Cornyn: ‘We Have a Failed State on Our Southern Border’

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Tuesday that Mexico is “a failed state” much like Afghanistan is, and that Mexican President Lopez Obrador has waved the “white flag when it comes to the cartels.”

This comes as a drug cartel attacked a prison over the weekend in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from San Diego, and freed 24 inmates, leaving 14 people dead, and Fox News host Dana Perino said there was “not a blip from the Mexican government.”

“We’ve talked a lot about failed states like Afghanistan overseas. We have a failed state, I believe, on our southern border. President Lopez Obrador has essentially waved a white flag when it comes to the cartels. They control large portions of the country,” Cornyn told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”

“As you point out, they’re continuing to get rich smuggling people and drugs into the United States, drugs that took the lives of 108,000 Americans last year alone. I don’t think they’ve been a responsible partner,” the senator said.

“Basically, President Lopez Obrador said our American agents who were there to try to help them control the stem of people and drugs are no longer welcome in that country. So I’m increasingly concerned that it’s more and more out of control and becoming essentially a failed state on our southern border,” he said.

Cornyn said that the situation at the border is not going to get any better, and “if President Biden was smart, he would go to the border.”

“I think part of the problem is this is a case of willful ignorance. Every time you talk to the administration, they want to talk about root causes, what’s happening in Central America and Mexico,” the senator said.

“Certainly, that’s a small part of it, but mainly this is an international human smuggling network – people showing up from as many as 150 different countries taking advantage of our broken asylum laws and guaranteeing their entry into the United States, perhaps never to be heard from again,” he said.

“So I think this would be one way for President Biden to at least show that he cares or — and is trying, and certainly I would be happy to be one of those to work with him and our Democratic colleagues to stop the flow and this humanitarian crisis,” Cornyn added.

Asked whether he’d like to join Biden if the president decides to visit the border, Cornyn said, “I’d be happy to welcome him to Texas and introduce him to the experts, the same people I’ve learned from, which are our Border Patrol. They could teach him a lot as they’ve taught me a lot about what we need to do in order to stop this border crisis, primarily to stop catch and release.

“That’s the problem we saw during the George W. Bush administration with people coming from as far away as Brazil. Once Secretary Chertoff decided that we needed to detain people while we process their asylum claims, then it stopped a lot of the flow, and I think that is what we need again and President Biden could learn that if he’d just come and listen to the experts,” he said.

When asked what the chances are of passing comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the new Congress to deal with these problems, Cornyn said, “Hope springs eternal, but we need to stop with the current crisis at the border. Then maybe we can have a more rational conversation about what comes next.

“This has been the stumbling point with our Democratic colleagues and White House. Senator Sinema – Democrat from Arizona, Henry Cuellar – Democrat from Laredo, Tony Gonzalez – a Republican, have introduced the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act back in 2021. That might be a good place to start,” he said.

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