‘Why Not?’: CNN Host Asks NM Dem Why He Included Zero Proposals To Change Asylum Laws Amid Border Crisis

CNN’s John Berman asked Democratic New Mexico Rep. Gabe Vasquez why he included zero proposals to change the asylum laws amid a border crisis and system backlog.

Vasquez first said any proceedings to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are “unserious” and wouldn’t “go anywhere.” The congressman then argued that immigration is a “hot political issue” and Republicans “want to make this a political issue” because it’s an election year, prompting some pushback from Berman.

“Well, it’s not just a political issue, though, right, I mean, it’s a genuine issue. You just called it a crisis,” Berman said. “You made a series of proposals as far back as November, even before that. I was reading through the proposals. I didn’t see in there, and correct me if I’m wrong, any reform, any major changes you proposed to the asylum process. Why not?” (RELATED: Asylum Seeker In Custody After Allegedly Raping Woman In Front Of 3-Year-Old)

“I think we need some time to be able to look at what the best decisions are and what our values are as American people when it comes to immigration into this country and our asylum process. And there’s a lot of other things we could be doing. The State Department could be doing a much better job, for example, of combating human trafficking and smuggling and educating migrants as well as our communities in our southern state – our southern neighbor in Mexico and other places,” Vasquez said.

“We could also be doing what the administration is doing right now, which is working with Mexico, Central American countries and others to help with the current crisis that we are seeing. However, we cannot give up and give into Republicans’ draconian anti-immigrant policies that reflect some very serious and deep changes to asylum policy that has long been held as a tradition of who we are as American people, that tell folks ‘Give us your huddled, give us your weary, give us your poor.’ So those are discussions that we can’t make in a rush or in a haste. There are some things we can be doing on the ground now that will alleviate the situation at the border.”

Senate Republicans are demanding changes to asylum laws that would make migrants ineligible to claim asylum if they came through a third country without seeking refuge there before getting to the States. Migrants also would only be allowed to request asylum at an official port of entry and would have to meet a higher threshold to avoid expedited removal.