN DAVIS: Airstrikes are covered now, in terms of the timeline that we are on. After we are out then I think it is appropriate to do that. Right now he is covered with the airstrike troops on the ground, and with combat troops I think he has ruled that out, I think Congress would rule that out, but I think we need more information. Advisors are covered, and I think we have some agreements with Iraq, I think they can be there. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What concerns do you have about the advance of ISIS in Iraq, and what does it mean for US security? SUSAN DAVIS: I think we certainly have concerns about ISIS partly by the sophistication that has been demonstrated by ISIS troops and leadership. On the other hand, there troops are more focused on the overall effort of creating an Islamic state, rather than the United States. We have to continue to watch that. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: To move slightly in the same area of the world, tensions are increasing in Israel over the death of both Israeli-Palestinian teenagers kidnapped and killed in that area. There is also an Israeli troop buildup near Gaza. Since peace talks have failed, what is the US role in this very dangerous situation? SUSAN DAVIS: Our role continues to be to get the parties talking. That has always been an important role that we have, it doesn't look like others are playing that role. Right now it is not a situation that anybody would have looked to, but again, I think that the parties do not want this to escalate out of control. We continue to be an important stakeholder in the region. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Do you think that we have the moral authority after these failed peace talks, if Secretary of State Kerry would be to go over over this volatile time it Israel, would that help? Or would it hurt the situation? SUSAN DAVIS: I am not sure either way, I think what is important in this situation is that the Palestinians and Israelis deal with this crISIS in terms of finding and making certain that those who did the deeds are punished. I think that Israel has certainly made some strong statements in terms of extremism that they see within their country, and I think that we need to have that same message sent from the Palestinians as well. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Closer to home, the Supreme Court decision on the Hobby Lobby case allowing small corporations to opt out of certain forms of birth control to employees, it has been seen as a threat to Obama care and actually an unintended consequence to the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act. There has been some calls on Congress to repeal this Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, that is the law that the justices based this ruling on. What is your feeling on that? SUSAN DAVIS: As a precedent, I think we should be concerned that people can step out of the law and not be under a certain lot because of religious reason. That is a concern. Like other bills that have been passed and other laws, we need to take a look at that. I think the restoration act has been a basis of a number of decisions that have been made that Congress has looked at. Everyone has been sensitive to religious beliefs, but at the same time there are people who come under the law who should not be affected by the religious beliefs of others. That is what we are dealing with here. Again, we will probably see this come up number of times, my guess is it will be tested again and again. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Recently you co-authored a bipartisan piece on the importance of women building a secure Afghanistan. Do you think women's rights will play an important part in a new Afghan administration? SUSAN DAVIS: The women that we have gotten to know and work with tell us absolutely, that they feel quite empowered, they have attained leadership, in their country, and they made a very big point during this last election to be sure that the leading contenders addressed their issues, and their concerns. They did, actually, they all held forums with women around education, sexual and domestic violence, many of the concerns. More than anything else, those women who have really attained leadership even in villages, they want a seat at the table. They want voices heard. I believe in meeting them over the last six years our Mother's Day trip to visit our troops, to visit our female troops, as well as male, but especially for the women on Mother's Day. To have met with so many of the women, many times the same women, we have a kind of baseline that we have established and we know the tremendous gains that have been made. I certainly, and I know Mike colleagues in a bipartisan fashion have been outspoken about these gains not being lost. I think that we have to do everything we can and we have impressed on the government that we think it is important for our country as well as for theirs, because women, as civil societies grow and develop, their role is very important. It is quite widely understood that is the case in Afghanistan as well as here and in other countries around the world. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I am sure that I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but this Congress is on pace to be one of the most do nothing legislative sessions in US history. We hear that from the president, if you could, could you explain what you think this deadlock in Congress actually means to the lives of the average San Diegan? SUSAN DAVIS: I think it is really a situation that we cannot be proud of at all. I happen to believe that we have a number of members in Congress that came in, not just wanting the president to fail, but not be willing to enact legislation that I personally believe is in the best interest of the United States of America. I think it is important that we address economic issues that people are having. We're seeing some change, that is good, there are fewer people on unemployment, but we also not seeing that we are able to address some of the issues of wage inequality, how people feel confident that they can raise a family and send children to college and not be overwhelmed with debt, that they can have a good retirement, those of the critical issues for my constituents. We have not been able to deal with those issues. Why? I think partly because people have not been willing to engage with the president, and perhaps there are some things that he could have done differently, but overall when I hear from people, I even hear from colleagues on the other side of the aisle willing to deal with immigration and the Highway trust fund, even the export import bank which helps businesses, that they are willing to deal with the issues, but they do not have enough colleagues willing to do that. They are really held back, and we need to change that. I don't know exactly how that will change, I know in my own way I try to work with my colleagues to talk to them about the issues that we all care about, and here in San Diego we have a thriving science community. There are so many things that we are proud of here in San Diego, and certainly the military plays a big role. But the VA, even with all of the problems that they have addressed some of the issues here better. We need to work on all of those things. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I am out of time, I really want to thank you though. Thank you so much for your time. SUSAN DAVIS: Thank you Maureen, always good to be with you again.