El Paso, Texas (KTSM) – Lawmakers in the U.S. Senate have been working on bipartisan border legislation, but not everyone is behind the effort.
Under the proposed deal, the Department of Homeland Security would be granted emergency authority to shut down the border if migrant crossings increase above 5,000 per day in any given week or if average daily encounters reach 4,000 in a one-week span,
In December, Customs and Border Protection agents recorded 249,787 illegal crossings along the U.S-Mexico border, making it the highest monthly total ever.
While lawmakers in Washington try to reach a deal, KTSM talked to El Paso native Irene Armendariz-Jackson, who is running for U.S. Congress in District 16 as a Republican.
Armendariz-Jackson, who has run twice before for the same congressional seat, said the immigration bill would not bring any real solutions.
“The cost of it is unsustainable, not only because it’s costing us millions of dollars but it is putting a lot of stress into our institutions, including our public schools,” Armendariz-Jackson said.
Immigration advocates like Marisa Limon Garza, the director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, says the country’s current immigration system is broken. However, she added the government could take a different approach such as adding more space to the ports of entry for processing people.
“As the wealthiest country in the planet we have the capacity to be able to find pathways to figure out ways to support asylum seekers just like we did for refugees,” Limon Garza said.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, who is one of the senators brokering the deal, told CNN that a deal could be reached in the next few days.
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