by Susan Ferrechio
| June 27, 2019 11:59 AM


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi embraced the view of some Democratic presidential contenders that illegal immigration should not be a crime.

“You cannot say anybody coming across the border is breaking the law,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday in her weekly press conference. “Not until there is a determination whether they can stay or not.”

Pelosi echoed the view of some of the Democrats running for president, including Julián Castro, who called for the repeal of the specific statute during the presidential debate Wednesday night.

“The reason that they're separating these little children from their families is that they're using Section 1325 of that act which criminalizes coming across the border to incarcerate the parents and then separate them,” Castro said on the debate stage. “Some of us on this stage have called to end that section, to terminate it. And I want to challenge all of the candidate to do that.”

Pelosi blamed shrinking visa allowances for the tragic and highly publicized drowning of a Central American migrant and his toddler daughter in the Rio Grande this week.

“I just think it’s such shame for that to be the face of America across the world,” Pelosi said.

She said illegal immigrants should be allowed entry into the country and should be allowed to legally remain until immigration judges decide their fate.

“We don’t have to undermine who we are as a country by saying it’s a crime to engage in an internationally recognized opportunity to make your case, to come into a country. Any country,” Pelosi said.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...rder-illegally