Rep. Stansbury Statement on Voting Against Child Deportation Act

WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) released the following statement after voting against House Republicans’ H.R.2, the “Child Deportation Act:”

“New Mexicans know that Congress needs to get serious about comprehensive and bipartisan immigration reform now—this cruel bill does exactly the opposite. The crisis at the border is a humanitarian crisis, one that Republicans in Congress have manufactured and reproduced by refusing to pass the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform that passed the Senate in 2013. 

“If Republicans were serious about securing the border, they would not have voted for a measure two weeks ago that would lay off thousands of Border Patrol Agents. Instead, their extreme border bill funds President Trump’s useless border wall, defunds the fundamental human right to seek asylum, invests in ludicrously expensive immigration detention facilities, and fails to protect our Dreamers. New Mexicans know that our multicultural heritage and our immigrant communities are our strength. I voted against a bill that violates our fundamental values and worsens the humanitarian crisis at the border.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that H.R.2 would cost the American people $6.1 billion, dramatically disrupt agricultural production, and raise food prices by 5-6%. The bill also specifically subjects unaccompanied minors to some of the harshest detention and deportation tactics, prevents America from offering shelter to people fleeing countries experiencing a brutal war or natural disasters, and defunds faith-based and nonprofit organizations providing lifesaving assistance at the border. 

The Child Deportation Act also fails to invest in anti-drug trafficking measures, defunding border checkpoint security despite the fact that 90% of fentanyl is trafficked in cars and trucks intercepted at ports of entry.