Menendez, Espaillat, Barragán Issue Joint Statement in Response to Proposed Threats to Supplemental Funding for Asylum Seekers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Representatives Rob Menendez (NJ-08) and Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), co-chairs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Border and Immigration Task Force, and CHC Chair Nanette Barragán (CA-44) issued the following statement in response to the proposed threats to the asylum system in the forthcoming supplemental aid package:   

“As Co-Chairs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Border and Immigration Task Force, we are strongly opposed to any potential measures in a rushed border supplemental that would permanently restrict asylum access for immigrants,” said the Members. “We are deeply troubled by recent reports of the Senate’s inclusion of such measures in its forthcoming supplemental appropriations bill—especially during a time of escalating violence and poverty in our hemisphere. Any changes to our country’s decades-old asylum laws which seek to deny life-saving asylum access and legal protections for immigrants and their families are a non-starter and categorically unacceptable. We urge the Senate to adhere to the views of Members who represent the immigrants that would be most significantly and negatively impacted by any restrictive and burdensome changes to our asylum system. We must keep these deeply harmful provisions out of any forthcoming supplemental appropriations package.”