‘They Say The Border’s Closed. It’s Not Closed’: Dem Rep Calls Out Biden Over Border Crisis

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas blasted the Biden administration over the border crisis during a Friday afternoon appearance on Fox News.

“They’re just not on the same page when they say the border’s closed. It’s not closed. Last year we had 1.7 million individuals that came in. I think at the end of this fiscal year, we’ll probably have maybe 2.3 million,” Cuellar told Fox News host Neil Cavuto. “That is almost 4 million individuals in just two years. Then if you count the 400, 500,000 get-aways, you’re talking about 4.5 million individuals. You have to have repercussions. If you don’t have repercussions … this is where my friend Tony Gonzales and myself are on the same page. There has to be repercussions at the border. Otherwise, they’ll keep coming.”

Just under 3.5 million migrants have crossed the southern border since January 2021, according to data from United States Customs and Border Protection. The Biden administration asked some journalists with U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to help process migrants in July.

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“We both have been working tirelessly to secure this border. Some of the things we’ve done is we’ve secured $90 million for Operation Stonegarden funds,” Republican Texas Rep. Tony Gonzalez said. “These are federal grants that go down to the sheriffs and the local law enforcement in order to help them. In many cases, the local sheriffs are the ones who carry the weight load because the border patrol agents are not in the field. They’re in the processing centers.”

Cuellar also commented on mayors complaining about busing migrants from the border.

“The first city that bused some people from the border away from the border was actually my hometown of Laredo. We actually bused them to Dallas and Houston,” Cuellar said. “Guess what happened? The mayor in Houston called the mayor in Laredo and said, what are you doing? You can’t send them over here. So, you know, it’s interesting, people can say open borders. When it happens in our own backyard, they don’t like it. What they’re seeing, though, is a drop of what Tony Gonzalez and myself and the border communities see.”

“One of the pieces of legislation that Congressman Cuellar and I put together is the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act. It adds immigration judges to the equation, brings them back on the border, allows cases to be heard within days, not years, allows that enforcement,” Gonzalez said. “I visited Rock Springs, I visited the high school. I’m asking about school safety. He said, ‘Last week I got a message, texts on my phone that said there was a bail-out and they were armed and dangerous.’ He said, ‘My students were taking photos. We had to shelter in place. We didn’t know what was happening. Uvalde is fresh on everyone’s mind.’ This is a dangerous situation that is happening along the border. … There’s no end in sight. Every city in the United States is now a border city.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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