Newsroom

“These actions are particularly alarming in light of the recent warnings underscoring the impacts of climate change on air quality and the health of the American people,” Pallone and Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) wrote in their Monday letter to acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler.

During the earlier discussion with DeGette, a Democrat who represents Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, workers talked about how they have been personally impacted. They included traffic controllers, National Parks employees and workers from the EPA. They spoke of financial hardship, depression of coworkers and some explained how their agencies have been downgraded during the work stoppage.

“These are children who are often desperately fleeing terrible violence back home,” said Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado. “They are literally running for their lives and asking for our country to help. Instead of offering them help, this proposal would require border officials to turn a deaf ear to their desperate pleas and send these kids back to the very places they just risked their lives to escape.”