Democrat blasts Smith over ‘broken immigration system’
HAMILTON » GOP Congressman Chris Smith of Hamilton has been blasted by his Democratic challenger over immigration policy and family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We are here to bear witness to the crisis engulfing our nation, and to meet people who have been impacted by Washington’s inhumane policy of separating children from their parents with no plan to reunite them,” U.S. Navy veteran Josh Welle said in a statement last week while visiting the southern border. “Smith ought to use his senior standing to ensure constitutional and international laws are followed and these families are reunited. The immigration system is broken and a broken Congress can’t fix it.”
Smith, a longtime U.S. House Republican who built his political career as a champion of human rights, has been a vocal advocate for immigration reform and voted last month on a failed bill that would have required the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to keep immigrant families intact, among other measures.
“We need immigration reform that is both compassionate and upholds the rule of law,” Smith said Tuesday in a statement. “Two weeks ago, I voted for the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act (HR 6136), a balanced solution that would provide legal status for DACA recipients, legislatively end the separation of families at the border, fund enforcement of our existing laws, improve border security with funding for the wall and new technology, and better secure our visa program, protecting it from gang members, foreign terrorists and others that seek to enter the U.S. with ill intent.”
Smith, who has represented New Jersey’s Fourth Congressional District since 1981, has attended a four-day overseas powwow in Berlin this month, where he challenged Russian politicians over a variety of issues, called upon other countries to aggressively combat anti-Semitism and urged the international community “to take measures to discourage the practice of sexual tourism by known sex offenders.”
HR 6136, the comprehensive immigration reform bill that failed to pass the U.S. House last month, had the support of zero Democrats and only 121 House Republicans, including Smith. If the bill became law, it would have funded a wall or barrier along the southern border and would have given legal status to 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who entered the country illegally as children.
The so-called DACA program, also known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is an initiative started by Democratic former President Barack Obama protecting certain undocumented immigrants from being deported if they had entered the United States as children before June 2007. Federal courts ordered Republican President Donald Trump’s administration to resume the DACA program and to reunite families separated at the southern border, but the administration failed Tuesday to meet a courtordered reunification deadline concerning children under age 5.
Hundreds of families have been torn apart at the border due to Trump’s “zero tolerance” crackdown on illegal immigration. Asked about the missed reunification deadline, the president said: “Well, I have a solution. Tell people not to come to our country illegally. That’s the solution.”
The administration faces a second, bigger deadline — July 26 — to reunite perhaps 2,000 or so older children who were also separated from their families at the border in the past few months.
“The policy of separating families at the U.S. border is wrong and needs to be immediately reversed,” Smith said in a statement last month.
Another recent statement posted on Smith’s congressional website says: “There is nothing more important than protecting vulnerable children from physical and psychological harm. The policy of forcibly separating children from their parent or parents at the U.S. border is seriously wrong, hurts families, and needs to immediately end. The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security must halt the practice of family separations, except in the cases of criminal felonies by an adult including rape, murder, sexual assault on a minor, or human trafficking. Without delay, Congress must pass legislation to permanently prohibit the egregious practice of family separation.”
Welle, the Democratic challenger, accused Smith of failing to address the issue of family separation with “real action,” adding, “We need a new generation of leaders in Washington who get things done.”
“During my campaign, I’ve displayed real leadership ingrained from years of military duty,” Welle said Tuesday in a statement. “That’s why I spent two days meeting with stakeholders on the U.S.-Mexico border and I’m ready to serve when elected in November. Lead from the front and put country over party.”
In a video posted July 2 on Twitter, Welle talks about his experience of visiting an ICE or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in El Paso, Texas, a border city that abuts the Rio Grande.
“The ICE agents, they were very professional, they treated people with a lot of respect,” Welle says in the video, adding the ICE facility was “very clean” and that “everyone was fed.”
“These people get picked up trying to find a better life obviously, but they are violating laws here in the country, and it was good to hear the perspective of the ICE agents,” Welle said. “For me, it seems like ICE doesn’t need to be abolished, ICE needs to be reformed. ICE needs to have the resources and transparency so that people are being treated humanely.”
Welle accused Congress of being “accountable for this crisis on the border” and said, “We need more dialogue; we need more leadership.”
Smith pioneered the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000 to clamp down on forced child prostitution, which he calls “modern-day slavery.” As Smith wrapped up his international meeting at the 2018 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly in Germany, the congressman issued a statement vowing he will continue supporting comprehensive immigration reform bills like the failed HR 6136.
“Persistence is key,” he said. “I will continue to support this and similar legislation — and work to persuade others — until our borders are secure and compassion and fairness is restored in our immigration program.”
Smith represents parts of Monmouth, Ocean and Mercer counties, including Robbinsville and Hamilton townships. His Democratic challenger lives in Rumson Borough and hopes to get elected Nov. 6 as the district’s next congressman.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.