Rep. Escobar Expressed Dismay at 'Alarming' Anti-Immigration Rhetoric

Texas Representative Veronica Escobar (D) expressed her dismay at the “alarming” anti-immigration rhetoric from her fellow United States congressmen.

The fifth year in congresswoman shared her observations regarding the conversation surrounding immigration.

“I’ve seen an alarming trend that’s become increasingly more alarming every day that I’ve been in Congress. And that trend is the desire and effort to paint immigrants as criminals and the reason for that is to essentially dehumanize immigrants, and that allows for a furthering of xenophobic rhetoric and xenophobic policies and anti-immigrant policies as well. And there is a serious consequence to engaging that way.”

Rep. Escobar stated that there were serious consequences “to painting immigrants as dangerous or threatening and making the country feel fearful of them.”

The Texas lawmaker continued to warn of the dangers of “a promotion of hate of immigrants."

Rep. Escobar reminded her colleagues of the violent, racist attack by a shooter in East Texas targeting Mexicans.

“El Paso, which is a border community that has a quarter of our population that is immigrant born and is also one of the safest communities in the United States of America. This…individual, a domestic terrorist, a white nationalist, drove over 10 hours to my community and he confessed that he did that in order to slaughter Mexicans and immigrants because of the ‘invasion.’”

“And that is a word that is frequently used by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and by politicians all across this country who want to promote that xenophobia.”

The representative’s comments are in reference to a violent attack in 2019 when a racist shooter opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, targeting Mexicans in the store. Some of those who were attacked by the shooter were “kids raising money for their sports teams” and “senior citizens waiting to buy their prescription medication”.

Rep. Escobar highlighted the hypocrisy of some of her colleagues.

“He was not an undocumented immigrant. He was a U.S. citizen. And U.S. citizens are carrying out massacres all across the country with automatic-style weapons. And I don’t see the same urgency to have that conversation from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”

The Texas representative spent her life on the border and is a 3rd generation border resident. Moreover, she has raised her kids on the border. Because of this, Escobar believes that she has a personal vested interest in the safety of the area.

“[T]he only way to do it is if Republicans work with Democrats in a bipartisan manner to update laws that haven’t been updated in almost 40 years,” stated the El Paso native calling for togetherness.

“It is our job to address the situation. And a key way to address this and to create safer communities is by opening up legal pathways. But unfortunately, we are not going to see that from our colleagues, by and large on the other side of the aisle. And instead, we’re going to see the same thing, which is a shrinking of legal pathways, a refusal to modernize outdated laws. And that is precisely what creates a deeply broken system.”

The Texas congresswoman has continued to highlight gun violence in America. It will be interesting to see how legislation changes in the coming months.