Democrats at DNC, with help from Texans, push back on GOP border attacks

Democrats countered Republican attacks on their border and immigration policies during their convention Wednesday night by blaming former President Donald Trump and his GOP allies for blocking efforts to fix a broken system.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, describing the border as her “beloved home,” recounted childhood trips with her family to Ciudad Juarez for shopping trips and doctor visits.
“Forget what you hear on the news,” Escobar said. “I’m from there. When it comes to the border, hear me when I say: you know nothing, Donald Trump. He and his Republican imitators see the border and immigration as a political opportunity to exploit instead of an issue to address.”
While abortion access has dominated this week’s convention in Chicago, Democrats also know immigration represents one of their most significant political vulnerabilities as Vice President Kamala Harris tries to succeed Joe Biden as president.
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Last month’s Republican National Convention featured a parade of sharp attacks over illegal immigration and border security, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who cited high-profile cases of Americans killed by people who had entered the country illegally.
“Today, as a result of Joe Biden’s presidency, your family is less safe, your children are less safe. The country is less safe,” Cruz said.
Escobar and other speakers said Republicans have cynically sought political advantage on the issue, particularly by opposing – at Trump’s urging – a bipartisan proposal negotiated between Democrats and U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.
The compromise bill would have provided emergency funding to various federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, to hire more Border Patrol agents and asylum officers.
It also included a number of steps Republicans have pushed for, including an overhaul of the asylum process.
Cruz and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, joined most other Senate Republicans in voting to block the proposal in February. Opponents of the bill said it would have normalized 5,000 people per day entering the country illegally and provided billions to nongovernmental organizations helping those coming across the border.
Supporters objected to such criticisms as misleading.
Wednesday night, Democrats reinforced their message with a video criticizing Trump for urging Republican lawmakers to oppose the bipartisan border deal.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who negotiated the deal with Lankford, took the stage and vouched for the veracity of those statements.
“I just want to let you know that everything you just saw in that video, that’s exactly what happened,” Murphy said. “It would have had unanimous support if it weren’t for Donald Trump.”
He said Harris has been “tough as nails” on border security, a statement that prompted a swift response from the Trump campaign denouncing Murphy as a “shameless liar.”
The Trump campaign criticized Harris for presiding over a porous border while working as the administration’s “border czar,” a title awarded her by some news outlets. Harris supporters have disputed the label, saying her role on immigration was more targeted – dealing with root causes of immigration from Central American countries.
During her speech, Escobar recounted meeting with Harris when the vice president visited El Paso in 2021 and said she watched the vice president listen to law enforcement officials, migrants and human rights advocates.
“Most of all, she recognized that the situation at the border is complicated, as filled with opportunities as it is with challenges,” Escobar said. “All Republicans have to offer is demonization and bluster.”
Harris, she said, is serious about finding solutions to the problem.
“We can strengthen legal pathways to immigration,” Escobar said. “We can secure our borders and we can treat with dignity those who seek a better future within them.”
Javier Salazar, the Bexar County sheriff, joined the chorus of voices on stage Wednesday night blaming Trump for the lack of progress on immigration. He said Trump has not helped law enforcement tasked with investigating immigration-related crimes like human smuggling or drug trafficking.
“He is a self-serving man,” Salazar said.
During his remarks on the convention’s opening night Monday, President Joe Biden briefly addressed immigration and the border, accusing Trump of lying about the issue and blaming him for killing the bipartisan proposal because passing it would have helped the administration politically.
He touted executive actions he said have resulted in a 50% drop in border crossings.
“Kamala and I are committed to strengthening legal immigration, including protecting Dreamers and more,” Biden said, using the term commonly used to describe people brought into the country illegally as children.