Gutierrez: “This isn’t about who can catch more and who can release more. This is about solving an economic problem.”
For Immediate Release: December 12, 2023
TEXAS – As reported by Texas Public Radio, Senate Republicans are attempting to attach immigration policy to a much-needed supplemental funding bill to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, endangering asylum and other humanitarian pathways to the United States for migrants.
Senate Republicans, led by Ted Cruz, are demanding the standard for credible fear in asylum screenings be raised, a cap on asylum, and GPS ankle bracelets on migrants, including children, daring the Biden Administration to choose between fulfilling America’s promises to military allies or conceding to Republicans’ cruel mandates on immigration as a foreign aid funding deadline looms.
“We’ve got to get rid of people that only yell and scream about the border and say that we need more and more border walls, more obstacles,” said Roland Gutierrez, State Senator from Texas and candidate for the U.S. Senate.
Immigration experts state that none of the policies proposed by Cruz and Senate Republicans would decrease migration trends, they would only increase deportations and cruelty. More migrants are appearing at the southern border as economic conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean have continued to spiral. Meanwhile, the United States faces a historic labor shortage that Gutierrez contends can be fixed with proper immigration reform.
“A hungry person that makes $300 a month from Venezuela is going to come to the land of opportunity. There’s 30 million jobs in this country that Americans do not want to work in. But we’ve allowed Republicans to make this the boogeyman, as if the immigrants were responsible for every health care failure and education failure and infrastructure failure,” stated Gutierrez, who introduced a five-point immigration plan to solve issues at the Mexican border.
Gutierrez says that the problem comes down to economics and is bigger than “any one president.”
“It’s simply an economic outcry for opportunity,” he said. “This isn’t about who can catch more and who can release more. This is about solving an economic problem.”
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