A Democratic lawmaker representing a border district warned the Biden administration not to relieve too much of unauthorized immigrants, citing its impact on its constituents, local hospitals and its potential to spread the coronavirus.
Why it’s important: Representative Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) told Axios that he supported President Biden. But the moderate said he sees the drawbacks of efforts to appease pro-immigrant groups, an effort that threatens to exploit the administration.
- “You can’t say,‘ Yeah, yeah, let everyone in, ’because then we are affected there at the border, “Cuellar told Axios on Saturday.
The big picture: Border crossings are increasing. The hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley are already occupied. The Border Patrol has less capacity than normal.
- Cuellar hopes the administration will continue to use a Trump-era public health order to quickly expel migrant adults and families, at least during the pandemic. Activists have called for Biden to end the use of the policy, called Title 42.
- He said smugglers are likely to use the change in immigration tactics from the Trump administration to the Biden administration to convince migrants to come to the United States: “The bad guys know how to market it,” Cuellar said. .
- Some immigrants are allowed to enter the country without taking a COVID-19 test, which worries some non-governmental organizations that care for them, Cuellar said.
- He complained about a contradiction between the release of some unauthorized immigrants to border communities while legal and cross-border travel was kept closed. He said many local companies depend on Mexican buyers for between 50% and 75% of their sales.
Cuellar is not Texas’ first Democrat warn the Biden administration of the impact of a growing number of immigrants on border communities.
- Faced with the weather emergency in Texas, Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano pointed to the president in a video this month: “I am begging and requesting that you put an end to any measures related to the release of immigrants. “.