Tag: Fernando Torres

It hasn’t been easy for Torres Small, a moderate Democrat, to talk about immigration in a way that appeals to both sides of her solidly purple district: to the immigration advocates who accuse Border Patrol of actively contributing to the deaths of Jakelin and Felipe and to the agents who say they did everything they could to save them. She’s here to meet with Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, the newly elected member from El Paso, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. ICE and Border Patrol agents abuse children and lie about it. So Torres Small says it again, and again and again. The morning after Jakelin died, Torres Small drove two hours from Las Cruces to Lordsburg, where Jakelin had been taken for medical attention, and another 90 minutes to Antelope Wells, where she had entered into the United States from Mexico. Lordsburg, home to just under 2,500 people, has the nearest hospital. Jakelin arrived at the port with 162 people, too many for one bus. Torres Small is happy that so many of her colleagues want to come to her district. But sometimes she feels like the trips just serve to further divide the border conversation. “You should be able to see the border, somewhere around there,” she says.