“We are working on a 40-year deficit to deliver on comprehensive immigration reform that has led to this system where these kids can be exploited.”
Especially as an attorney who has worked on these issues her entire career, it felt like a personal attack,” Scholten said., I spoke with the former immigration attorney–turned–congresswoman about the broader powers she has now that’s she in D.C. and whether she will be able to use them. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Mary Harris: Rep. Hillary Scholten says the nuances of immigration have always been important to her. Before she was an attorney, she worked as a migrant advocate. But once she got her law degree, she took that experience one step forward, joining the DOJ.: I was working at the Justice Department on immigration issues largely related to enforcement, figuring out how to make our laws more just, more fair, more humane.Yeah, exactly.
Five years later, this investigation by the New York Times has Scholten thinking about different ways to help migrant children. Just this past weekend, she returned to her district to connect with constituents and think about how she can intervene, now that her community’s child labor problem is no longer a secret. She can already see the way the news has rippled outward.
That’s exactly right. And these teachers are doing everything that they can to keep these kids learning, to keep them protected, but clearly, if the individuals in their lives don’t even know where to go or who to turn to, the children themselves certainly don’t. We as a society—every single individual bears a modicum of responsibility for letting us get to this point. But any energy that we spend in turning the blame away from these companies is the wrong direction for our energy right now.
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