On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that immigration needs to be fixed in a “bipartisan and comprehensive manner, and, certainly, we have to secure the border” and “we have to make sure that there is a robust pathway towards citizenship for DREAMers” and also “make sure that, to the extent that there are going to be deportations, we prioritize violent felons, not breaking up families that include American citizens or legal permanent residents.”
Co-host Joe Scarborough asked, “[W]hat are some issues that you see that are possible for Democrats and Republicans to work together on? Do you think you could get a deal, for instance, on immigration?”
Jeffries answered, “I think we have a broken immigration system and we need to try to fix it in a bipartisan and comprehensive manner, and, certainly, we have to secure the border. There was a bipartisan agreement that was on the table that was a strongly conservative-leaning border security bill, as it relates to making sure we address the situation, particularly on the southern border, that Republicans rejected at the direction of Donald Trump, because, at least while Joe Biden has been president, many Republicans don’t want to solve the border security challenge. They wanted to weaponize it politically. Hopefully, we can come together and deal with that issue in the next Congress. But the onus will be on the other side of the aisle to act in good faith.”
Scarborough then asked, “What would a deal like that look like? You had Donald Trump talking about possibly a fix for DREAMers when he was interviewed on ‘Meet the Press.’ Is there a possibility of a really tough border bill that maybe limits the deportations to hardened criminals, but also has a part inside that bill that helps DREAMers get a pathway to citizenship?”
Jeffries responded, “I certainly think we have to make sure that there is a robust pathway towards citizenship for DREAMers, people who have been in their country throughout their entire lives, with the exception of, perhaps, the first few years after birth and have contributed to communities in so many different ways. And there is bipartisan support for dealing with the DREAMers in a compassionate and sensible, commonsense fashion. We also need to make sure that we modernize our immigration system as it relates to farm workers, who are a critical part of the ecosystem in the country that makes sure that we meet the food and nutritional needs of the American people. There’s bipartisan support for that. And, certainly, we have to fix our asylum system, which is broken, and make sure that, to the extent that there are going to be deportations, we prioritize violent felons, not breaking up families that include American citizens or legal permanent residents.”
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