More resources to the border: Congressional reps tour border after two migrant deaths

Two congressional representatives spoke to CBP Saturday and learned what Felipe Gomez, the Guatemalan boy who died in custody went through during his detention.

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D TX-18) and Representative-elect Veronica Escobar (D TX-16) were walked through Felipe Gomez’s journey from reaching the border to their detention.

Jackson Lee is a member of the Homeland Security committee in the House of Representatives.
She said the detention centers currently used by Border Patrol are not enough to handle the traffic of families crossing the border each day.

As to preventing future deaths in custody, Jackson and Escobar agreed part of the solution is more funding for homeland security Jackson said she had not heard of other children dying in custody during her time on the Homeland Security committee.

She and Escobar spoke to CBP who took them to the fenced area where Felipe Gomez and his dad turned themselves into Border Patrol. They were then taken to the Border Patrol substation downtown where Jackson said the holding areas were not suitable for families.

“As we came from the Paso Del Norte children were coming in, they’re coming in every day. Just making an announcement they should stop, or saying that you’re gonna have a wall is not answering the humanitarian crisis,,” Jackson Lee said.

Jackson Lee said she and Escobar spoke to Border Patrol agents who said funding could give them the tools needed to deal with the migrant influx, but funding will mean making a bipartisan congress work together to end a shutdown.

“We’ll have to negotiate; there’s none of that going on now. We’ll have to have, as a partner, new members, but also the American people. And you are absolutely right, you have just repeated what Border Patrol agents, holistically, have basically said: you all give us the tools and we’ll work with it,” Jackson Lee said.

Jackson Lee said the president’s wall is a distraction from what she called solutions like better infrastructure.