Angry House Democrats on Thursday unloaded on top Obama administration officials in a Capitol Hill meeting that followed the deportation of dozens of illegal immigrants on Christmas Eve.
The meeting was arranged and attended by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who sat alongside about 20 Democratic lawmakers from the Hispanic Caucus and several committees as they excoriated Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, over the deportations.
The meeting took place in Pelosi’s office.
“She led the meeting,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said of Pelosi. “She was very strong and emphatic about that there be better ways. I was sitting next to her and I felt nothing but a strong ally in this fight.”
Democrats said they are outraged that they were not consulted about the decision by the Department of Homeland Security to begin deporting 121 people who were among those who crossed the border in a recent surge of thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has not backed down, saying this week that the deportations would continue.
But Democrats want those who came here from Central America to be considered refugees, like immigrants from Cuba, who are allowed to remain in the United States when they arrive here.
Gutierrez said some angry Hispanics are comparing Obama to Donald Trump, who has proposed building a fence to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the southern U.S. border.
“There are people in this community who will now begin to say, what’s the difference?” Gutierrez said.
The deportations highlight an ongoing rift between the Obama administration and Congress, especially members of his own party, over his lack of a consultation with lawmakers.
Gutierrez said there is “a great degree of anger and disappointment at the fact that this administration does not communicate with its friends, with its allies, people that together we have helped develop good public policy.”
He said offices of Hispanic Caucus members are ringing off the hook and that constituents are keeping their children out of school out of fear they will be deported.
Lawmakers told Munoz and Mayorkas they expected the Obama administration to at least talk to them before taking the action, which occurred, they noted, when Congress was not in session.
“We could have coordinated, we could have told them, tell us what the problem is and let us work out a solution that is not driven by their side of the aisle,” Gutierrez said, nodding toward the GOP side of the House Chamber, “but by our view of the humanity of the situation.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who also attended the meeting, said she believes the administration is beginning the deportations in small numbers to discourage further illegal immigration across the southern border.
“It’s really clear to me that this was a message deportation,” Lofgren said. “This was an announcement, to send a message to Central America: Don’t come.”
Lofgren said she disagrees with the move, because many of the families crossing the border are fleeing violence and can’t go back.
“It’s a refugee issue,” Lofgren said. “It’s because of an epidemic of violence that people are fleeing. This ought to be seen for what it is, a refugee crisis.”
Lofgren said the United States should be working with other North American countries to deal with the fleeing Central Americans.
“It shouldn’t be just for us to solve,” she said.
