U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar on Immigration and Border Control

AMANPOUR: Well, I mean, he’s making, again, a sort of equation between walls and illegal crossings, you can discuss that but we have discussed that a lot. But in terms of this see through steel wall and slats, do you see a position evolving there? Do you see the beginning of a process whereby Democrats could work with the president and this administration?

ESCOBAR: You know, the challenge is nobody ever really knows what he’s talking about. He — his thoughts and opinions and what he says, it’s all very fluid. I think it’s important that the committee is allowed to do their work and have the discussions that they need to have in order to legislate. But, you know, the president had two years of absolute control where the House and the Senate and the White House were controlled by his party. And during those two years they didn’t get it done. And yet, here, a committee is supposed to get this done in two weeks. I think it’s absurd. It’s not going to cure the very issues that he claims to want to cure, the number of asylum seekers coming from Central America and drugs. We know drugs come to our ports. And here’s the thing, we’ve never heard the president talk about a thoughtful long-term solution to stemming the flow of asylum seekers coming from Central America. And what is the American role in dealing with the countries in the northern triangle? What is America’s responsibility in that? The wall — we’ve got to understand what the wall is for him. It’s a symbol and it’s a campaign promise. And he is holding Federal employees hostage so that he could try to deliver on something that he could not deliver on when he was in complete control of Washington D.C.

AMANPOUR: All right. So you have to go and vote. I’m going to just ask you one last question. I mean you’re a new class of newly elected Congresspeople. You’re one of only two, the first two I believe Hispanic Congresspeople to be elected from Texas. And you saw — we all saw last night the sea of white on the Democratic side. I mean all these women wearing the color of the suffragettes and many of the men wearing the white ribbon in their lapels. What does this moment mean to you, not just as a personal victory but as a way to do something for the country, for your community, and maybe try to break through this poisonous partisanship?

ESCOBAR: It is an absolute privilege to serve a community that I love so deeply in the U.S. Congress. And I feel a tremendous responsibility to deliver on what my commute — on the great values that my community demonstrates every single day. I think that’s why diversity is important.