Ilhan Omar Calls Trump’s Wall ‘Racist,’ Promotes Central American Migrants on House Floor
Democrat Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar used her House floor speech Wednesday to promote the plight of migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Omar referred to Trump’s “racist and cynical” big wall.
Omar, a Muslim congresswoman from Somalia, called the shutdown over border security a “manufactured crisis.”
“If the president wants to have a real conversation about border security, we are ready to have it,” Omar said, noting that the conversation would include “policies that extend humanity and compassion to migrants and refugees.”
Omar devoted special attention to addressing the situations in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, as another migrant caravan moves through Guatemala and works up toward the U.S. southern border. (Trump Cuts Off $555 Million To Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador).
Omar and fellow freshmen Democrats Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke as a bloc Wednesday, but members of their own party are looking for an escape route from Nancy Pelosi’s platform of obstructing the building of the wall.
President Donald Trump met with a “Problem Solvers Caucus” from both parties at the White House Wednesday in a Situation Room meeting in which Nancy Pelosi was not present.
The Democrat problem solvers left the door open to “common ground” but still requested that the government re-open before that common ground can be discovered.
Here are what the Democrat problem solvers said about the meeting. The Democrat problem solvers include “Josh Gottheimer, Thomas Suozzi, Vincente Gonzalez, Anthony Brindisi, Dean Phillips, Max Rose, and Abigail Spanberger,” but no Pelosi.
“Over the last weeks, we have been listening to our constituents and speaking with our fellow Members of Congress — in both parties and in both chambers. There is strong agreement across the aisle and around the country: We must reopen the government. Our security, safety, and economy have been compromised, and millions of families are suffering,” the Democrat problem solvers stated.
“There is also strong agreement that if we reopen the government, the possibility exists to work together and find common ground to tackle some of our country’s toughest problems and fix them. But that conversation can only begin in earnest once the government is reopened. We accepted the White House’s invitation to meet today to convey that message,” the Democrat problem solvers said.
Meanwhile, Democrats are looking for ways to play ball with the President.
Democrat congressman Hakeem Jeffries said on the House floor that Democrats “are prepared to have a conversation about infrastructure on the border” and “a conversation about our broken immigration system.”
Jeffries is the latest Democrat to suggest open-mindedness on compromise so long as Democrats can use a different term than “Wall.”
Jeffries said that Democrats are not prepared to have these conversations during President Trump’s supposedly vindictive government shutdown, but they might have no choice.
California Democrat Katie Hill went on Fox News to talk about Democrat openness to “physical barriers,” and Rep. Cheri Bustos expressed openness to a “partial Wall.”
President Trump can build the Wall through the national emergency option, especially considering the fact that the United States has 31 active emergencies declared by Trump and previous presidents, including 11 active emergencies declared by Barack Obama.
Share: