Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar blasted Vice President Kamala Harris’s upcoming trip to our southern border during an interview, highlighting that Harris won’t be going to where the border crisis is occurring. “[T]he epicenter is down there in the lower Rio Grande, lower part of my district down there. If you look at the numbers that are down there compared to El Paso, you’re not going to get a true picture of what’s happening,” Rep. Cuellar told Fox News.Rep. Cuellar added that a Border Patrol agent located in the lower Rio Grande asked him, “Hey, why is she going over there?”“She’s gotta spend time with landowners, with the stakeholders, with cities, the counties officials,” Rep. Cuellar concluded. Rep. Cuellar isn’t wrong. According to ABC News: “Even though Harris is headed to Texas, she’ll be visiting El Paso, not the Rio Grande Valley, where a temporary U.S. Customs and Border Patrol facility in Donna is located and was overwhelmed for months earlier this year with the amount of unaccompanied minors arriving in record levels. Border crossings are also more prevalent in the RGV than El Paso.”BIDEN’S BORDER CRISIS BY THE NUMBERS:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced 180,034 enforcement encounters at our southern border in May that is a 674% INCREASE from May of 2020.
May was the 3RD STRAIGHT MONTH of 170K+ apprehensions, which hasn’t occurred since 2000.
The 180,034 border crossings in May mark a new 21-year high.
CBP has also seized MORE fentanyl so far in 2021 than all of 2020.
TRANSCRIPT:PERINO: “Let’s bring in Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas. And you’ve been keeping us informed about what’s going on down there the entire time. You’ve just recently—I think, I believe it was yesterday -- had a joint op-ed with Cornyn and Gonzales in the Dallas Morning News asking the Vice President or the Biden Administration to come and visit. Do you think that this is a good step that she is going and are you disappointed that it’s going to be in El Paso?”CUELLAR: “You know, first of all I’m glad that she is going down to the border because that is part of her job portfolio, number one. And number two, yes the epicenter is down there in the lower Rio Grande, lower part of my district down there. If you look at the numbers that are down there compared to El Paso, you’re not going to get a true picture of what’s happening. You go to the Donna facility, you go to Roma, Texas, you go to Rio Grande City, you go to the McAllen area so you can get an idea. That’s how you can get an idea of what’s happening down at the border. So it’s a first step.”HEMMER: “You’re right about that. So, if that’s the case, why go?”CUELLAR: “Well, again she is going down to the border. She’ll say she’ll go down to the border. Yesterday I got a call from one of my Border Patrol friends and say ‘Hey, why is she going over there? We got about 140 percent higher crossings over here. This is where the activity is at.’ And I couldn’t answer him when he asked me that question. He is down there in the lower Rio Grande. So, even if she goes to El Paso, which is a first step, she’s gotta spend time with landowners, with the stakeholders, with cities, the counties officials and I hope she sits down with our brave men and women in green and in blue, our Border Patrol agents so they don’t just get a pat on the back but they actually get some reinforcement and some support down there.
