According to Mike Lillis, The Hill, Breaking with many House Democrats, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is defending the Obama administration for rounding up scores of asylum seekers earlier this year with plans to deport them.
Democrats in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC)have ripped the operation, which led to the arrest of 121 undocumented immigrants in January, most of them women and children who had arrived recently from Central America.
Pelosi’s recent remarks represent a sharp split from Democrats in her caucus. They have hammered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with charges the government was dividing families — and doing so around the Christmas holiday — while potentially sending women and kids back to dangerous conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which rank among the most violent and corrupt countries in the world.
“It creates panic. It creates fear. It’s a terrible way to create policy,” Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), a CHC member, said Friday.
The issue has taken on new urgency since Reuters reported last week that DHS’s round-up operation is poised for a new, broader phase in the coming months.
Pelosi, by condoning the January arrests, has given the White House some cover as it enters the next phase of the ongoing operation. She declined to comment on the future operations, saying she wants first to learn the details from the administration.
