Dem Rep. Barragan: ‘We’re Going to Have to Start Thinking about Allowing Migrants to Come Because of Climate Change’

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Alex Witt Reports,” Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-CA) argued that migrants are coming to the U.S. due to the pandemic and “natural disasters that are happening, and now compound climate change on that, we’re going to have to start thinking about allowing migrants to come because of climate change that’s happening and ravaging these other countries.”

Barragan said, “Well, the first thing I’ll say is, one in three of [the] people that are encountered at the border are those that are coming back. Because what’s happened is they’re being deported under Title 42 and they’re coming back. So, the 1.7 number is, it’s just encounters. It’s not 1.7 million different people. Second of all, we still don’t have — we don’t have a system in place. We have immigration laws, unfortunately, but they’re not being followed. So, what’s happening is, people are coming, they cannot apply for asylum like they generally would. So, now they’re having to come in through crossings across the Rio Grande and different places. And so, that’s part of the problem. We need to invest in judges and making sure that we restart [the] immigration process so people can apply for asylum. But look, why are they coming? They’re coming because of the pandemic. They’re coming because of natural disasters that are happening, and now compound climate change on that, we’re going to have to start thinking about allowing migrants to come because of climate change that’s happening and ravaging these other countries. So, we need to all come together on the climate crisis. Because we’ll see more of this and mass migration.”

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