Democrats are blasting House Republicans for legislation that targets vulnerable immigrants seeking asylum, after having refused for years to take any substantive action to address the immigration crisis in the U.S., a crisis that could be seen as an opportunity to grow the economy – especially as unemployment is hovering around a 50-year low and businesses are struggling to find workers.
“Republicans said the bill, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, would address a crisis at the border by mandating that Customs and Border Protection hire and train 22,000 Border Patrol agents and develop a plan to upgrade existing technology to make sure agents are well equipped,” NBC News reports. “The legislation would also require the homeland security secretary to resume construction of the border wall, a centerpiece of former President Donald Trump’s administration.”
Democrats railed against it Thursday.
“This bill is a rerun of Donald Trump’s biggest failures and inhumane border policies,” declared U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) on the House floor Thursday. “This is the ‘Child Deportation Act,’ because that’s exactly what this does. It doesn’t address any single issue at the border. It doesn’t create pathways to citizenship for those illegally attempting to receive asylum, which is a right in this country.”
“It focuses on expediting child deportation and detaining unaccompanied minors and even spending millions of your taxpayer dollars on a pointless border wall. Floridians back in my home state know that this nothing bill is a rerun of Donald Trump’s biggest failure.”
House Judiciary Democrats mocked their GOP colleagues, using video clips of their own words against them, including one Republican lamenting, “they call us racist, and anti-immigrant, and xenophobic.”
Meanwhile, noting that “seeking asylum is a human right,” U.S. Rep. Chuy García (D-IL), called the legislation “the cruelest we’ve seen,” and said it is “straight out of Tucker Carlson’s playbook,” referring to the recently fired, former Fox News propagandist, a white nationalist.
U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) accused Republicans of treating the vulnerable seeking asylum with “contempt,” “vitriol,” and “callousness.”
U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) noted, “this bill is not a serious attempt to fix our broken immigration system,” ands called it “an anti-immigrant MAGA wishlist.”
The bill passed the House late Thursday afternoon in a 219-213 vote, with two Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against it. It has little to no chance of passing the Senate. NBC News notes it “passed the same day Covid restrictions that allow for the rapid expulsion of migrants, known as Title 42, are set to end.”
Watch the videos above or at this link.