Rep. Barbara Comstock’s Statement on America’s Broken Immigration System

Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (VA-10) issued a statement Tuesday on America’s broken immigration system:

“I support emergency legislation that would quickly address keeping families together while we continue to work on longer term solutions to prevent these crises. We also should not overlook that over the past few months over 10,000 children have come here unaccompanied without any parents and over 160,000 over the past four years have come here unaccompanied.

“The Department of Homeland Security also has reported a troubling increase of over 300 percent in adults and children arriving at the border fraudulently claiming to be a family unit. We have also had a rise over the past several years in dangerous gang members, such as those from MS13, entering our country that we have to stop.

“No one is happy with the status quo of our broken immigration system that results in the heartbreaking situations of children being separated from their parents at the border, dangerous MS-13 gang members entering our country and bringing violence to our communities, or human smugglers and traffickers exploiting the desperate or vulnerable – particularly unaccompanied children.

“Similarly, most are unhappy with bad policies such as ‘catch and release’ which rewards those who do not follow the law and provides perverse incentives for criminals. The needed long-term solution to strengthen and protect our borders also protects those most vulnerable. We also have a current asylum process, and DHS has instructed individuals and families seeking asylum that they will not be separated when entering through a legal port of entry, instead of crossing a dangerous border.

“We need a humane, bipartisan solution for all of these children and families and I am committed to working with my colleagues to address these issues as well as securing our border, addressing the status of DACA recipients, and removing the incentives that create these crisis situations. We can find bipartisan solutions that show we are compassionate nation and a nation of laws that protect our borders.”

See also….

–Quinnipiac Poll on Immigration
–Compassionate Conservativism Collapses Under Trump and Stewart
–Rep. Taylor Statement on Family Separation at the Border