A Texas Democrat is calling for civilians rather than Border Patrol agents to process illegal immigrants at the southern border. Representative Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) on MSNBC on Thursday called for the federal government to “civilianize” border personnel and claims that the Biden administration “has been very open” to her ideas.
“I have proposed and have been working with [Homeland Security] Secretary Mayorkas on reforming the way we process asylum seekers at the southern border,” Escobar said on MSNBC Reports.
“We should not be utilizing law enforcement to essentially manage or oversee or process vulnerable populations. We should civilianize that personnel and get law enforcement back to what they were trained to do,” the congresswoman said.
Escobar believes her plan would “restore dignity” to the border-jumping process.
“I think it will really be a watershed moment for us on the border if we’re able to successfully make this work,” Escobar said, “so that we restore dignity to the process, restore dignity to migrants, and to federal personnel and maintain our security at the same time.”
Pushback to congresswoman’s idea of a no-police border was swift and unmerciful.
“This is insane. The congresswoman says ‘we should not be utilizing law enforcement’ at the border and that we must ‘civilianize’ Border Patrol,” tweeted Jake Schneider of the Republican National Committee. “What does she have in mind? Social workers? Give me a break. Democrats want OPEN BORDERS!”
Fellow Texas congressman Chip Roy let Escobar’s own words speak for her.
Escobar recently pressed the Biden administration to end the use of Title 42 — a move that many in both parties believe will result in an even greater surge of illegal immigration than we are already seeing.
“The use of Title 42, introduced by the Trump Administration, effectively eliminated access to legal asylum in our country,” Escobar said in a statement. “I have been calling for an end to Title 42 since it began and I am hopeful that the Biden Administration will soon rescind it.”
Escobar has led calls to reorganize the asylum seeking process and has called on Washington to completely reform the way immigration is handled. She has sent letters to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and DHS Secretary Mayorkas, urging them “to create a pilot program for processing vulnerable populations using civilian personnel instead of law enforcement. If we re-envision our immigration policies to be more strategic and humane, we can simultaneously create a more just and orderly process at our southern border, better use our resources, and prioritize both security and human dignity.”
Escobar also calls for Congress to act, possibly fully knowing that they never will. It’s why Barack Obama did the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by executive order. Open immigration of the type Escobar calls for is too unpopular politically for Congress to act on in the way she demands.
“Congress has an obligation to act on reforming outdated immigration laws. Calls for vulnerable populations to ‘get in line’ or ‘do it the right way’ reflect an ignorance about the limited legal opportunities that exist,” Escobar explained. “It falls on those of us in Congress to create those legal opportunities that would go a long way in addressing the challenges and opportunities we face at our nation’s front door and beyond.”
Illegal immigration is already at crisis levels on the southern border. The Biden administration’s actions (and inactions) are making it worse. Escobar’s wish to remove law enforcement from the equation and replace them with civilians would make it unhinged to the point of questioning our national sanity.
