Tlaib Defends Vote Against Border Funding Bill: ‘More Money Is Not Going To Fix This’

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 27: Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) questions Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, during his testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill Februar... WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 27: Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) questions Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, during his testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill February 27, 2019 in Washington, DC. Last year Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine for tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, unlawful excessive campaign contributions and lying to Congress as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) defended on Sunday her vote against a $4.6 billion emergency border funding bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on Tuesday.

On June 25, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brought the Senate-approved bill to a vote in the House. Tlaib, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) were the only Democrats who voted against the bill.

When “This Week” host Martha Raddatz asked Tlaib about her vote, the congresswoman pointed to House Democrats’ recent visit to the migrant detention centers in Texas.

“Three agents took me aside, away from my colleagues and said, ‘More money is not going to fix this.’ That they were not trained to separate children,” Tlaib said.

The congresswoman said the agents told her that “this is a broken system. This is inhumane.”

“Let’s be honest here Martha, in the ’80s it was more that was coming across the border and we didn’t do this,” Tlaib said. “We allowed the asylum seekers to go through the legal process.”

Tlaib explained that when she, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Pressley voted against the bill, it was because “we knew this was not the choice that we needed our country to move forward on.”

“There is a better choice. We’ve seen it in the ’80s,” she said. “We need to do better than what we’re doing now at the border.”

Ocasio-Cortez also defended her vote on Saturday night.

“I don’t believe it was a good idea for Dems to blindly trust the Trump admin when so many kids have died in their custody,” the New York Democrat tweeted. “It’s a huge mistake.”

Watch Tlaib below:

Latest News
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: