Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas says there will be a new child migrant crisis reminiscent of the summer 2014 border crossings if Congress fails to pass immigration reform.
“We have to get this done, or we will see this scene play out over and over again,” Mr. McCaul said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We had 30,000 kids in 2014. We’re going to see the same thing this summer if we don’t change it.”
Mr. McCaul, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, said he is still optimistic that his moderate bill will make it through Congress, despite questions about whether more hardline Republicans in the House will support the legislation and whether there are 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster from Democrats.
He also said President Trump is still “100 percent behind” immigration reform, downplaying the president’s tweet on Friday that Republicans should “stop wasting their time” on the issue until after the midterms.
“I did talk to the White House yesterday,” Mr. McCaul said. “They say the president is still 100 percent behind us.”
The Texas Republican said his bill emphasizes the “four pillars” of border security, ending chain migrations, discontinuing the visa lottery and taking a merit-based approach to the DACA recipients who were brought here illegally as children.
He said his bill gets the incentives right and would dissuade smugglers from bringing children across the border.
“Moving forward, you know, when you look at these kids down there — and I’ve been down there, this is not the first time this has happened, this happened in 2014 as well — Congress needs to act to close the legal loopholes that incentivize the coyotes to bring these children into the United States,” he said. “And if we don’t do that, we’re going to see this scenario, this human tragedy, play out over and over again.”
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.