Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, slammed Republicans as "absolutely insane" on immigration and claimed her own governor's plan was "to kill people" during an MSNBC interview on Sunday.
MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart asked Crockett about a potential agreement in Congress that would link immigration and aid to Ukraine and Israel.
"How concerned are you that the deal might make too many concessions to win Republican support?" he asked the Democratic lawmaker.
"I’m very concerned because the Republicans have never gotten immigration right," she responded. "That’s just the fact of it. There’s not very much that the Republicans get right, in general. And, so, to basically say that issues of national security, as it relates to how we’re going to take care of our allies, should be tied to this mangled immigration process is absolutely insane."
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Crockett went on to suggest that Gov. Greg Abbott’s, R-Texas, position on border security is "basically" to "kill" migrants.
"When you look at somebody like Greg Abbott, my governor, and his solution, his solution is to basically say, ‘Hey, we’re going to kill people that are trying to come in,’ like, that’s not a solution," she said.
Border Patrol agents have been overwhelmed in recent months with unprecedented numbers of migrants. According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources, migrant encounters topped 10,000 in a single day last Tuesday. Earlier in December, there were over 12,000 migrant encounters in a single day, breaking daily records and still at levels overwhelming agents on the ground.
The Texas Democrat argued that Republicans lack solutions and accused them of defunding border security.
"The Republicans don’t have the solutions, they want to continue to defund the aid that is going — not the aid — but they’re continuing to defund border security," she said. "Well, I mean, who’s going to sign up for this job and you’re not paying worth anything? The court system doesn’t have the resources that they need. What they really need to focus on is how we are going to pass a budget, a real budget that’s going to take care of the things that matter to the American people, such as the border."
She later appeared to suggest nobody should be turned away.
"There are other people who are literally risking their lives because it’s just that bad where they are coming from," Crockett said. "The idea that we would turn them away in the land of opportunity, the land of the free, doesn’t sound like what we sell ourselves as and it doesn’t sound like who we are supposed to be. We are a country of immigrants, for those that have forgotten. That is who we are in this country."
