Rep. Cuellar: Biden’s $3 Billion Budget Request Doesn’t Address the Issue We’re Facing at the Border

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said Sunday that the $3 billion funding request that the Biden administration is asking Congress for to address the border crisis won’t actually “address the issue that we’re facing at the border.”

Instead, it will be used for processing, food, shelter, and transportation of migrants, he told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

When asked about the morale of Border Patrol agents and whether they’re prepared to deal with upwards of 8,000 border crossings per day – possibly as much as 16,000 – the congressman said, “Well, first of all, morale is not good, because they feel that the administration doesn’t have their backs, number one.

“Number two, are they prepared? No. Even the $3 billion that you mentioned a while ago, that money is going to be used for processing, is going to be used for food and shelter, and transportation of migrants. It doesn’t address the issue that we’re facing at the border. There’s — thousands of people are coming in, but you got to look at one thing,” Cuellar said. 

“In the last few years, we had over 35,000 rescues, Border Patrol saving people that could have died. We also had 1,400 people that died, including children. Now, is this the most humane way that we ought to address asylum? No. I think what we need to do is have a pathway where they go through the bridges in an orderly way, and then, and then, Margaret, if they don’t follow that pathway, I think we need to send them back and say, follow it away,” he said.

“I will finish with this analogy quickly. It’s like if somebody invites me to go to their house for lunch, but I decide to go through the back door. I come through windows. I decide to bring a whole bunch of people. I decide what hours I come in. It doesn’t work that way. We as a country need to set the asylum procedures in place,” Cuellar said.

Host Margaret Brennan said that “it’s extra complicated” with Venezuelans, Haitians, and Cubans coming to the U.S. who can’t be sent back to their countries of origin. 

When asked how you solve that, the congressman said, “Yes, I mean, without a doubt, those three countries, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, those are countries that are a little bit more complicated, but the top 15 countries include Colombia, Mexico. 

“It includes also Peru, Ecuador, and, in the top 15, you also have Russia, India, Georgia, the state, also, and Turkey also. So the top 15 — people are understanding across the world that — the fact that the Southern border is open,” Cuellar said.

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