By Shannon Najmabadi All 13 Democrats who represent Texas in Congress are calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to reverse a yearslong effort to boot Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program, saying it jeopardizes thousands of low-income Texans’ ability to access nonabortion health services. Their plea comes just days after a state district judge temporarily stopped the state from excluding Plan... Read more »
BY REPS. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TEXAS), ROSA DELAURO (D-CONN.), JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D-ILL.), AND EARL BLUMENAUER (D-ORE.) The United States and Mexico have both been slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic with more than six million U.S. cases and 185,000 deaths and Mexico surging to 606,000 cases, the eighth highest in the world. Yet amidst this global health crisis, Mexico’s Congress recently passed legislati... Read more »
By Rebecca Kheel The Democratic-controlled House voted Monday to add limits to the Insurrection Act after President Trump threatened to invoke it to deploy active-duty troops against recent protests over racial injustice. In a 215-190 vote, the House approved the Insurrection Act changes as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. The vote fell largely along party-lines, though 14 D... Read more »
By Lauren Villagran U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar on Tuesday urged the U.S. and Mexican presidents to pursue a binational strategy to tackle COVID-19 as infections swell on both sides of the border. On the eve of the meeting in Washington, D.C., between Donald Trump and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the El Paso Democrat implored "urgent action" in an open letter to both men. "With over 130,000 America... Read more »
By Congresswoman Veronica Escobar The strength that our nation, including my El Pasoan constituents, has summoned in the midst of the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic is no surprise to anyone who understands our nation’s resilience. Yet, it remains nothing short of awe inspiring. Americans are stepping in to care for their neighbors in ways large and small, even when our elected leaders fall sho... Read more »
By Congresswoman Veronica Escobar El Pasoans aren’t strangers to great challenges, and our community has demonstrated time and again that we are strongest when we unite to face adversity. Coronavirus, the pandemic that is sweeping the globe will prove to be one of the greatest challenges we will face. To adequately address it, we must each be armed with information driven by science, understand th... Read more »
By Meg Anderson According to Rep. Veronica Escobar, the greatest danger facing Americans is not foreign, economic or even climate related. It is the president himself and his Republican supporters in Congress. "Honestly, the greatest threat to our security is a president and a Republican-controlled Senate that act only in their own interest," Escobar said during the Spanish-language response to Pr... Read more »
By Emily Cochrane When President Trump delivered his State of the Union address in 2019, he pointed to El Paso as a sign of the success of his immigration policies, claiming it had been transformed from “one of our nation’s most dangerous cities” to “one of the safest cities in our country” by the construction of a border wall. In the audience, Representative Veronica Escobar, the Democrat who rep... Read more »
By Lauren Villagran U.S. Customs and Border Protection is creating hundreds of new, civilian jobs to handle the processing and welfare checks of migrants at the border — a move advocates have recommended to curb allegations of abusive treatment in border enforcement. The USAJobs.gov posting shows openings in El Paso and McAllen, Texas, and Yuma, Arizona, for civilians to help "with humanitarian ca... Read more »
By Daniel Borunda First-year U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar rose to become one of the most impactful national voices from the border as El Paso faced a difficult year in 2019. Escobar, who made history as one of the first two Latinas in Congress from Texas, was outspoken against what she saw as dangerous anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies from the Trump administration. She also played a role in the ... Read more »
