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WHEELING -- U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin toured the United States-Mexico border Thursday, and called for allowing Central American immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship while still living in their home countries.
This would permit them to venture both legally and safely to America while avoiding the criminal element that preys upon them in their home country, he explained.
Manchin, D-West Virginia, joined U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, to view immigration control efforts at the border near Laredo, Texas. The pair took a helicopter and boat tour of the U.S.-Mexico border with Customs and Border Protection and then visited the World Trade Bridge -- Laredo's port of entry.
They met with officials from the CBP and the city of Laredo to discuss cross border international trade, before concluding the day at the Holding Institute to meet with migrant families and witness the impact of the increase in migrant individuals released at the southern border.
Manchin said he and Cueller talked to immigrants — many of whom have been in America less than a month — about the struggles they saw in their home country, and the financial costs and personal challenges they endured while trekking to America.
Many said they now felt safer being in America even while they were being housed at a holding facility, according to Manchin. Their journey had started by approaching and making deals with the criminal element in their home country to get them to America, he said.
"The criminal element knows the (immigration) rules better than most of us in America do." Manchin said. "They prey on that. It's their livelihood, and they're preying on human suffering which should be intolerable for all of us."
American officials should be able to go into such countries as Honduras and Guatemala and others in Central America and "protect the people who need protection there."
"They should be able to go through the asylum process -- the vetting process -- and do all the things that are necessary before they come here," Manchin said. "It would be safer. It would be much more humane. It would be much more cost-effective for each one of them, and the sacrifices they make."
American officials are going to have to be "difficult" and "very tough" when it comes to crimes against immigrants, he said.
"We can't let crime prosper on the backs of human suffering and trying to get to this country under any condition," Manchin said. "That can't continue."
Manchin said he and Cuellar will go back to Washington, speak with President Joe Biden and their colleagues about "how it is beyond time to do something" about immigration.
"Immigration reform should be a pathway to citizenship," he said. "The people who are here -- they may have come here the wrong way, but they came here for the right reasons. They have been productive. We have children here who know no other home than America. There should be a pathway for them -- our DREAMers."
America also should use all the technology it has available to enforce immigration laws. Manchin said the towers and scanners he saw Thursday along the border were "far different from what we had 10 years ago."
"All this can be done," he said. "And we can protect them (immigrants). The people coming here will be basically vetted in their home countries, and coming for the right reasons."
Manchin suggested a 90-day moratorium on immigration, during which time Congress should work to make the issue a priority.
He said he and the centrist House Democrat Cuellar "come from the middle," and "that is where you get things done."