Democratic members of Congress tour border in El Paso

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Democratic members of Congress from across the country came to the Borderland to see firsthand how our immigration policies are affecting communities along the southern border.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, welcomed Democratic colleagues to the Borderland to see what happens here and all members agreed that there is a broken immigration system.

“You can see the impact of more robust standards. We’re not seeing individuals in cages any longer. We’re seeing clean, humane conditions, which I think is appropriate,” said Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Illinois.

Escobar said the immigration system has pushed migrants into an asylum system that doesn’t have the capacity to handle them.

She also said her push for the Dignity Act would address not just what is happening at the border but everything beyond the south and would make the immigration situation more manageable. One push of the legislation would be to modernize an outdated system, Escobar said.

Across the country, there are 8 million unfilled jobs, Escobar noted.

“So we’ve got these two competing interests. We’ve got lots of people who want to come to the U.S. to work, but because there’s no legal pathways, they’re put into an asylum system that is being crushed. And then we’re not, haven’t opened up legal pathways, so we don’t have enough of a workforce to meet the need and the demand,” Escobar said.

During a news conference, as each Congress member talked, it was was clear they all agreed there is a broken aspect to the current immigration system.

“We shouldn’t have a system built on manipulation, shouldn’t have a system be built on perverse incentives. We shouldn’t have an immigration system that puts vulnerable people increasingly into harm’s way. The United States of America is better than that,” Underwood said.

U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pennsylvania, said the immigration system is deeply flawed.

“And it really requires an all hands on deck, a bipartisan look at a comprehensive reform. And what I also have seen is that this is very much only a Band-Aid solution in many ways that we have used to create what it amounts to only one pathway, and that is that mostly asylum seeking to come here and seek a better life through a better pathway,” Houlahan, said.

Escobar said the vast majority of border communities are among the safest in the nation.

To read more about the bipartisan immigration reform, the Dignity Act, click here.

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