On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) stated that many of the reported details of the border agreement are “troublesome,” and criticized the talks for not including relief for people in the country illegally, but also criticized Republicans for only wanting chaos by blocking a deal.
Padilla said, “[A] lot of what we’re hearing is troublesome, because a lot of it is frankly Trump’s playbook back in action, a series of policies that have been proven to not work. You can call it Title 42, the presidential authority to ‘close the border,’ we know that didn’t work under Trump, and we can’t expect it to work again. Nobody’s arguing that we don’t need to modernize our immigration laws as a whole. But our Republican colleagues who insist on shutting down the border or ‘driving the numbers down’ aren’t willing to really engage in the root cause conversation. If we’re genuine and sincere about addressing the number of people coming to the United States, either seeking asylum or seeking economic opportunity, let’s have that responsible, thoughtful conversation, but that’s not what we’re hearing from negotiators.”
He added, “Another thing that’s been lost in the shuffle here is any sort of relief for DREAMers, for essential workers, for farmworkers who are already here contributing to the economy, contributing to the security of our nation.”
Host José Díaz-Balart then said, “Senator, you’re talking about some of those kind of outside influences. Donald Trump is looking to torpedo any agreement, and it seems like a number of House and Senate Republicans are following his lead.”
Padilla responded, “José, so there you have it. Have Republicans been genuine all along or not? Because you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that what we have at the border is a crisis and that we have an urgent need to act, and then, publicly, say that, well, let’s wait until November and see how the election goes to try to do something about it. You can’t have it both ways, where Senate Republicans, some, want to make sure that Secretary Mayorkas is in the room helping to negotiate and craft a deal, where[as], in the House, they’re moving to impeach him. You can’t have it both ways. And it seems like increasingly, Republicans are just playing political games. In the prior segments, you had what’s happening in Texas with Gov. Abbott (R) literally deploying state guards to keep federal officials from doing their job and securing the border. So, all they want is chaos. They’re certainly creating a whole lot of it. But let’s not let them get away with it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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