Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is using her own immigration story to contradict misinformation about asylum seekers at the U.S./Mexico border.
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00:00I cry every time I see a little girl standing in the desert waiting to get processed into this country
00:09because I remember what that felt like.
00:24In the dead of night, we decided we weren't just going to wait in our home.
00:30And wait for militia to find us. Wait for us to starve.
00:36Wait for my sisters, my aunties and the women in our family to get raped.
00:44But we were going to risk the walk to cross the border into Kenya.
00:49We were going to risk the starvation to find a new life.
00:54We were going to risk it all.
00:56And so I understand the pain, the fear, the struggles.
01:16But the difference between what is happening to some of these little girls and me
01:21is that I didn't have a cage waiting for me.
01:26I had an open arm.
01:29People with moral clarity awaiting us and saying,
01:35you've been through a lot.
01:37Here is your new home.
01:39You're our new neighbor.
01:41You need water.
01:45And in this country, in the United States,
01:49people are not welcomed that way.
01:53They are separated and processed.
02:00They are detained and tortured.
02:15And we can't continue to allow that to happen.
02:19At least not under our watch.