Congresswoman Katie Porter argued that while the death of Laken Riley was tragic, any single incident should not shape overall immigration policy.
She said immigration policy involves many factors like economic impacts and worker needs as well as family reunification.
Porter acknowledged the tragedy but stressed not letting it dominate policy debates.
CNN’s Erin Burnett said, “We can all agree this is a horrible, horrible thing that happened. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did.”
She asked, “I know that you may not choose the same words, but do you share his outrage?”
Rep. Porter replied, “Well, I think when a horrible tragedy like this happens, I think whenever we’re dealing with violent crime, there is a sense of outrage, of sadness, and of loss. But I think the important thing to focus on is any one instance shouldn’t shape our overall immigration policy, which has so many different facets, including economic choices about what workers to allow in, how to create prosperity in America.”
“So, the situation is tragic and it’s a loss and it’s important to acknowledge that, but also to recognize all the other — how all the other parts of immigration policy fit together,” she continued.
She added that executive action is important due to congressional inaction but has not solved long-term problems at the border like insufficient judges, technology and protections for DREAMers.
Porter said, “[Executive action] is really important. It’s the only way that we’ve been able to make any progress at addressing immigration at all. But I think we’ve seen, under Title 42 and some other policies, that efforts to simply ‘close’ the border [are] not really solving the longer-term problem, which is that we have not put the resources or the policies at the border. So, we have all different kinds of chaos and challenges, from not having enough immigration judges, to not investing in technology that can help us screen for fentanyl, which I have voted for, but we need to do more on recognizing that we haven’t kept our promise to DREAMers.”
“All of these things come together to create the kinds of chaotic immigration policies we see,” concluded the lawmaker.
Porter advocated a holistic view of the many interconnected issues within immigration policy rather than reactions to single events.
