House Democrats have been caught on video apparently downplaying the influence of illegal immigration in the murder of Houston 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, with one telling FOX Business, "I don’t know who she is."
The comments come after bail has been set for $10 million each for Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, the two suspects from Venezuela who are each facing a capital murder charge. Both men entered the U.S. illegally near El Paso, Texas, before being captured by the Border Patrol and released from custody. Nungaray was then strangled to death early last week in a case prosecutors say bears signs of sexual assault.
When FOX Business Correspondent Hillary Vaughn caught up with Rep. Summer Lee to ask for her thoughts on Nungaray’s murder, she cut her off, saying "Oh I’m sorry, I don’t talk to strangers – I don’t even know who you are, and I don’t know who she is, I’m out of Pittsburgh."
"I don’t know anything about it," Lee added before disappearing into an office on Capitol Hill.
FAMILY OF JOCELYN NUNGARAY PLEADS FOR HEIGHTENED BORDER SECURITY
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, when asked by Vaughn if it is "time to rethink our parole policy if [it] were releasing people who are murdering our children," called Nungaray’s murder "horrific" and said "the people that committed the crime should be held completely accountable to that crime."
"I think, broadly speaking, I think what the country needs is broad asylum, border and immigration reform," he continued. "I think we all know what the data says. We know that migrants oftentimes, and according to the data, according to police departments, are often less likely to actually commit crime than the natural born citizens."
Garcia then said "we should not be releasing anyone that we think could be a threat to the country."
"We have issues with judges. The courts are backed up," he also said. "We're hearing from people that are trying to actually bring folks in and try to interview and see and try to assess the person if they're safe or not. With the asylum processes, there's not enough judges, not enough clerks. So that's got to get reformed."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington echoed comments similar to her fellow Democrats, telling Vaughn "These are horrible incidents and I think anyone who conducts that kind of terrible act has to be prosecuted. But as we know, the research is that undocumented immigrants commit far fewer crimes than anyone else."
"But aren’t these crimes preventable if we didn’t parole them into the country?" Vaughn then asked.
Jayapal gave no response as she entered an elevator and its doors closed.
Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York also said he "can’t comment on the parole policy" involving migrants apprehended at the U.S. border, but added that "if you look at the statistics, the crime rate among immigrants is far lower than the crime rate among native born Americans.
"It's unfortunate anybody's killed, obviously, but immigrants, legal or illegal, commit crimes at a rate far lower than native-born Americans," he added. "That's -- those are the facts."
