On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) stated that former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies created “a lot of built-up bottleneck,” which she said led people who want to seek asylum to “find other ways to come across” due to obstacles like Title 42 and Remain in Mexico.
Garcia stated, “I think they’ve had a plan, and you’ll recall, for some time, they had to put it into place. And I think we’re seeing some change. Secretary Mayorkas briefed us on a five-point plan that included everything from trying to put more people down there in terms of staffing, providing that quicker processing of the asylum requests. So, just remember that, for the last two or three years, all of this has been at a standstill with all the programs that have been implemented by the previous administration, forcing people to remain in Mexico, forcing people — turning people away. So, there’s been a lot of built-up bottleneck, if you will, that now, I think, we’re seeing people, more and more people coming through. And it’s cyclical. It’s the migration patterns that happen every so many years. So, I think the administration is working hard at it.”
She added, “We need to do more, particularly zeroed in on human smuggling and traffickers — because this is a huge, huge issue, because it’s nearly impossible to check every single truck — working my way through law school, I was actually a customs inspector here in Houston. And I can tell you there was no way we could check every container. We couldn’t check every single box in the warehouse. But we’ve got to find a way to find the signs and find the things that might lead us to suspect that a truck may be a carrier for human beings. And it — again, it’s hard for me to imagine any human being treating another human being like cattle and mistreating them at the level that this horrific scene was, but I think we could always do more, and certainly, I would call on the governor to do more on his part. He has put together a border plan and has spent billions of dollars…on the border, but obviously, something’s gone wrong if — the president’s program has to work, the governor’s program has to work. We both have to do better.”
Garcia further stated that people seeking asylum “get nothing but barriers” like Title 42 and Remain in Mexico, and “they find other ways to come across.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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