Representative Norma Torres (D-CA) said Friday on MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports” that the Republicans intentionally stoke anti-immigration hatred to “continue their policies of racism and domestic terrorism.”
Torres said, “We have to remember that Title 42 was a very biased policy instituted by former President Trump. This is a president that incarcerated and put families and children in cages. If Republicans want Title 42 lifted and they don’t want to allow asylum seekers into our country, which our country has a very strict asylum laws on the books already, then they should work on those issues. But utilizing this very mean-spirited policy to turn away women and children that are seeking help from our country is absolutely inhumane and wrong.”
She continued, “I understand we cannot help every single person at our southern border, and I have spent the last seven and a half years in Congress working on addressing the root causes of migration. This is not a single issue. This is not just a border issue. We have to be very, very clear that our borders are not open. They have never been open. But rather than working with Democrats to focus on policies to assist people in their own country, they continue day in and day out to work against every single effort that I have put forward.”
Torres added, “In the U.S., we have a shortage of workers, we could be working on agricultural visas, we could be helping to formalize the DACA recipients that have been in our country since they were babies, many of them, that grew up in our country, are educated, are working professionals. They have temporary visas. Why not move on those immigration issues. We have not been able to because there has been no emphasis from the Republicans to help with this policy because they need this hatred, anti-immigrant hatred in order to continue their policies of racism and domestic terrorism.”
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