Ilhan Omar: Let’s Put ...

https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/33278-ilhan-omar-let-s-put-the-un-in-charge-of-america-s-migration-crisis

Friday, 30 August 2019

Ilhan Omar: Let’s Put the UN in Charge of the Southern Border

Written by  Luis Miguel

Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Wednesday told a South Minneapolis audiencethat she wants to see an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy that would include bringing in the United Nations to handle the mass migration at the southern border.

Claiming that Americans are “losing our moral high ground” on immigration, the Somali-born congresswoman argued that the UN would run migration flow more “humanely.”

“We should do what any other country does, by dealing with this situation in a serious way,” she said. “So we have to bring in the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees — an agency that has the expertise and the training to handle massive flows of refugees humanely.”

Such a move would undermine American sovereignty and place our immigration system in the hands of a UN leadership that seeks to create open borders and erode our nation’s autonomy.

Omar made her comments while speaking at a town hall. She countered the rhetoric of President Trump and his supporters, disputing characterization of current migration levels as an “invasion.”

“What we face is not an invasion,” Omar said. “This is not an invasion, it’s an immigration crisis.”

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection(CBP), apprehensions at the southwest border during fiscal year 2019 alone have been over 750,000 — and that doesn’t include illegal aliens who escaped apprehension and have successfully entered the country.

“We’re all here tonight because we all recognize that immigration is one of the defining civil rights and human rights issue of our time,” Omar added.

As a member of “The Squad,” a group of four freshman Democratic congresswomen pulling their party further leftward, Omar holds a progressive stance on migration, favoring policies that would relax enforcement and allow greater entry of illegal aliens.

“There is no good way to detain immigrants,” Omar told her audience. “We are treating people like criminals when they have not committed a crime.”

The logical conclusion of such rhetoric is the decriminalization of illegal border crossings — a platform of some Democratic presidential candidates, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

The decriminalization of illegal border crossings, along with an end to detainment of illegal aliens, would effectively create an open border.

Omar has also called for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and co-sponsored legislation this summer that would prohibit federal agencies from using the word “alien” to refer to persons in the country illegally.

Jennifer Carnahan, chairwoman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, criticized Omar and defended the Trump administration’s focus on stopping illegal migration through stricter enforcement.

“President Trump and Republicans in Congress have been working to address the crisis at the border while Democrats have been more interested in obstructing to score political points,” Carnahan said in a statement.

Omar’s remarks on migration surfaced at the same time she is involved in another controversy: A possible campaign-finance violationrelated to Omar’s giving of travel reimbursements to a consultant who is alleged to have been her paramour.

Despite not having a full congressional term under her belt, Omar has become notably adept at drawing media attention.