Civil Rights
U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon's 1st congressional district representative, which includes Columbia County, travels to Texas, Mexico to observe effect of Trump administration policies.
A sold-out crowd packed the Oregon Convention Center for the 34th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, held by The Skanner Foundation on the King holiday, Monday, Jan. 20.
A delegation of congressional leaders followed U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, into Matamoros to witness conditions in the camp of asylum seekers just past the Gateway International Bridge on Friday.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-FL, called the conditions in Matamoros "heinous human rights abuses". Another representative, Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, told reporters that she spoke to a woman from El Salvador whose sick baby was lying on the floor of a tent.
Calling it "inhumane," "morally unjust," "heinous," "disgraceful," a "travesty," "horrific" and "heartbreaking," 17 Democratic members of Congress described with great emotion the "disregard for our fellow brothers and sisters" they say they saw on Friday morning as they toured a squalid migrant refugee camp across from Brownsville, Texas.
One-by-one, members of a congressional delegation described the squalid conditions faced by the asylum-seeking families and children they met in Matamoros, Mexico, where the U.S. has returned thousands of migrants, requiring them to wait for their U.S. immigration court hearings on the Mexican side of the border.
A delegation of congressional members led by Hispanic Caucus chair Joaquin Castro and Rep.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to enact new protections against age discrimination in the workplace, approving a bill that supporters say will give older workers the same safeguards other protected groups enjoy.
"I've heard from workers, many in the technology industry, who believe they have been dismissed or denied employment because of their age," Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Beaverton, said on the House floor Wednesday.
Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) talked about House legislation designed to protect older Americans from job discrimination.
"Under the 41-year-old law, it's very, very challenging for pregnant women to bring a claim and to prevail to get the support and relief that they need," said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, a Democrat from Oregon. She and Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Washington are co-sponsors of a new bill, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, that would make it easier for women to get temporary accommodations during their pregnancies.