DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMEMBERS CAMP OUT WITH MIGRANTS AT U.S. BORDER, HELP TEAR-GASSED FAMILY MAKE ASYLU

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Newsweek

DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMEMBERS CAMP OUT WITH MIGRANTS AT U.S. BORDER, HELP TEAR-GASSED FAMILY MAKE ASYLUM CLAIM
BY CHANTAL DA SILVA ON 12/18/18 AT 5:48 AM

Two Democratic lawmakers have been camped out since Monday with a group of Central American asylum seekers who made their way to the U.S.-Mexico border town of Tijuana, to help escort some of the most vulnerable to a U.S. port of entry.

Among that group were Maria Meza and her five children—the Honduran family pictured in a photo that shook the world, showing Meza and her children, with two still in diapers, fleeing tear gas fired by U.S. Border Patrol agents last month.

After waiting with Meza and her family for seven hours, Democratic Representative Jimmy Gomez of Los Angeles told Newsweek that Meza and her children were finally able to make their asylum claims at the U.S. border on Monday evening at the Otay Mesa port of entry in San Diego.

The family, along with thousands of other Central American asylum seekers, had been waiting for weeks to make their asylum claims.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/democratic-lawmakers-help-migrant-family-teargassing-photo-get-across-us-1262508?piano_t=1

[Cha]

1. Thank You, Democratic Congress Members!

[pazzyanne]

2. I love Congressmembers who are not afraid to get down in the trenches!

We need a lot more of them!

[Judi Lynn]

3. You've reminded me of Congressman Leo Ryan, who was murdered during his activism:

Wikipedia:

. . .

Leo Joseph Ryan Jr. (May 5, 1925 – November 18, 1978) was an American teacher and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until his assassination as part of the Jonestown massacre in 1978.

After the Watts Riots of 1965, Assemblyman Ryan took a job as a substitute school teacher to investigate and document conditions in the area. In 1970, he decided to investigate the conditions of California prisons. While presiding as chairman of the Assembly committee that oversaw prison reform, he used a pseudonym to enter Folsom Prison as an inmate. During his time in Congress, Ryan traveled to Newfoundland to investigate the practice of seal hunting. He was also famous for vocal criticism of the lack of Congressional oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and authored the Hughes–Ryan Amendment, passed in 1974.

Ryan was shot and killed at an airstrip in Guyana in November 1978 while his party was attempting to escape a dangerous situation. He had traveled to Guyana to investigate claims that people were being held against their will at the Peoples Temple Jonestown settlement. Ryan was killed the same day of the mass suicide, which occurred just 11 days after he was re-elected for a fourth term. He was the second sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives to have been assassinated in office, the first being James M. Hinds in 1868.[1][2] He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously in 1983.

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Ryan

~ ~ ~

Don't forget Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who was with the investigative team when they were attacked, who luckily made it home. Her Wikipedia:

Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier[1] (/spɪər/; born May 14, 1950) is an American politician who currently serves as U.S. Representative for California's 14th congressional district, serving in Congress since 2008. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 12th District from 2008 to 2013, includes the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and the southwest quarter of San Francisco. She represents much of the territory that had been represented by her political mentor, Leo Ryan. In 1978, while working as his aide, Speier survived five gunshot wounds during the assassination of Ryan, part of the Jonestown massacre.

She is also a former member of the California State Senate who represented parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties. On April 8, 2008, she won the special election for the vacated United States House of Representatives seat of late Congressman Tom Lantos.[2]

. . .

Jonestown shooting

Speier entered politics by serving as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of his November 1978 fact-finding mission organized to investigate allegations of human-rights abuses by Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown, Guyana, with Jones in 1977 and 1978.[4] Speier was one of two members of the mission who made wills before traveling to Jonestown.[9]

Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people died, including Congressman Ryan. While trying to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with other team members, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived.[10] That same day, over 900 remaining members of the Peoples Temple died in Jonestown and Georgetown in a mass murder-suicide.

. . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Speier

[pazzyanne]

4. I remember when Ryan was shot and killed.

I also remember what happened at Jonestown and the attempts that were made to rescue family members who had joined the Jim Jones cult. A horrible time with horrible results. I did not remember that Jackie Speier was one of the members of the fact finding mission. Thank you for sharing, Judi Lynn. I always enjoy your posts as you always supply needed background information.