McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Two South Texas border congressmen were among 14 Democrats who voted this week for a resolution denouncing President Biden’s “open-border policies.”
U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, of Laredo, Texas, and Vicente Gonzalez, of McAllen, supported the resolution on Wednesday, which cleared the Republican-led House by a vote of 225-187.
Passed on Jan. 17, House Resolution 957 says, “Denouncing the Biden administration’s open-borders policies, condemning the national security and public safety crisis along the Southwest border, and urging President Biden to end his administration’s open-borders policies.”
Cuellar on Thursday told Border Report he voted for the resolution because he’s “frustrated” with lenient criteria for asylum-seekers to get paroled into the United States, as well as what he calls “catch-and-release policies” that led to 600,000 “gotaways” on the Southwest border in Fiscal Year 2023.
“We need to put some changes on policies like the criteria for asylum at the beginning, or maybe the parole — tighten that up a little bit. I think we need to,” he said.
“I don’t like exactly the language that’s there but I think the Biden administration can do a lot more at securing the border. It’s very simple and it’s what I’ve been saying for many years,” Cuellar said from Washington, D.C. “Detain and deport the people who don’t qualify.”
He said he’s been trying to get H-2B temporary work visas for 60,000 people “which is the legal way to come in and work. And in one year 300,000 were paroled and not all of them are working. So this is what’s a little frustrating with the system right now.”
Cuellar, ranking member of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Committee, said more money needs to be put into what he calls “operational capacity” to limit those who illegally enter the U.S. border.
“The system is overwhelmed because we need to put money in the right things,” Cuellar said.
“Migrants continue to arrive in historic numbers while our U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers remain stretched thin,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “This is all at the expense of border communities, like those in the 34th Congressional District of Texas. We need bold action and decisive leadership on this issue to bring order and dignity to our immigration system.”
All Republicans present voted in favor of it and in addition to Cuellar and Gonzalez, these Democrats also supported it, according to the U.S. House Clerk’s office:
- U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, of Texas
- U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, of Colorado
- U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, of Minnesota
- U.S. Rep. Don Davis, of North Carolina
- U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, of Maine
- U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman, of Ohio
- U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, of Nevada,
- U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, of Florida
- U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel, of North Carolina
- U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, of Alaska
- U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, of Washington
- U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, of Illinois
“Joe Biden’s far left open border policies are responsible for the crisis happening at our northern and southern borders, turning every community into a border community. House Republicans passed the strongest border security bill in history. It’s well past time for Biden to end his failed open border policies and secure our Northern and Southern Borders,” U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York who chairs the House Republican Conference said in a statement after the resolution passed.
“Every day Biden’s border crisis rages on, lives are endangered and hardworking taxpayer dollars are needlessly spent which is why I voted to condemn Biden’s open border policies and demand he secure our nation’s borders at once,” she said.
The vote passed as Congress was up against a spending deadline that could have triggered a government shutdown on Friday and Republicans and Democrats were divided on border security.
Both chambers passed stop-gap measures that will keep the government working until March.
Republicans on Thursday also held an impeachment hearing against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who did not testify.
All 18 Republicans on the House Committee on Homeland Security, led by Chairman Mark Green, of Tennessee, afterward released this statement announcing their support for impeachment:
“It is unmistakably clear to all of us — and to the American people — that Congress must exercise its constitutional duty and impeach Secretary Mayorkas. The secretary has consistently willfully and systemically refused to follow the laws passed by Congress, abused his authority, and breached the trust of Congress and the American people on numerous occasions. The result of his failure to fulfill his oath of office has been a border crisis that is unprecedented in American history — a crisis that has cost the lives of thousands of Secretary Mayorkas’ fellow Americans,” they wrote.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
