'This is not an infiltration by criminals,' Democratic congresswoman says after visiting with asy

[riversedge]

‘This is not an infiltration by criminals,’ Democratic congresswoman says after visiting with asylum seekers


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/this-is-not-an-infiltration-by-criminals-democratic-congresswoman-says-after-visiting-with-asylum-seekers/2018/12/01/5d7eee3c-f5b9-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.dd9d720d074d



By Paige Winfield Cunningham


December 1 at 9:17 PM

Rep. Pramila Jayapal met Saturday with asylum seekers in Tijuana, Mexico, who are running up against strict new Trump administration policies, saying she is determined to tell the truth about what is happening on the U.S.-Mexico border as she and fellow Democrats prepare to launch an investigation early next year.

“We just have to counter the lies of the president in telling about what’s happening here on the border,” the Washington Democrat said Saturday evening. “This is not an infiltration by criminals — this is people seeking the American Dream, and we should be processing them and we should be allowing them to come in.”

Jayapal, a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and one of the most outspoken critics of Trump’s immigration policies, visited several shelters where members of a migrant “caravan” are being housed as they wait for their claims to be processed amid large backlogs. The border crossing linking Tijuana with San Diego saw major clashes last weekend between asylum seekers trying to enter the U.S. and border guards who blocked their way.

More than a third of the members of the caravan are women and children, according to numbers provided by the city of Tijuana. Those figures stand in stark contrast to how Trump has described migrant caravans, characterizing them as mostly comprising dangerous single men.

Jayapal said most of the people she spoke with were from Honduras, which is one of several Central American countries with high levels of gang violence. She described several conversations with migrants who had left dangerous situations back home, including a pregnant woman who had left her 3-year-old child behind, a 17-year-old boy who had been shot in both knees, and a mother of three whose partner had been murdered............................




Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) is shown in Seattle on Aug. 8, 2015, while she was a Washington state senator. (Elaine Thompson/AP)

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Oh,I thought she was talking about 45's administration.

Had verbal fists at the ready for rebuttal.