(Headline USA) Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, admitted this week that “tougher measures at the border” are necessary as immigration officers struggle to process the tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border every week.
Cuellar was responding to an announcement that U.S. Customs and Border Protection was forced to temporarily suspend railway operations in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas to crack down on a “recent resurgence of smuggling organizations moving through Mexico via freight trains.”
Cuellar tweeted, “The crisis at our border is seriously affecting legitimate trade.”
This year alone, vehicle and rail operations have been suspended at multiple ports of entry due to an overwhelming number of migrants, worsening delays for truck drivers transporting goods and costing our economy millions.
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— Rep. Henry Cuellar (@RepCuellar) December 18, 2023
In a separate interview with CNN, Cuellar was asked whether he supports efforts by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican to enforce the border and crack down on illegal immigration. Abbott this week signed a law that authorized police officers in the state to arrest illegals.
Cuellar said that, like Abbott, he was “frustrated by the lack of activity, the more work that can be done” by the Biden administration.
It comes as Biden, already experiencing an unparalleled immigration crisis, experiences new record-breaking surges.
NEW! Government numbers obtained from Border Patrol show yesterday had the most-ever immigrants encountered at the southern border: 14,509. This is a phenomenon like we’ve never seen before.
26,758 in custody
5,197 in Del Rio
5,004 in Tucson
4,968 in RGV
4,722 in El Paso pic.twitter.com/wC5sDPFwHg— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) December 19, 2023
Cuellar also said he would be willing to look at border restrictions being proposed by congressional Republicans as part of the next aid package to Ukraine and Israel.
“I do support stricter policies, but at the same time not to the extreme that you don’t allow the rights of the immigrants to claim asylum,” he told CNN. “But do I believe in stricter? Yes.”
Though Cuellar has recently been more critical of the Biden administration’s immigration policies, he was also vocally opposed to efforts by the Trump administration to secure the southern border.
In fact, in 2021 he celebrated the Biden administration’s decision to reallocate all congressional-approved funds for construction of the southern border wall.
“I have worked hard to ensure the previous administration’s diverted military funding is returned, border wall construction is terminated, and local border communities receive those resources for legitimate priorities,” Cuellar said at the time.
“I want to thank the Biden Administration for its commitment to prioritizing, and giving back, limited resources that Congress had appropriated to specific causes and programs that create real impact on the border,” he added.
