This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," June 29, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Listen carefully. Some congressional Democrats -- did you hear that? Democrats! -- have a message for their Democratic President Obama -- Don't sue Arizona. Now, one of those Democrats is Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She joins us live. Good evening.

REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, D-ARIZ.: Thanks for having me on.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK, I'm going to get to the issue of suing Arizona, but first the question of boycotts. You have been quoted as saying that there have been some federal agencies or departments or divisions that are part of a boycott of your state.

GIFFORDS: Yes. I'm very troubled by this. Ever since SB1070 passed, I've been working with the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association, talking to any group that's thinking about boycotting Arizona or is boycotting Arizona. I don't care if it's a rock band, if it's a city, a state or the federal government, I'm telling them the boycotts are misguided and oftentimes hurt the very people that these groups espouse that they support.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, is the federal government itself one of the boycotters, though?

GIFFORDS: We have two instances from the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, where meetings were planned, meetings were canceled, and the reason given was because of the immigration law.

VAN SUSTEREN: What do you -- when you call up the president or call up anyone -- I mean, call up your leadership or say, you know, What's going on here? I mean, this is, like, the federal government is now boycotting a state over a statute it hasn't even bothered to challenge. Because they have not -- they have not sued your state yet.

GIFFORDS: No, and...

VAN SUSTEREN: And you even heard the attorney general say, who doesn't support the law -- he says there's no racial profiling. And there's a question whether a lot of people have even read the statute who are complaining about it.

GIFFORDS: Well, a lot of this right now is just jump on Arizona. Let's beat up Arizona. And as a native Tucsonan, I mean, I resent this. And I hold those groups personally responsible for damaging the economy of Arizona even more than it currently has been damaged.

VAN SUSTEREN: But do you call those agencies that have canceled their meetings, or do you call the president, say, What's going on?

GIFFORDS: Oh, absolutely. We've pushed back.

VAN SUSTEREN: And what do you hear?

GIFFORDS: Well, we haven't heard anything. You know, we've heard, Oh, well, it didn't really happen that way. But again, working with those hotels, we know the reason why those meetings were canceled, and it's absolutely wrong! I don't care which group it is. And you know, these -- you know, hard-working Arizonans were just slowly coming out of the economic crisis right now. And again, it's not fair. Those tourism workers, those folks that rent cars, those people that have restaurants or gift shops were not responsible for passing the law. So if you're angry at the politicians, take out your anger and resentment on the politicians, not over -- you know, over the hard-working people's backs!

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you -- have you -- have you heard anything about the federal government -- I mean, obviously, you've heard that the federal government -- there's noise is going to sue the state of Arizona. But have you gotten any indications this is really going to happen or whether this is just saber-rattling?

GIFFORDS: You know, I'm not sure. I'm not an attorney. And I represent Arizona's 8th district. It's the most porous part of the U.S./Mexico border. I also had the unfortunate situation of Rob Krentz, my constituent, who was tragically murdered on his ranch two-and-a-half months ago. So all of my focus is on the border. It's on the 240,000-plus illegal immigrants who were apprehended in the Tucson sector last year, the over a million pounds of marijuana that was seized in the Tucson sector. So you know, for me, it's more boots on the ground, it's not more attorneys at the courthouse. I mean, that's what's going to solve the problem.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. So I take it you don't want President Obama or the Justice Department to sue your state.

GIFFORDS: I don't. I really want to focus the -- you know, focus on the problem of securing the border.

VAN SUSTEREN: Were you at the meeting with Mr. Brennan?

GIFFORDS: I was.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK, what are metric deliverables? Have you figured that one out?

GIFFORDS: Well, you know...

VAN SUSTEREN: (INAUDIBLE) is that just Washington speak? I tell you, I had to take notes on that one!

GIFFORDS: You know, for -- those meetings -- the positive thing was to actually have, you know, the president's indirect ear with Mr. Brennan, who is a top security adviser to the president, and his team coming.

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes, but (INAUDIBLE) thing, though, that would disturb me is, was -- you say you had a top person. Why not send former governor Napolitano, who's director of Homeland Security, who knows the state probably as well as you do or -- you know -- you know, why didn't he send her? Why did he have to reinvent the wheel for someone who wants to determine metric deliverables, find out goals? She knows exactly the problem! Why didn't he send her?

GIFFORDS: Well, she does know the problem. She...

VAN SUSTEREN: Why didn't he send her?

GIFFORDS: That's a good question. I don't know. We did have someone from the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice...

VAN SUSTEREN: Why reinvent the wheel! Send her! She knows the problem!

GIFFORDS: Well, the good thing, with the announcement, with the National Guard, obviously, that is going to be under a joint jurisdiction. And you know, we wanted more Guardsmen on the border. You know, we called for 3,000. Twelve hundred was promised to the southwest border, 524...

VAN SUSTEREN: You're getting 524.

GIFFORDS: ... and then 250 roughly to both Texas and California, the remainder going to New Mexico. And again, I mean, I'm just grateful considering this problem's been going on for...

VAN SUSTEREN: Grateful! Why aren't you madder than hell that Janet Napolitano doesn't get down there?

GIFFORDS: Because we have a thousand other additional border patrol agents that are coming. Then we have about 130 ICE agents, as well, that are coming, $600 million. And again...

VAN SUSTEREN: (INAUDIBLE) authorized the $600 million?

GIFFORDS: Well, we're working on it.

VAN SUSTEREN: So you don't even have the -- the $6 million -- the $600 million is a concept!

GIFFORDS: Yes. Well, again, we -- you know, we -- we're in budget talks today about how we're going to be able to get the supplemental through. And it's a priority. So you know, again, we have been mistreated for so long, for many administrations...