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Democrats, Republicans Air Warring Views on Migrants' Conditions

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON -- Four House Democratic freshmen who recently toured
   detention stations for migrants along the Texas border told a House
   committee Friday of jam-packed, fetid holding areas "in front of the
   American flag" and accused President Donald Trump of intentional
   cruelty to discourage future arrivals.
   Firing back, a quartet of Republicans from border states told the same
   panel that Democrats weren't doing anything to ease the crisis and
   blamed them for posturing that one said was aimed at "Twitter followers
   and cynical politics."
   Friday's House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing offered a
   microcosm of the nation's red-blue chasm and, perhaps, a chance for
   each side to vent. But ultimately, it underscored each party's starkly
   warring views about Trump's hardline anti-immigration policies,
   suggesting they're destined to be a leading issue for the 2020
   presidential and congressional campaigns.

   Surge of migrants
   The hearing came as the number of families, children and other migrants
   entering the U.S. from Mexico has surged above 100,000monthlysince
   March, overwhelming federal agencies' ability to detain them in
   sanitary conditions or move them quickly to better housing. It also
   came days before Trump-ordered nationwide raids targeting people in the
   U.S. illegally are expected to begin, according to administration
   officials and immigrant activists, actions that would further inflame
   the issue.

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