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Showing posts with label anthony gonzalez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anthony gonzalez. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 04, 2020

Former Ohio State Buckeyes, Indianapolis Colts WR Anthony Gonzalez wins re-election

 



















11:17 PM ET

ESPN

 

Anthony Gonzalez, a former Ohio State standout who later played for the Indianapolis Colts, has kept his Congressional seat.

Gonzalez, a Republican, won reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives in Ohio's 16th Congressional District, according reporting by to the Associated Press. He ran against Democratic challenger Aaron Godfrey.

Gonzalez, 36, will serve his second consecutive term in the U.S. House.

Gonzalez played for the Buckeyes from 2004 to '06, amassing 87 receptions for 1,286 yards and 13 touchdowns in his three seasons. He was a first-round pick of the Colts' in 2007 and ended up playing all five of his NFL seasons for the team, with 99 catches for 1,307 yards and seven TDs in 40 games.

Gonzalez has stayed involved in sports while holding the Congressional seat, mainly in the fight for college athletes to receive compensation for their name, image or likeness. In September, he co-authored a bill that would open the door for college athletes to make money from a wide variety of endorsement deals and create some flexibility to adjust their proposed regulations over the course of the next three years.




Monday, September 28, 2020

Anthony Gonzalez in the 16th Congressional District

 





Posted Sep 25, 2020












In a July 2019 file photo, U.S. Reps. Anthony Gonzalez, a Rocky River Republican, left, and Colin Allred, a Texas Democrat, discuss Allred's then-upcoming trip to Gonzalez' Ohio congressional district.

By Editorial Board, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer

U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, the freshman Rocky River Republican representing Ohio’s 16th Congressional District, has been in Congress fewer than two years but is already making his mark as someone eager to reach across the aisle to achieve compromise.

Gonzalez, 36, a former star football player at Cleveland’s St. Ignatius High School who played in the NFL for five years before knee injuries cut short his football career, is looking for bipartisan solutions not just on small matters, like allowing battlefield crosses in U.S. military cemeteries. A member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, Gonzalez is also seeking potentially breakthrough solutions to consequential disputes, such as the gridlocked coronavirus stimulus aid package.


And he told our editorial board during the endorsement interview this week that he’s also working on legislation to improve on health care delivery and costs, including drug costs -- to go beyond, not to discard, the Affordable Care Act.

Gonzalez is, in fact, one of those rare Republicans who says he opposes abrogation of the ACA -- as is being sought single-mindedly by the Trump administration in a case the Supreme Court has agreed to hear. Rather, he said, his legislation will propose a series of innovative ways to address issues such as health care cost transparency and prescription drug costs that the ACA failed to solve.

Gonzalez is being challenged for reelection by Westlake Democrat Aaron Paul Godfrey, 34, a physicist who has worked in the aerospace and defense industries, who has a compelling life story of his own. He grew up in a lower-income family in Lorain County, where his father could not afford the regular insulin treatments needed for his diabetes until he reached an age that qualified him for Medicare. By then, according to Godfrey, it was too late to restore his father’s health fully, and his father died of complications relating to the disease, a decline that also meant Godfrey had to leave his Ph.D. program at the University of Toledo to help care for his father and provide for the family.


Godfrey is earnest and well-versed on technical issues in energy policy, where despite his strong support for the Icebreaker wind energy project on Lake Erie, he also sees a role for nuclear power to keep the lights on for now. However, he needs more political seasoning and to moderate partisanship that causes him to stake out narrow and unachievable positions.


Anthony Gonzalez is a refreshing example in a U.S. House that seems to have become untethered from the people. He’s a congressional representative who wants to be a doer, not a speech-maker or grandstander, and who is working in a focused manner to achieve solutions that work for more Americans.

He deserves reelection in the kangaroo-shaped 16th Congressional District, which picks up parts of Cuyahoga, Medina, Summit, Portage and Stark counties and all of Wayne County.

In the Nov. 3 election, voters in the 16th Congressional District in Ohio should return Anthony Gonzalez to Congress for a second term. Early voting starts Oct. 6.

The two candidates for Ohio’s 16th Congressional District -- incumbent U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, a Rocky River Republican, and physicist Aaron Paul Godfrey, a Westlake Democrat -- were interviewed by the editorial board of The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com on Sept. 23, 2020, as part of the editorial board’s endorsement process. Listen to audio of this interview below.







About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.





Two members of U.S. House introduce bill regarding NCAA athletes' name, image and likeness

 






















Steve Berkowitz

USA TODAY

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are introducing a bipartisan bill on Thursday to address the ongoing fight over college athletes’ ability to make money from their name, image and likeness.

The measure from Reps. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, and Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., would enhance athletes’ opportunities in ways that would make some NCAA schools unhappy while stabilizing the name-image-and-likeness (NIL) issue for college sports officials in ways that may not please athlete advocates.

“There are things that everybody's going to see that they like and some things that they wish were different,” Gonzalez, who played wide receiver at Ohio State and in the NFL, told USA TODAY Sports. “But I think that's the sign of a good bill. And, frankly, that's the hallmark of a bipartisan bill. It's never everything that any one individual, or one group, wants. It's always a collaboration.”

According to a copy of the bill provided to USA TODAY Sports, its “rules of construction” – or guidance related to the legislators’ intent – state that none of the bill’s provisions can provide the basis for an antitrust lawsuit. They also state that athletes who make endorsement deals will not be considered school employees.



Monday, August 17, 2020

Former Colts and Ohio State WR Anthony Gonzalez Is Finding Success Back in the Buckeye State

 




on August 16, 2020

Anthony Gonzalez was a stellar wide receiver at Ohio State and ultimately led the Buckeyes to a lot of success. He then entered the NFL and caught passes from the great Peyton Manning on the Indianapolis Colts. Gonzalez's NFL career, however, was ultimately short-lived, but he is now having a ton of success in a job that is very, very different than his previous one on the football field. It happens to be back in the Buckeye state too.

Anthony Gonzalez was a star for the Ohio State Buckeyes


Before entering the NFL, Gonzalez played under Jim Tressel on the Ohio State Buckeyes. After going 8-4 and winning the Alamo Bowl in 2004, the Buckeyes became an excellent team, and Gonzalez became an excellent receiver, in the next two seasons.

In 2005, Gonzalez caught 28 passes for 373 yards and three touchdowns. As a team, the Buckeyes — led by a defense that featured A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, and Malcolm Jenkins — went 10-2 and won the Fiesta Bowl over Notre Dame.

The 2006 season was then an incredible one for the Buckeyes and Gonzalez. He caught 51 passes that season for 734 yards and eight touchdowns, and Ohio State was dominant on offense and defense. 

Along with Gonzalez, the Buckeyes had Troy Smith at quarterback, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy that season, and Ted Ginn Jr., who is still catching passes in the NFL. They also had Antonio Pittman at running back, who ran for 1,233 yards and 14 touchdowns that year. On defense, the Buckeyes had Jenkins, James Laurinaitis, and future sixth overall pick Vernon Gholston.

That stacked Buckeyes roster got off to a 12-0 start and went to the BCS National Championship Game before losing to the Florida Gators.

He played for the Indianapolis Colts in the NFL





























Anthony Gonzalez of the Indianapolis Colts runs with the ball against the Houston Texans on Nov. 1, 2010. | Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Gonzalez’s play at Ohio State led to the Indianapolis Colts selecting him in the first round of the 2007 NFL draft. The Colts had just come off a Super Bowl win in 2006 and then also had some excellent teams in the years that Gonzalez played for them.

In his first season, Gonzalez had a nice year as he caught 37 passes for 576 yards and three touchdowns. The Colts ultimately went 13-3, but lost in the Divisional Round to the San Diego Chargers. 

Gonzalez was then even better in his second season, catching 57 passes for 664 yards and four touchdowns. The Colts went 12-4 that season too but lost to the Chargers in the playoffs again.

That was unfortunately the end of Gonzalez’s success in the NFL, though. He only played in 11 games combined over the next three seasons, and only caught five more passes for 67 yards. According to Bleacher Report, Gonzalez ultimately dealt with multiple knee injuries, which limited him to only 40 career games in the NFL. He signed with the New England Patriots before the 2012 season but did not play in one game with them.

Anthony Gonzalez has become a politician in the Buckeye state



After his NFL career, Gonzalez went to Stanford Business School and then had a career in the technology industry, according to his website. However, he later returned to Ohio, where he had also lived prior to playing at Ohio State.

Gonzalez then ultimately launched a career in politics. In 2018, he ran for a House of Representatives seat in Ohio. After winning the Republican primary, Gonzalez faced Democrat Susan Moran Palmer for the House seat that represents Ohio’s 16th Congressional District.

In November 2018, Gonzalez defeated Palmer with 56.7% of the vote, according to The Washington Post. During his campaign, Gonzalez received donations from Peyton Manning, former Colts receiver Austin Collie, and Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, Cleveland.com reported.

Since being elected, Gonzalez has been working toward introducing a bill regarding the use of college athletes’ name, image, and likeness, according to USA Today. President Donald Trump also chose him to serve on the Opening Up America Again Congressional Group. Gonzalez has additionally supported the college football season being played during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I learned more in that college football environment than I did in any classroom or in any other environment that I’ve ever been in,” Gonzalez said, per USA Today, “and I know that I’m not alone in that. So, to take that opportunity away from these kids, many of whom come from some of the most difficult backgrounds that this country has to offer, I think is catastrophic for them.”

After an excellent college career at Ohio State, Anthony Gonzalez is still having success in the Buckeye state. It will be interesting to see how his political career pans out.

Stats courtesy of Sports Reference and Pro Football Reference


Tuesday, March 10, 2020

He struggled after the NFL. Now he’s in Congress, and paying it forward






Anthony Gonzalez has some career advice: ‘Life is pretty good outside the NFL’




















Anthony Gonzalez felt lost. His five-year NFL career had just come to an end before he’d even turned 28.  

“I was single, didn’t have a family,” said the former wide receiver. “I felt in many ways alone and like I didn’t know exactly what my place was in life.”

It took him a few months to come to grips with no longer being a professional baller.

“So much of your self-esteem is tied to the game,” he said. “I wasn’t diagnosed with depression, but if you read what that looks like, I probably went through that.”

Now an Ohio congressman, Gonzalez wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone, which is part of why we’re here. When he invited me into his Capitol Hill office Thursday, I looked around, expecting it to scream “football.” But there really isn’t much to see in the memorabilia department: just a helmet in a glass case, plus a bobblehead or two. 


What stuck out more was the hand sanitizer — bottles of it, to ward off germs as coronavirus fears began to spread. Oh, and offensive lineman Sam Young, who, at 6 feet, 8 inches tall, kept banging his knees on the desk assigned to him.

He sat on the couch instead, listening to Gonzalez describe his new career. “Once you get through on the other side, you realize life is actually pretty good outside the NFL,” Gonzalez said. 

A former Academic All-American at Ohio State University, Gonzalez would eventually enroll at Stanford, where he earned his MBA, before working at an education technology firm in San Francisco.

His next stop: Congress. 

Now the freshman Republican lawmaker from Ohio’s 16th District wants to help people like him make the transition from professional football to a career outside the league.

That’s why Young was at the Capitol, sitting side by side with Gonzalez on the couch and wearing a neutral-looking suit. Young signed up for the NFL Players Association’s externship program, which gives football pros a chance to explore other careers during the offseason, including at startups, in sports media and on Capitol Hill.

That makes Gonzalez his “boss,” at least for the week. And what a week it was. Young arrived just in time for a coronavirus hearing at the House Science, Space and Technology panel. Other highlights: He added his input to a college athlete compensation proposal and showed up at a birthday reception celebrating the state of Ohio.

Networking without shaking hands — the new normal amid coronavirus concerns — isn’t always easy, but at least Young made it on to C-SPAN, popping up in the background of some hearing footage. 

That’s one advantage of being 6 feet, 8 inches: He’s hard to miss. A disadvantage is that the top of his head almost brushes the door frame in Gonzalez’s office.

“No helmet, no pads. But it’s still a very dynamic environment,” he said.

Young is still an NFL free agent but is exploring his options, including business school, and he wants to be ready when the time comes to make the transition. He chose Capitol Hill mainly out of sheer curiosity.

“It was an opportunity to get a peek behind the curtain,” he said. “To see what actually takes place.” That Gonzalez was a former player himself was just an added bonus.

The NFLPA has made career transition a priority given the dire financial situation some players face after hanging up their cleats. About 16 percent of them file for bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. And while the median salary is about $800,000, the median career lasts only six years. 

So does Young’s week on the Hill make him more or less likely to jump into politics? 

“More,” he said. “I had no expectations, and not only the congressman, but the staff have been just so supportive.”

As for autograph requests, he wasn’t exactly fending them off. 

“So as an offensive lineman, you don’t want to be recognized,” he said. “Usually if someone knows you, it’s not for the right reasons. It’s either you have a holding [penalty] or have given up a bad play. It’s been kind of cool to just blend in and be part of the process that is Capitol Hill.”

Gonzalez looked over at Young, incredulous. “To the extent that this guy can blend in.”

Again, Young is 6 feet, 8 inches.

Gonzalez never did an externship but instead “stumbled” through the process. “I wish I would have done what he’s doing when I was leaving the NFL,” he said, adding that he wants to fight the perception that professional football players are “a bunch of knuckleheads.” (“I mean, sometimes we are,” he joked.)

“I think there’s a perception that NFL locker rooms are chaotic and maybe [don’t have] the highest quality individuals. I’ve heard people say things like that. Maybe I just got lucky. I played with a great team and had great leaders on it,” said Gonzalez, who played on the Indianapolis Colts with future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and head coach Tony Dungy, the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl. He also briefly played for the Patriots with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, winners of six Super Bowls. 

“The NFL is a great experience. It’s an incredible honor. I’m thrilled that I had that opportunity. But life outside of it is, for me, more fulfilling, frankly,” Gonzalez said.

Other offices participating in the NFLPA externship program this season include Sen. Joe Manchin, Rep. Joe Morelle and Rep. Robin Kelly. The program is in its seventh year.




Thursday, October 03, 2019

Anthony Gonzalez plans to propose a national Fair Pay to Play law






 on 





















Getty Images


California has started the ball rolling. A former college and pro football player hopes to give it a major push forward.

Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio State and Colts receiver who currently serves as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, plans to propose federal legislation that will take the new California law allowing college athletes to earn money from their names, images, and likenesses national.

I actually think that we need to do something quickly, within the next year,” Gonzalez told ESPN.com. “I don’t think you have three years to figure this out. I think decisions will start happening immediately.”

A federal law, if crafted in a way that properly respects states’ rights, would supersede the California law and any other state law that may arise. Given that college sports operate on a national basis under the umbrella of the NCAA, it shouldn’t be hard to come up with something that would apply coast to coast.

But it could be difficult to ensure that college athletes are legitimately earning money from their names, images, and likenesses and not simply getting free money from the local car dealership that wants to do what it can to help the local university’s football program win games and in turn creates fluffed-up endorsement arrangements under which it gives players a free car and lots of cash to be an ambassador or whatever for Bobby Ray Jenkins Ford-Chrysler-Dodge! (I don’t know that there is such as thing as Bobby Ray Jenkins Ford-Chrysler-Dodge, but I definitely won’t be surprised if there is.)

“There are a lot of people who are trying to get a piece of the athlete who do not have their best interest in mind and are out for nefarious means,” Gonzalez said. “You can imagine a world where, if there were no guard rails in place, that it could get out of hand pretty quickly. That’s the lane you’re trying to carve. How do you do this to provide necessary and deserved benefits while not inviting a bigger problem alongside it?”

Still, the current model is grossly unfair to athletes. While no system will be perfect, any system in which the players have the ability to receive something more than an “education” many don’t want in the first place is better than the decades of exploitation that college athletes have endured, generating billions that go everywhere but into the pockets of the people who are responsible for making it.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

A new field: Ex-Colts wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez settling in to life as U.S. Congressman








Tom Schad, USA TODAY
Published 3:29 p.m. ET Sept. 25, 2019 | Updated 6:11 p.m. ET Sept. 25, 2019

WASHINGTON — Anthony Gonzalez was back on the football field Tuesday night, running slant routes and even catching a touchdown pass.
"Physically, I feel awful," he said with a smile. "I think it shows."
Gonzalez didn't attend any of the practices for this year's Congressional Football Game for Charity, in which members of Congress and a handful of ex-NFL players faced off against U.S. Capitol Police officers at Gallaudet University. But he obviously didn't need much practice.
Before he was Rep. Gonzalez, R-Ohio, he was a wide receiver with the Indianapolis Colts, catching passes from Peyton Manning.
"(I'm a) Congressman who used to play football," Gonzalez said, when asked about how he perceives himself today. "It’s now been well (over) seven years since I was on an NFL roster. I left the game in 2012. A lot has happened in my life since then."









Colts quarterback Peyton Manning talks with WR Anthony Gonzalez, right, before their game against the New England Patriots (Sunday, December 4, 2011, afternoon at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough MA). Matt Kryger / The Star
 A first-round draft pick out of Ohio State in 2007, Gonzalez was a slot receiver for Indianapolis during the final years of coach Tony Dungy's tenure. He played in 40 NFL games over five seasons, all for the Colts, and finished with 99 career catches for 1,307 yards. In his most productive year, 2008, he actually finished third on the team in receiving yards — just behind tight end Dallas Clark and slightly ahead of wide receiver Marvin Harrison.
But after diminishing playing time, injuries and a brief tryout with the New England Patriots, Gonzalez retired in the spring of 2012 and immediately enrolled at Stanford, where he earned his MBA. His focus then shifted to politics, which led him to run for the House seat in Ohio's 16th Congressional District last November — and win it with 56.7% of the vote.
Gonzalez, 35, said both roles — NFL player and U.S. Congressman — have proven to be difficult, albeit in different ways.
"The NFL is great because you feel like you can control more of the outcome. ... Congress isn't like that at all," he said with a laugh. "Congress is more if you’re in the majority, and you have the votes, and this, that and the other, that’s ultimately going to win the day on the House floor. So that’s just different. But both are interesting."
Gonzalez — who received campaign contributions last fall from Manning and Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, among others — now represents a swath of Ohio that spans from the western suburbs of Cleveland to areas both east and west of Akron. And though he played for the Colts, the Ohio native said he remains a "rabid" Browns fan.
While Gonzalez considers himself to be "happily retired" from football, Tuesday's event gave him a chance to relive his past career. He was a go-to target on a team of Congresspeople and NFL veterans that also featured former Pro Bowl wideout Gary Clark and longtime Denver Broncos defensive back Ray Crockett, among others. The event raised money for a trio of nonprofit organizations, including The Capitol Police Memorial Fund.
In an event that married politics and sports, Gonzalez was eventually asked if he would field a political question.
"Nope," Gonzalez said. "Not today."
And with that, he jogged back to rejoin his team — happy to be a football player again, if only for one night.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio Republican, discusses a trip he took to the border with Rep. Ben McAdams, a Utah Democrat.










Updated Jul 27, 2019; Posted Jul 26, 2019

U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio Republican, discusses a trip he took to the border with Rep. Ben McAdams, a Utah Democrat.













WASHINGTON, D.C. - For U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, a nameless Honduran infant who showed up at a U.S. border crossing in McAllen, Texas this month without his parents epitomizes a national immigration crisis caused by well-intentioned policies that aren’t working out as planned.
The Rocky River Republican, who visited several U.S. immigration facilities along the Mexican border last weekend with a congressional group called the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, said the boy, who appeared to be around eight or nine months old, was brought to the border by a young man who initially claimed to be his father, but admitted he was unrelated when he had to take a DNA test to prove his parentage.
The United States’ well-meaning policy to prioritize admission of immigrant families has perversely created a market for kids, says Gonzalez. The drug cartels that bring immigrants from Central America to the United States charge $8,000 for a single young man’s passage, but just $4,000 for entire families.
The man who brought the infant to the U.S. border said he didn’t know the baby’s name. He gave the child to border agents, along with a phone number in Honduras that was purportedly for the child’s family. Immigration officials hadn’t been able to reach the child’s family, and volunteers were pushing him around the immigration facility in a stroller.
“If you think about that baby, there’s really only a handful of potential starting points,” says Gonzalez, who has an infant son of his own. “Either the baby was kidnapped, the parents were killed, or the parents willingly gave the baby up. That’s where you very clearly see this is a real crisis and we have to do something about this.”






















Utah Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams, who also was among the ten Republicans and seven Democrats who visited McAllen, said the condition of the facilities they toured depended on the nature of their use. A Baptist family services facility that was turned into a boarding-school type facility for unaccompanied boys between the ages of 6 and 18 who had nowhere else to go in the United States was clean, says McAdams, with dorm rooms and a cafeteria. Its occupants had been in the United States for six months to three years.

McAllen’s Central Processing Facility for immigrants to the United States was designed to serve around 1,000 people at a time, but contained roughly 3,000. As a result, parts of the facility were extremely overcrowded, with people living in bad conditions while overtaxed border patrol agents processed their asylum applications. McAdams said people stayed there only a few days before they were released to go to an airport or bus station to travel someplace where they’ve got a family connection.
Conditions were better at the Donna migrant detention facility, because that facility was not filled to overcapacity. Legislators said the cartels deliberately try to swamp particular facilities with refugees so more border agents will be sent there, leaving other parts of the border without patrols so the cartels can smuggle drugs into the United States through unpatrolled areas.
Gonzalez and McAdams, who both speak Spanish, said the immigrants they interviewed were all confident they’d be released into the United States because of the crisis situation at the border. Since there aren’t adequate facilities or staffing to handle the flow of immigrants and because immigration courts are backlogged, people know they’ll be released into the United States.
Although the vast majority of immigrants they met were from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, the pair said they also met immigrants from China, Cuba and Bangladesh who deliberately decided to enter the United States through its southern border because they realized overcrowding made it likely they’d be admitted after a short stay in a holding facility. They’re given immigration court dates far into the future, and many don’t show up.

“The goal should be to have a system that treats people fairly, but expediently,” says Gonzalez. “We should find ways to make sure these cases are heard more quickly. We also need to make sure that everyone who immigrates into the country has been vetted and has a place here, and there’s no way to do that quickly under the system we have today because of the overcrowding.”
A slew of Congress members have visited the nation’s southern border in recent weeks, including both of Ohio’s U.S. Senators and Niles-area Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, who is running for president.

Gonzalez says his own father and grandparents legally immigrated to the United States from Cuba after spending months in their home country waiting for their paperwork to be approved. Fearing execution by Fidel Castro’s regime, the family hid in other people’s houses, traveling frequently to avoid capture, says Gonzalez.
“My perspective has always been that you want an immigration system that prioritizes and rewards legal immigration,” says Gonzalez. “That’s ultimately what my family chose to do.”
Gonzalez and McAdams said the nation’s well-intentioned asylum system is being exploited by people who are using it to short circuit the nation’s immigration process. They said the asylum system should be reserved for people who legitimately fear for their lives, instead of people who are merely seeking better economic opportunities or fleeing crime in their home countries. Roughly a quarter of the people who seek asylum in the United States are deemed to have a legitimate claim, but the rest get to remain in the country for the years it takes to process their claims.



“The asylum process is breaking down, because we’ve signaled to people that’s a way to come to the border and be allowed in,” says McAdams.

The pair hope that visiting the border as part of a bipartisan group will help them devise reforms that Republicans and Democrats can agree upon, ending the longtime stalemate that’s worsened the nation’s immigration problems. They suggest that adding more judges would help reduce legal bottlenecks at the border, and allowing immigrants to seek asylum at U.S. embassies in their home country might keep people from walking thousands of miles to the United States through dangerous conditions under the control of a drug cartel.
“My first takeaway from this visit is that the situation is complicated and partisan rhetoric has made it more complicated,” says McAdams. “We’re going to commit to dialing down the rhetoric. We need to recognize the humanity of the people who are coming to the border, but at the same time, recognize the humanity of the customs and border patrol agents who are asked to do an impossible job with very little resources.”
McAdams recalled visiting a part of the Rio Grande where immigrants swim across the river, and speaking with a border agent who had been traumatized by discovering the bodies of a mother and her three children who died of exposure when they got lost looking for a law enforcement agent to whom they could make an asylum claim.
Gonzalez said rhetoric denigrating the border patrol should end.
“Our group was near unanimous in feeling sympathy for the border patrol, because we’ve made their job so much more difficult as a Congress because we haven’t been able to figure this out,” Gonzalez says. “We are putting them in unbelievably difficult situations.”





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