While Representative Henry Cuellar backed Joe Biden in his bid for the presidency, the Texas Democrat now believes the president has surrounded himself with the wrong people to tackle the crisis on the southern border.
While appearing on the Fox News podcast, “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” Cuellar said Biden has been listening too much to the “immigration activist” and not enough to those at the border, such as local law enforcement and landowners.
The bottom line is that I endorsed Joe Biden for president. He was the more centrist candidate, but the problem, in my opinion, is that he has surrounded himself, at least on the immigration issue, with people who have backgrounds in — I would call them immigration activists — and they present their point of view and the problem is one point of view,” Cuellar said, adding What about the perspective of frontier societies? “
The Democrat proceeded to call the administration’s response “one-sided,” saying that someone should have the backs of the people along the border.
“What about the landowners? I got a call from this landowner a couple of days ago. He was so frustrated. He texted me later saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, you know I let my frustration go.’ I said, No, I want to hear from you, so they understand They don’t listen to frontier communities.”
He continued, “Most importantly, they don’t listen to the men and women in green and blue. Someone has to support them and when you have the political people advising the administration, it’s only one-sided.”
Cuellar has been highly critical of the Biden administration’s response to the border crisis in the past, and invited Biden to visit the US-Mexico region this week.
“I think he needs to understand what’s going on,” Cuellar told Fox News host Neil Cavuto.
“He needs to listen not only to immigration activists, but also to our border communities… They need to listen to the judges, mayors, public officials and landowners out there, and they also need to listen to the men and women in green and blue. These are the people in The front lines and we need their support.”
In recent weeks, many have questioned whether Biden ever visited the border during his political career.
Last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki described the president’s visits to Mexico and Central America, noting that people crossing the border come from those regions.
It also alleged that Biden visited the border when he was driving through El Paso in 2008.
Psaki said, seemingly referring to The Washington Post report will be published shortly Before the briefing that cited the car.
“And he’s certainly familiar with the fact – and it stuck with him – with the fact that the border in El Paso runs through downtown.”
This summer, Vice President Kamala Harris made similar trips to Mexico and Central America as Biden did during his vice presidency, but last month Cuellar said the trips had no effect.
“With all due respect, no,” Cuellar told CNN host Erica Hill, when asked about the impact of June’s visits to Mexico and Guatemala on immigration.
“Look, you know, we’ve been helping Central America since 2014. I partnered with Kay Granger and then Vice President Joe Biden at the time to bring the first $750 million to the Central American countries,” he continued, referring to the Republican congresswoman for the state. Texas.
“I think since then, we’ve put in over $3.5 billion. And again, it’s help, but we have to work with the private sector to create jobs there in Central America,” Cuellar said.
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