2020 Democratic candidate Kirsten Gillibrand says illegal immigrants crowding the U.S.-Mexico border “don’t need to be incarcerated” in detention centers and should instead “go into the community.”
Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand on illegal aliens who are arrested at the border: “As President, I wouldn’t use the detention system at all…They don’t need to be incarcerated…They can go into the community the way we used to handle these cases under DOJ” pic.twitter.com/UT5ckrvy6G
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 19, 2019
The New York Democratic rep. was on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday when she was asked about border security and the influx of illegal migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico.
“I wouldn’t incarcerate them at all,” Gillibrand said. ” … As president of the United States, I wouldn’t use the detention system at all.”
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand speaks during a rally in front of Trump International Hotel & Tower on March 24, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
The congresswoman was asked how she would address the current border crisis where “hundreds of thousands of people are crossing the border” and “need to go somewhere before their asylum claims are actually heard.” (RELATED: Border Patrol Chief Agrees With Trump That There Is A Border Crisis)
The congresswoman suggested we should just trust anyone seeking asylum to follow the rules: “They don’t need to be incarcerated. If they’re given a lawyer and given a process, they will follow it. They can go into the community in the way we fused to handle these cases under DOJ.”
Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan, who is now acting Department Homeland Security (DHS) director, said the border is currently at a “breaking point,” according to the El Paso Times. April marked the second consecutive month during which monthly apprehension numbers at the border surpassed 100,000 — a number that has risen every month this year.
Former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen described “child recycling rings” that use the same children to move illegals across the border as fake families. (RELATED: Gillibrand: I Never Meant Abolish ICE When I Said ‘Abolish ICE’)
U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a roundtable discussion on immigration and border security at the U.S. Border Patrol Calexico Station before visiting the U.S.-Mexico border in Calexico, California, U.S., Apr. 5, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
But Gillibrand says she would “actually fund the border security measures that are anti-terrorism, anti-human trafficking, anti-drug trafficking and anti-gun trafficking. And I would defund these for-profit prison systems that are harming children and harming families who are seeking are asylum.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers have been so overwhelmed with migrants that they recently released 100,000 illegal immigrants onto the streets.