Jayapal Statement On Trump’s Primetime Immigration Remarks

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) released the following statement following President Trump’s primetime remarks on the crisis at the border:

“Donald Trump sounds like a broken record. He reverts to the same old script–demagoguery and xenophobia– because that’s all he knows how to do. The fact is that even the Department of Homeland Security says our Southern border, where the Trump administration wants to build a wall, is more difficult to cross without authorization today than ever before. Apprehensions are at the lowest rate ever.  And as much as he wants to paint a different picture, immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native born Americans. Furthermore, we know that the majority of drugs come in at legal points of entry – not where there is no wall.  This has never been about security. It is simply political.

“President Trump is right: it is about right and wrong – and what he has done and continues to do is just wrong : separating families, shutting down legal asylum, imprisoning more and more people in immigration prisons. 

“It is time for the president to give up on his vanity wall fantasy and allow us to focus on what matters: ending this shutdown. The American people are sick and tired of his border wall obsession. What they want is a stable economy, good healthcare, an end to a government shutdown that grows more harmful every day, and common sense reforms to our immigration system. This speech belongs in the dustbin – it is time to move on and get things done for our country.”

Issues: Immigration