Rep. Espaillat: Assault of NYPD officers ‘reprehensible’

(NewsNation) — New video in the beating of two NYPD officers in Times Square is raising new questions about what led to the chaos.

The incident happened against a backdrop of a growing immigration crisis in cities across the country that, if Congress fails to pass border legislation, may only get worse. An internal memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement obtained by NewsNation warns of a billion-dollar budget deficit that’s threatening resources.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., who happens to be the first formerly undocumented immigrant to serve in Congress, said Friday on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” the assault on the officers was “reprehensible” but emphasized it was not representative of the majority of migrants coming to America.

“They should proceed to apprehend these folks, and the full weight of the law should fall upon them,” Espaillat said.

A record number of migrants — more than 2 million — have crossed the southern border each year for the past two years, straining resources in cities across the country. Governors in southern states, notably GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have been busing migrants north to cities including New York.

The influx of migrants has put the spotlight on Congress and its inability to pass comprehensive immigration reform for decades.

A bipartisan border deal in the Senate that had been negotiated over a span of months failed to pass this week over objections from senators who said it wasn’t adequate, some at the urging of former President Donald Trump, or who said President Joe Biden should be responsible for devising a fix.

Espaillat accused Republicans of blocking the bill solely for political reasons.

“Republicans in the House, even before reading the bill, said that the bill was dead on arrival, so clearly there’s not a will in Congress right now to address comprehensive immigration reform from a balanced perspective,” Espaillat said. “In fact, it’s being weaponized politically.”