While discussing immigration at a town hall on Monday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) asked her audience, "what's the point?" of enforcing immigration with the United States' bounds.
"When I saw the president was going to have these raids, it's so appalling, it's outside the realm of civilized human behavior, just kicking down doors and splitting up families in addition to the injustices that are happening at the border," she said. "We have legislation to go forward to address those needs. But in terms of interior enforcement, what's the point?"
Pelosi went on to say that she would not pursue the question further, as this was not a "political event."
Trump announced Saturday that he would hold off on planned ICE raids on illegal immigration populations in sanctuary cities.
"At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1142506687020130306?s=20
Pelosi has been at odds with President Donald Trump's administration on the issue of immigration since he took office in 2017. During the month-long government shutdown in January, Pelosi opposed Trump's proposal to put a wall on the southern border, calling the idea "immoral."
Other Democratic members of Congress also opposed a wall at the time, but conceded that increasing security on the Southern border with Mexico would be good for the United States.
"Some fencing has uses. Some barriers are useful," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D,. Ore.) said.
"If we have a partial wall, if we have fencing, if we have technology used to keep our border safe, all of that is fine," Rep. Cheri Bustos (D., Ill.) said.
"There are areas along the border where there are currently fences that are put up or barriers that are put up that need to be enhanced," Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) said.
"Certainly you need barriers and we support barriers," Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.) said.