GOP senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn led a tour for themselves and others in their party at the border on Friday, but according to congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who took over Beto O’Rourke’s former 16th District in Texas, it’s all “political theater.”
They want to “use the border as a prop, do a whole lot of complaining and finger-pointing. But these are the same people who’ve been in the Senate for a number of years when their party had control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, [and] they did not solve this problem,” she tells co-host Molly Jong-Fast and producer Jesse Cannon on this bonus episode of The New Abnormal.
That’s not to say that Biden has all the answers, he doesn’t. But she does feel like it’s finally time we get to the root of the immigration debate in our country.
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“[Constituents] don’t want us to be the problem,” she adds. “They want us to solve problems.” But how? It’s twofold, she explains.
First, we need to have real sit-down conversations and policies in place in regards to the countries in the Southern Hemisphere to hold them accountable (“These countries are turning a blind eye in many respects to the awful human trafficking, criminal organizations and networks that have existed for a long time.”)
And, it’s going to take Americans getting real with themselves. We love the ideal of the immigrant more than the actual immigrants themselves.
“Why are Americans so afraid of immigrants?” Escobar asks. “We need to instill some compassion into the hearts of Americans.”
Plus! She and Molly discuss why Latino voters, in Texas specifically, can be pro-Republican and pro-ICE. It seems irrational but there’s a reason.
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