by Molly Prince
Top Democrats running in Texas elections are calling for the decriminalization of illegally crossing the United States border.
While campaigning in south Texas, Rep. Robert O’Rourke who is running against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate, declared that illegal entry should not be a criminal matter.
“These asylum seekers — penniless, at wit’s end, after surviving three weeks on the road, very often with their children — then attempt to do what I think any human would do, which is request asylum in between the ports of entry,” O’Rourke said. “We should not criminalize that.”
O’Rourke failed to mention that entering the United States via ports of entry and requesting asylum is not currently a crime. Individuals who sneak into the United States between ports of entry commit a criminal act.
Other Democratic candidates expressed similar sentiments while on the campaign trail during the weekend.
“The United States has built a system on incarcerating migrants,” said congressional candidate Veronica Escobar, who is running to fill O’Rourke’s seat. “We really have to evaluate the way that we’ve criminalized migration.”
“When we treat asylum-seekers like criminals, the next step is we have to jail them, we have to incarcerate them,” Escobar continued. “It’s incredibly costly.”
Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Lupe Valdez, who was formally a U.S. Customs agent, used her experience to argue that illegal immigrants are not a public threat.
“The majority of people are not coming in to do harm,” Valdez said. “We still have to have some kind of checking and verifying, but I don’t think coming in here undocumented should be a criminal issue.”
Despite calling for decriminalization, the aforementioned Democrats still believe illegal border entry should result in some form of penalty such as a citation or civil violation, reported The Huffington Post.
The overwhelming majority of individuals seeking asylum in the United States submit fraudulent claims before illegally going into hiding somewhere in the country, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
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Molly Prince is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Molly on Twitter @mollyfprince.
If the bleeding hearts in the country are so concerned about these aliens, why not take over Mexican government as an humanitarian effort so these down trodden can stay at home in the country they love? Why sacrifice American lives for those who haven’t earned the right to be called American? Oh yeah, I forgot, there’s a political agenda here, not humanitarian. Sorry for the confusion…
What a great idea! Next let’s allow Iran to set up office at the Pentagon, maybe give them some nuclear warheads. Allow sharia law to replace the constitution, allow all of China’s aged to start drawing social security from the U.S. Treasury. Then maybe we can open up some deadly drug concession stands inside our school zones that allow more convenient access for K through 12 kids to start their addictions/overdoses sooner. Who knows, if all goes well, maybe even more of the female youth can become participants in the sex trafficking business. Sounds like an outstanding proposal Bob.