An incoming House Democratic lawmaker representing a border area emphasized this week that the U.S.-Mexico border is safe, despite President Trump’s repeated calls for heightened security.
“The border is secure. It has never been safer,” said Rep.-elect Veronica Escobar (D), who won election last week to represent Texas’ 16th District, encompassing El Paso and surrounding areas.
“It’s time to stop the national obsession with border security,” Escobar added during an event hosted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
The former El Paso County judge, who won the race to replace Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), argued that “the goal post has kept moving” on border security.
But she maintained that “coming from the border, one of the safest cities in the United States of America, the border is secure and it’s time for us to move on to humane comprehensive immigration reform.”
Trump made immigration and border security a major campaign issue with his Republican base during the midterm elections.
Before the election, the president ordered the deployment of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, citing a migrant caravan of Central American asylum seekers trekking toward the distant U.S. border.
Escobar, along with Texas Rep.-elect Sylvia Garcia (D), made history last week when they became the first two Texas Latinas to be elected to Congress.
— Alison Spann
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