According to SJL they should all be allowed to stay here as war refugees.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Many of the unaccompanied minors flooding across the border are refugees fleeing violence in their Central American home countries and should be treated as such, according to Texas Republican Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
“Yes, in some instances these are refugees. And this report indicated that these children are not coming for immigration issues; they’re being forcibly displaced. We ask Jordan to take the Syrian refugees, we ask Turkey to take the Syrian refugees, and all over the world there are refugees,” she said at a press conference Thursday, referring to a report from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
The Texas Democrat argued that much of the influx is due to violence in the unaccompanied minors’ Central American home countries and human smugglers who lie about America’s policies to get parents to pay for transport northward.
“Under the United Nations agency for refugees it is clear that a part of the analysis is whether or not persons can be returned to these places. It is well documented that there is much violence in Central America [from] where these parents were sending these children,” Jackson Lee said, adding that she does not want children returned to those conditions but does want to abide by the law and have the cases adjudicated.
When asked if she expects the vast majority will stay, Jackson Lee said that she “cannot make that determination” but noted that she is a mother and concerned with matters related to children.
“I don’t want them to be treated unfairly because of political grandstanding,” she said. “We have a crisis that all of us should get our hands around, no matter what our political party is. We have children who are in need. So therefore if they are able to stay, I wouldn’t want them to be rejected because somebody is fearful of political accusations.”