(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, strongly criticized her own party for its failure to safeguard the southern border and enact immigration laws during their House majority in 2021.
In a candid interview with Politico, Escobar did not mince words in reproaching what she deemed a “strategic mistake on the part of” the Democratic Party and President Joe Biden, emphasizing how immigration has become a top priority ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
The Democratic lawmaker pointed to an immigration bill proposed by Biden in 2021. However, Democrats, much like the immigration reforms proposed by former President Donald Trump, failed to act.
“When the president gave us that bill, House Democrats were in the majority, and we did not get that bill across the goal line,” Escobar told Politico. “This is where a lot of my own frustration comes from. We had the power to pass that bill. We had the majority and we didn’t do it. So here we have a Democratic president that needs Congress to do its job and we failed.”
Escobar expressed her desire for Biden to have “leaned” on immigration early on, implying that the Democrat president waited too long to prioritize the border.
“It’s what I advocated for when we were in the majority,” she continued, referring to the Democratic majority from 2020 through 2022. “We should lean in and we should explain to the American people how difficult this is and how multifaceted the solution has to be.”
She added, “It will take years of public policy and appropriations to get to a point where things are more manageable, but nobody wanted to talk about it. And I think that was a strategic mistake on the part of my party and that includes everybody.”
Escobar acknowledged the growing anger fueled by the unprecedented number of illegal aliens crossing the border. Several Democratic mayors and governors have joined the ranks of critics.
“The political environment is rapidly shifting,” she warned. “And I now hear many Democrats using similar terms that Republicans have used to describe immigration about closing the border. And that includes the president.”
Escobar’s criticism comes as Biden urges the Senate to pass a bipartisan border bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., however, declared that House Republicans would not support any bill that does not exclusively focus on deportation and border security.
A version of the border deal leaked online, allegedly including contentious measures like increasing green cards and visas for illegal aliens
Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.; and Chris Murphy, D-Ct., are currently negotiating the bill. The actual text of the bill remains undisclosed.
