On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) stated that in order to solve the surge at the southern border, we have to detain people and send them back, and stated that the troops sent to the border are “just helping folks come in.”
Host José Díaz-Balart asked, “And so, Congressman, what do you see as the solution to this?”
Cuellar said, “I’m looking at your split screen here, and I’m seeing DPS. We’re seeing Border Patrol. We’re seeing — they’re talking about sending more military folks over there. And are they — they’re just helping folks come in. Look at what we’re seeing right now. You’ve got to have a policy where you actually return people back. You’ve got to do that. Otherwise, people are going to keep coming. If you don’t detain people, if you don’t send people back, then the border becomes a speed bump.”
He added that a government shutdown would put added stress on the Border Patrol.
He concluded, “You can send a lot more Border Patrol agents, you can send a lot more DPS, you can send the military there, but what do they actually do when somebody hits the U.S. border? Tell me what they do. And that tells you you’ve got to have repercussions of policies and do the work outside on the 20-yard line.”
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