On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) stated that there has to be a “tight” definition of what constitutes a humanitarian crisis to bypass the normal immigration process under humanitarian parole because there are “criminals that are coming over and then have done something horrific.”
Co-host Sara Sidner asked, “I do want to ask you about one specific thing, because I know that the Republicans have been really sort of going after this one thing, saying this is the hangup, this is the big hangup, and it has to do with humanitarian parole, where the United States government can basically sort of let people in by bypassing the kind of regular immigration process, if — on a case-by-case basis — it’s for something urgent, an urgent humanitarian reason and can cause significant public benefit to the United States. That is one of the big issues that Republicans don’t want to see continuing. They want that parole issue to stop and not let people in, even with those sticking points. Is that a sticking point for you? Do you want to keep that in place, that decision to be able to help somebody if they’re in a major humanitarian crisis?”
Dingell responded, “We’ve got to define what that humanitarian crisis is. Because there are people that are coming here, quite frankly, for the death of a relative or someone that’s dying and people that are in need of help. But then what we see is the sensational, the criminals that are coming over and then have done something horrific. We have to really have a tight definition of what that is. And that’s why I’m unwilling to say I’ll support this or support that until I know what are we being asked to vote on.”
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