At the port of entry in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, Representative Gabe Vasquez was joined by law enforcement and other local leaders to announce plans to introduce five pieces of legislation to the U.S. House of Representatives.
“One of the things I have found is that it's going to be incredibly difficult to have comprehensive immigration reform in the current state of politics that we are seeing in Washington, DC, and across our nation. But I wanted to do something meaningful for my community,” he said. “I wanted to advance the conversation on immigration, and I also wanted to have a meaningful impact in creating and building wealth in our border communities like Santa Teresa, and like Sunland Park, and like Anthony, and Vado, and Berino, and Las Cruces, and our neighbors in El Paso as well.”
The package of legislation that Vasquez plans to introduce will focus on migrant workers, border agents, immigrant detention centers, and human smuggling. One of the bills would impose harsher penalties for those convicted of committing human trafficking-related crimes against minors, something that Sunland Park Chief of Police Eric Lopez says is a growing problem. Chief Lopez said partnerships with other law enforcement agencies are crucial in dealing with the issue.
“Collaboration is obviously [important] with the feds, and state and local agencies being out there, and also technology. I think that would help,” he said. “ So we can hopefully identify some of these migrants that are coming over in these desolate areas that you see out here, especially during the summer months, when that seems to be the highest increase in deaths and injuries along the border wall as well.”
Vasquez said that he hopes to find bipartisan support for the legislation.
"We should have folks coming to the table and we should have productive discussions about what it means to bring people into this country in a legal and humanitarian way.”
Vasquez said he plans to introduce the bills to Congress by the end of this week.
