EAGLE PASS, Texas — U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales (R-TX) says he is ready for a budget showdown if any discussions on funding the government later this month do not include tighter border security measures. The Congressman spoke to Breitbart Texas during a recent border visit he hosted that included Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) and 64 other Republican legislators.
Gonzales told Breitbart that only policy changes will rectify the border situation and that any money directed towards the border crisis must be dedicated to ending catch and release and enhancing border enforcement.
Without an additional temporary funding measure approved by Congress by midnight on January 19, several government agencies will face a potential shutdown. Agencies facing shutdown on that date include the Food and Drug Administration, Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
On February 2, the expiration of an additional continuing resolution could impact the remaining government agencies without congressional action to provide additional funding or the approval of a full budget. Those agencies include the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Health and Human Services, among others.
Gonzales says he is committed to standing firm against any measures that seek to fund temporary processing facilities that only serve to speed the release of migrants into the United States and not to conduct removals. “If you want to talk about more ICE flights, I’m all in. Instead of busing people all over the country, let’s fly them back to Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, or wherever they came from,” he added.
Representative Gonzales, whose district includes 800 miles of border with Mexico, voted against two previous continuing resolutions that did not contain significant border enforcement provisions. He told Breitbart Texas he is prepared to do the same when the current funding expires without the necessary policy reforms that will put Border Patrol agents back into the field. Gonzales says he is not alone in his stance but offered no prediction concerning a government shutdown.
Wednesday’s congressional delegation was the largest yet to arrive in the small border city of Eagle Pass. In December, a record-breaking 71,000 migrants crossed the Rio Grande into the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector, with most choosing to cross in Eagle Pass, Breitbart Texas reported. Although the pace of migrant crossings slowed in recent days, at a press conference on Wednesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson made clear the record-breaking crossings at the border fall directly on President Joe Biden’s failed policies.
Johnson laid the blame for the border crisis squarely at the feet of the president, saying, “Some of the first actions Joe Biden took when he rolled into the Oval Office were that he rolled back border security measures that were put into place under the Trump administration. Remember, it was on his first day in office that President Biden stopped construction of the southern border wall, and he ended the remain in Mexico policy”.
The Speaker told reporters 312 migrants on the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List have entered the country under the current administration’s watch. Johnson described the current situation as unsustainable without immediate policy changes, including the reinstitution of the Remain in Mexico policy to stem abuse to the asylum system. Johnson also called on President Biden to halt the widescale use of parole authority to admit migrants at ports of entry and end “catch and release” practices at the border.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
