By Valerie Richardson - The Washington Times
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., center, standing
with Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., right, chairwoman of the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., second from
right, speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 17,
2018.
Rep. Luis
Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat, said Sunday he’s willing to pay for a border
wall in exchange for protections for illegal immigrants known as “Dreamers” as
the federal government entered the second day of a partial shutdown.
“Look, I think the wall is a monumental waste of
taxpayers’ money, and it’s to build a monument to stupidity, and it’s just
idiotic,” said Mr. Gutierrez on
ABC’s “This Week.”
“Having said that, if that’s what it’s going to take in
order to put 800,000 young men and women in this country — Dreamers — and put
them in a safe place and put them on a course to full integration in our
society?” he said. “If that’s what the hostage-takers of the dreamers, if
that’s their ransom cost, I say, ‘Pay it.’”
Illustration
by Alexander Hunter for The Washington Times
Mr. Gutierrez,
who chairs the immigration and border issues task force of the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus, added that in November, “we’ll deal with the kidnappers at the
election, at the polls.”
Democrats have pushed for permanent legal status for
illegal immigrants who came to the country as children, known as the dreamers,
in exchange for a continuing budget resolution to fund the federal government.
Rep. Mark Meadows, North Carolina Republican, said border
security involves more than building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The president has been very clear: It is about border
security, but border security is not just what we do at the southern border,”
Mr. Meadows said
on “This Week.” “It’s also about visa overstays, it’s also about chain
migration, it’s also about interior enforcement.”
He challenged the wisdom of
trying to resolve complex immigration issues in the middle of a partial federal
shutdown.
“What this is all about is we’re in the middle of a
shutdown, but yet we’re talking about immigration. And so is this an amnesty
shutdown?” said Mr. Meadows, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus.
The shutdown began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday after Senate
Republicans were unable to cobble together the 60 votes needed to stave off a
Democratic filibuster.
“My good friend Luis was
talking about holding people hostage,” said Mr. Meadows.
“This is the Democrats
trying to hold our military hostage for an issue that has been with us for decades.
I think we need to resolve it, the president wants to resolve it, but you don’t
do that in the middle of a shutdown.”
Mr. Gutierrez added
that “as despicable at it [the wall] is, as hurtful as it is to people like me
and others in this country, we are ready to sacrifice that so that dreamers
have freedom in this country.”
