VIDEO—“We Should Not be Playing Politics with People’s Lives:” Rep. Stansbury Calls for Bipartisan Immigration Reform During Oversight Hearing

VIDEO LINK: Watch Rep. Stansbury’s full remarks and questions here.

WASHINGTON—Rep. Stansbury called on her House Republican colleagues to pass bipartisan immigration reform and pushed back against misinformation during today’s House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, over 90 percent of fentanyl, and over 80 percent of total narcotics, are arriving at legal points of entry. The narcotics, according to the seizure data, are largely smuggled by Americans—not unauthorized migrants.

“What we are seeing on the southern border is a crisis. But it is not the crisis that our friends across the aisle would have us believe—it is truly a humanitarian crisis,” Rep. Stansbury said during her opening statement. “And it is a crisis that has been manufactured and reproduced over and over again decade after decade by inaction, by this body, by individuals who refuse to engage in bipartisan immigration reform. By individuals who refuse to understand that there are millions of lives being held in the balance.”

Rep. Stansbury continued by rebutting House Republican myths on the fentanyl crisis. “I am someone who has actually lost loved ones to the fentanyl crisis. To know the pain and what it feels like to lose someone to fentanyl is something that I think many people in this room do not understand. But American people all across the country understand.

“We should not be playing politics with people's lives,” Rep. Stansbury concluded before turning to her questions. “So let's talk about the humanitarian crisis. Let's talk about these issues in reality and not try to score political brownie points to get cable TV moments.”

Rep. Stansbury concluded her questions by asking the witnesses before the Committee about the former administration’s inhumane family separation policy and the use of private immigration detention facilities.

Rep. Stansbury’s full remarks as delivered are below.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for convening this panel today. And I do mean that sincerely, because as a new Mexican, I am one of only a few members on this committee who actually represents a border state, in actuality, and it is a crisis. What we are seeing on the southern border is a crisis.

But it is not a crisis, as our friends across the aisle would have us believe it is truly a humanitarian crisis. And it is a crisis that has been manufactured, reproduced over and over again, decade after decade, by inaction, by this body, by individuals who refuse to engage in bipartisan immigration reform, by individuals who refuse to understand that there are millions of lives been held in the balance. People who've traveled thousands of miles, across continents, across the ocean, to come to this country to seek refuge safety and opportunity.

Just like many of our forefathers, and for mothers who came to this country, we are a nation of immigrants, alongside our brothers and sisters of our indigenous communities, my own ancestors who came here for opportunity seeking refuge in this country.

That is why people are coming here to our southern border, and the inaction of this body, in passing bipartisan immigration reform in supporting those who proudly serve our country and are working on our southern border. The inability for this body to act and actually fund programs so that we can have a just humane and equitable immigration system in this country is the moral failing and stain on this body.

So, we can talk about a crisis at the border. But let's talk about what it actually is. And that's a humanitarian crisis. I also want to say, as somebody on this committee who's not only representing a border state,

I am someone who has actually lost loved ones, to the fentanyl crisis. It is an absolute crisis. To know the pain of what it feels like to lose someone to fentanyl is something that I think many people in this room do not understand. But American people all across the country understand. We should not be playing politics with people's lives. This is serious people's lives are in the balance, there are deaths happening all across our country because of these issues.

So let's talk about the humanitarian crisis. Let's talk about these issues in reality and not try to score political brownie points, and get cable TV moments. This is about our communities, and about our families.

Now, let's be clear, the system is terribly broken. And that is why we need bipartisan reform. It's why we need action in this body. And the cost of inaction is falling on our communities. In fact, thousands of people who have come to this country to seek refuge end up in my home state.

And because we are not properly funding these programs, it is the people of New Mexico who time and time again, have had to stand up and help people by helping to house them feed them. Our government is failing, the system is failing, we need action.

And it is the humane, inhumane policies of the previous administration that have contributed to this crisis. In fact, under the Trump administration, thousands of children were separated from their parents. And to this day, because it was so haphazardly implemented, over a thousand children are still separated from their parents to this day.

I know, Chief Chavez, you work in the Rio Grande district. Thank you for your service. I want to ask you in the course of your work and your agents work. Have you met some of the families and children who have come across the border?

Chavez: Thank you, Congresswoman for the question. And thank you for acknowledging the vulnerable population of children. For every border patrol agent that works that border I assure you that our heart goes out to those children that show up on accompanied on their own and—

Rep. Stansbury: Agent Chavez. You have actually met these children and families. These are vulnerable populations. They are families, oftentimes children who have traveled hundreds and thousands of miles by themselves. In addition to that, the Trump administration massively expanded the use of private for-profit prisons, which are lining the pockets of private corporations right now charging communities like mine, millions of dollars a month to detain immigrants in prisons, because our folks who have already been screened to be safe, and I want to ask our.

Chair Comer: The Gentlelady's time has expired.

Rep. Stansbury: Have you actually been to these private detention centers? A yes or no answer please.

Chair Comer: Feel free to answer the question.

Chief Chavez: I've been the children that we hold that our facilities temporary holding facilities, private for-profit private prisons where asylum seekers are being held. I am not aware—I have not attended those locations.

Chair Comer: The Gentlelady’s time has expired.