Bera Denounces Partisan Border Crisis Bill, Calls For Real Solution

Press Release

Congressman Ami Bera, M.D. voted today against H.R. 5230, a partisan political ploy that is endangering the lives of thousands of children and jeopardizing the security of our nation's borders. He offered the following comment:

"As a father, I'm deeply concerned about the young children, many of them girls, who are crossing our border alone and thousands of miles from home to flee violence, trafficking and persecution. This humanitarian crisis is an extremely difficult situation and we must ensure we have the resources needed to enforce our laws, while also treating these kids humanely. Unfortunately, today's bill did not provide the support needed to make sure that case reviews happen in a fair, timely fashion, and will just add a needless backlog. It also undercuts critical protections for vulnerable children.

We need real, bipartisan solutions, not political posturing, to handle this emergency, and I'm disappointed today's bill didn't offer any. The U.S. has an obligation to both protect our borders and screen and provide protection to children in need, and that means providing resources for judges, screeners, and legal representation. We also need to work to address the root causes to prevent similar humanitarian crises in the future. Finally, this situation reaffirms the urgent need for the House to act on the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform the Senate passed last year, which would fix our broken immigration system and make major investments in border security."

The past two years have seen a surge of unaccompanied minors from Central American countries crossing into south Texas -- nearly 60,000 children have already entered the United States this year alone, and the number of girls and children under 12 is also rising significantly. This influx has exhausted federal resources and created a humanitarian crisis, as thousands of detained, unaccompanied, children immediate assistance while their cases for asylum are being reviewed.

In addition to endangering children, the bill provides only one-seventh of the support requested to address the crisis at the border, a situation that Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers calls "dire."

Congressman Ami Bera, M.D. represents Sacramento County. Born and raised in California, Bera is a physician and the only Indian American currently serving in Congress. He's fighting to rebuild an economy that works for middle class families and to reduce our country's debt in a responsible way. One of Bera's first acts in Congress was to help lead the effort to pass the No Budget No Pay Act, which says if members of Congress don't pass a budget, they don't get paid. As a leader of the No Labels' Problem Solvers, he's working with people from both parties to find bipartisan solutions to our nation's challenges. He and his wife Janine live in Elk Grove with their daughter Sydra.

Source