A border-state House Democrat ripped President Biden on Wednesday for not showing enough urgency about the immigration crisis at the southern border — claiming the situation will be out of control.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that communities in his state will soon be “overwhelmed” by migrants crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas and that the 80-year-old president needs to “show up” at the border to in a demonstration of support for the impacted communities and the beleaguered members of law enforcement.
“I don’t know why they keep avoiding the border and saying there’s other things, more important things, than visiting the border. If there is a crisis, show up. Just show up,” and exasperated Cuellar said.
“Just showing up at the border would send a strong signal to the communities that he’s there, he cares about the border communities. Just show up! It doesn’t take much to just show up at the border,” Cuellar pleaded.
When asked by Collins if he believes the Biden administration views the crisis with any kind of “urgency,” Cuellar responded that he doesn’t think so.
“I don’t think they do, or if they do, they just have a very different perspective,” the congressman said. “It’s OK to listen to immigration activists. It’s OK to do that. But who is listening to the men and women in green and blue and who is listening to our border communities?”
Cuellar added that with Title 42, the policy that allows authorities to swiftly expel migrants without allowing them to seek asylum, ending next week, the situation will get worse for communities near the border.
“Communities are going to be overwhelmed,” Cuellar said. “We’ve seen that in the past with Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio. They’re going to be overwhelmed.”
Last week, Biden neglected to visit the border during a trip to Arizona to speak at a computer-chips factory. When asked by a reporter why the trip wouldn’t include a stop at the border, the president responded: “Because there are more important things going on.”
Since Biden took office, the border has experienced historic numbers of migrants crossing — including more than 2.4 million in the last fiscal year.