On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said that one thing preventing Congress from passing legislation that would include stronger border security is “a number of us believe that there are a lot of people in this country, undocumented who should be allowed to stay. They have been a vital part of our economy. They are vital parts of our community. They are husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, working, paying taxes. We have depended upon their labor for decades, and to rip those families apart and send them back to countries that, in many cases, they don’t even know, we believe, would be wrong. So, Democrats want pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants, and then a lot of us are wide open to talking about toughening the asylum laws and getting to greater security.”
Smith began by saying that there has to be due process for deportations to ensure people aren’t wrongfully deported and the Trump administration is defying the Supreme Court.
He then stated, “[W]e did a poor job of securing the border, particularly on the asylum laws. I don’t necessarily agree with everything that Mr. Homan said there, but certainly, the asylum laws were wide open, and people took advantage of that. And President Biden didn’t do enough to secure the border. On the larger question of what Congress wants to do, the problem is we can’t get a compromise, tough on the border, but also, we’ve got Donald Trump blocking refugees, taking away Temporary Protect[ed] Status, and also a number of us believe that there are a lot of people in this country, undocumented who should be allowed to stay. They have been a vital part of our economy. They are vital parts of our community. They are husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, working, paying taxes. We have depended upon their labor for decades, and to rip those families apart and send them back to countries that, in many cases, they don’t even know, we believe, would be wrong. So, Democrats want pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants, and then a lot of us are wide open to talking about toughening the asylum laws and getting to greater security. But that inability to compromise on that issue is the biggest thing that has blocked Congress acting.”
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