Who is Veronica Escobar and What Should We Know?

Biography:
Veronica Escobar is a 49-year-old Mexican-American Congresswomen from El Paso, Texas. She received a master's degree in English literature at New York University and taught Chicano literature at the University of Texas at El Paso. After that she became a county Judge before resigning to run for Congress. Representative Escobar is married to Michael Pleters, who is interestingly an immigration judge, deciding whether immigrants get to stay or will get deported. Together they have two children: Cristian Diego, a 20-year-old Harvard student, and Eloisa Isabel, an 18-year-old Simmons student.

Sources: https://veronicaescobar.com/meet-veronica
                  https://ballotpedia.org/Veronica_Escobar
                  https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/03/09/veronica-escobar-                    election-history-first-texas-latina-us-congress/404466002/

Tenure and Experience:
This will be Representative Escobar's first time in congress. She will be representing the 16th district of Texas. Along with Sylvia Garcia, Representative Veronica Escobar will be one of two of the first Latinas elected to Congress from Texas. Veronica Escobar has previous experience being elected as a county commissioner in 2006 and county judge in 2010 before she resigned to run for the House.

Sources: https://veronicaescobar.com/meet-veronica
                  https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/03/09/veronica-escobar-                    election-history-first-texas-latina-us-congress/404466002/

Committees:
Representative Escobar serves on the House Judiciary Committee. Additionally, she serves on the Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, and the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship. The first committee discusses legislation on constitutional amendments, constitutional rights, Federal civil rights, claims against the U.S., non-immigration claims bills, government ethics, tort liability, and and legal reform. The second subcommittee discusses legislation regarding immigration, naturalization, border security, refugees, treaties, conventions and international agreements, Federal charters of incorporation, immigration bills, and non-border immigration enforcement.

Source: https://elpasoheraldpost.com/rep-escobar-announces-house-judiciary-subcommittee-                             assignments-for-116th-congress/

Cosponsored Legislation:
Representative Veronica Escobar has thus far cosponsored eighteen bills in her time in congress. All the bills were sponsored by a democrat in the house. Some of the bills she cosponsors include For the People Act of 2019, Washington, D.C. Admission Act, Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act, Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, Keep Families Together Act, Protect Patriot Spouses Act, Raise the Wage Act, and Rebuild America's Schools Act of 2019. There are a number of bills which regard Trump's wall and separation of families, voting. and the closing of the government. All these cosponsorships show us what Representative Veronica Escobar stands for.

Source: https://www.congress.gov/member/veronica-escobar/E000299?q=                                                                      {%22sponsorship%22:%22cosponsored%22}&pageSort=dateOfIntroduction%3Aasc

Texas:


Representative Escobar's home state of Texas first entered the Union on December 29th, 1845. Texas currently has an estimated population of 28.7 million, with 39.4% being Hispanic or Latino. Escobar's hometown of El Paso had a population of 683,577 last counted in 2017. However, with Texas being right along the border there is a large number of undocumented immigrants, an estimated 1.68 million. Since, like already state, Texas is along the Southern border, it is no surprise that an estimated 62% of those are native to Mexico. With non-whites tending to vote democrat, the population is not big enough to effect the whole state of Texas, with the last ten state-wide elections going to the republican side. However, Representative Veronica Escobar's 16th district goes to the democrats, at least in the U.S. House. Finding information all the way back to 1990, every election went to a democrat, with Beto O'Rourke winning three elections in a row.

Sources: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/tx
                   https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-                           illegal-immigration-but-didnt-know-who-to-ask/
                   https://ballotpedia.org/Texas%27_16th_Congressional_District