Border Democrat Henry Cuellar: ‘The Border Is Not Secure’ Under Biden

Conservative News DailyOctober 23, 2022

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), whose district is on the U.S.-Mexico border, responded to the latest numbers released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the crisis at the border by acknowledging that the border under the current Democratic administration is not secure.

DHS released the numbers from September late on Friday night. The numbers showed the highest number of illegal aliens ever encountered by DHS (227,547) during the month of September.

Fiscal Year 2022 ended with the most illegal alien encounters on the southern border in DHS history (2,378,944), more known or suspected terrorists arrested on the southern border (98) than the previous five years combined (26), and more migrants dying at the southern border (856) than any other year on record.

Cuellar was asked on “Fox News Sunday” to respond to Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent remarks that the border was “secure.”

“First of all, no, the border is not secure,” Cuellar said. “When you have 1.7 million individuals last year, and now another 2.7, that’s over 4.5 million individuals encounter at the border, plus the — if you add the getaways, that’s going to be over 5 million individuals in just two years. No, the border is secure — it’s not secured and we’ve got to make sure that we have repercussions there.”

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Joining us now from San Antonio, Democratic Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, whose district includes Laredo, along the border.

Congressman, welcome back to FOX NEWS SUNDAY.

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX): Thank you. And good morning to you, Shannon.

BREAM: OK, so you heard the numbers there. They came after 11 p.m. here in Washington on a Friday night. They are record breaking. I know you’ve talked with this administration repeatedly about the issue at the border, trying to get some help.

Here’s what the vice president said last month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours, and our administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: Congressman, based on your conversations with the administration, first, do you think the secure – the border is secure? And, secondly, do you think it is a priority for this White House?

CUELLAR: You know, first of all, no, the border is not secure. When you have 1.7 million individuals last year, and now another 2.7, that’s over 4.5 million individuals encounter at the border, plus the – if you add the getaways, that’s going to be over 5 million individuals in just two years. No, the border is secure – it’s not secured and we’ve got to make sure that we have repercussions there.

Look, I – I’ve talked to the administration a week before the December – this was in December of 2020 and I started telling the transition team in December of 2020, this is what’s going to be happening. You all have to be ready. And if we don’t have repercussion – we can be compassionate at the border, but you’ve got to enforce the law. And if you don’t return people, then this is what you’re going to have.

I saw the numbers from the Venezuelans that have dropped out. I – I actually want them to do that to every country. If we do that to every country, the numbers will go down. We will be able to control our borders. And that’s important to us that live along the border.

BREAM: Well, there’s been a lot of attention play — paid to El Paso. You heard Bill’s reporting there. They have been bussing migrants to other places, like New York, which has since declared an emergency because of the influx they’ve gotten.

El Paso reportedly not going to continue the bussing because there’s reporting out there that the feds are not going to send migrants to El Paso anymore, at least not in the numbers that they were.

Instead it appears they’re using something that they had criticized from the Trump administration as cruel and it’s actually a policy they’re currently fighting in court, Title 42. AP says this, with the increasing number of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S./Mexico border as the November 8th election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution, his predecessor’s playbook.

So, is it your impression that this administration is saying one thing publicly but doing things differently when it comes to actually handling the reality of what they’re seeing at the border?

CUELLAR: I think so. You know, with all due respect to the administration, you know, they said they want to get rid of Title 42, but Title 42 is used more than Title 8 to return people back. And if you look at what they’re doing with the Venezuelans, doesn’t that sound familiar, like the MPP, that is you wait outside before you come in, or you go through a