On Tuesday, as the Trump Administration returned a hundred children to dangerously neglectful conditions at a Border Patrol facility in Clint, Texas, and announced the resignation of the acting head of Customs and Border Protection, House Democrats prepared to vote for a four-and-a-half-billion-dollar humanitarian-aid package to help immigrants at the border. But supporting the aid package was not as straightforward as it might seem, with members of the Progressive Caucus expressing concern that any money supplied to Border Protection would inevitably aid Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.

Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from Texas’s Sixteenth Congressional District, represents the city of El Paso, which is about twenty miles from Clint. Escobar, who was elected to the seat last November, replacing Beto O’Rourke, has been outspoken on the issue of child separations, and complained to Customs and Border Protection about the conditions in Clint. I spoke by phone with the congresswoman on Tuesday afternoon, as the House was considering the bill. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed Border Patrol’s treatment of children, what Texas Republicans are saying about the immigrant-detention crisis, and why members of Congress are having trouble getting information on the situation at the border.

Do you have any sense of why some of these children were moved back to Clint?

I do not. We have been trying to get more information. We actually first heard that that might happen last night. We have been working very hard to try to get information and have not been successful.

Who are you in touch with to get information, and how responsive are they? What is your process?

Our process is that the district office tries to get information at the local level, and we give that some time, out of respect to those local folks. They are many times pretty quickly responsive. But when we need information right away and we are not getting the information we need, we then go higher up the chain. If we have not heard back, I may at some point this afternoon reach out to folks to try to find out what is going on, and why they would be put back in a facility that was already just profoundly inadequate.

Where are the other children—those who haven’t been moved back, and are in Health and Human Services (H.H.S.) custody? Do you have some sense of their status and/or well-being?

No, we don’t. My office did tour one of the local facilities that is run by a licensed group. My team told me that it was really well-run and an impressive facility, but there is limited bed space. And that is part of why the supplemental border bill we are voting on today is so important. It appropriates more money on the H.H.S. side to get some of those beds and move children out of those profoundly inadequate facilities.

There has been a debate among Democrats about increased border aid, with some members of your party saying that it will just give the Administration more power, and that any legal limits placed on the aid will be ignored. It sounds like you think the bill is necessary despite that.

I do. I don’t believe there is a single member of our caucus who has faith in this Administration, that it will do the moral and ethical thing when it comes to migrants. In anticipation of our mistrust of the Administration, the appropriators actually built into the legislation a prohibition on transfers. The money cannot be used for anything other than what it has been appropriated for. You are right: there has been a vigorous debate internally about ways to improve the bill. All of us believe there is much more work to do, including the appropriators. The question before us today is whether we can pass something that will quickly pass the Senate, because folks like me who are on the front lines know the emergency that we are facing.

In terms of building in these guardrails, is there concern that the Administration will ignore them, no matter how well the bill is written?

Oh yeah, of course. But that fear exists with or without this supplemental [bill]. If we can target this money for the needs of families and children and communities like El Paso, it is far better than the status quo. If we vote down this bill, or, if the Senate doesn’t move ours, or, if this languishes too long, I really, truly believe we will have more deaths. The status quo is unacceptable.

No community has been more targeted by Trump’s cruel border policies than El Paso. We were the testing ground for child separation. We have seen the number of individuals sent back to Mexico under the M.P.P. program [Migrant Protection Protocols, which were implemented this year, and which return some asylum seekers to Mexico] continue to grow. We had a partial border shutdown. The impact on a community like mine has been beyond significant. It has been deeply consequential on our psyche and our economy and our community. El Paso has responded beautifully, but everyone, rightfully so, is looking for Congress to do something. We need to pass this bill.

Have you felt any sense of urgency from your Republican colleagues, especially in the Texas House delegation, or the Republican governor of your state?

I have not seen a sense of urgency on the humanitarian side from my governor. I think the posturing that has taken place is more about looking tough on the border. That is disheartening. It shows either a deep lack of understanding of what is actually happening or a complete disregard for the truth. We are seeing a significant increase in the number of asylum seekers at our front door. By continuing to try to paint the border as unsafe or a place that needs soldiers or more boots on the ground, versus a humanitarian response, demonstrates to me that the governor has no idea what is really happening, or he doesn’t really care.

And the Republican congressional delegation?

I think that we have a number of Republicans who are deeply concerned about the humanitarian needs at the border. It is my hope that they will join us today in support of that supplemental.

Is this the ten-thousandth issue I have talked to someone about where you or someone says, “Well, in private, the Republicans are upset, and they tell us that Trump isn’t great, but they don’t want to say anything”?

There are definitely a number of those folks that I have spoken to. [Laughs.]

Is there some aspect of this crisis that members of Congress are hearing about that hasn’t broken through via the media?

Not that I am aware of, because, honestly, it is members of Congress who have been informed by the media or lawyers about what it actually happening. And that is part of why this bill is so important to me. On the House side, we will have the ability to go into these facilities at any given time. We don’t have to schedule a visit. We don’t have to wait twenty-four or forty-eight hours. We can just show up. As an example, when the story broke about the two hundred and fifty children at the Clint facility, I asked that my district staff go in immediately. Of course, their visit was punted to the next day, and, by the time my staff was allowed in, most of the children had been moved. It has been very challenging for us to provide oversight with this Administration. And thank goodness for journalists and for lawyers who have been able to find their way to the truth and let the world know.