Rep. Henry Cuellar on Sunday accused the White House of paying too much attention to “immigration activists” as he urged the Biden administration to reconsider its decision to roll back a Trump-era deportation policy for migrants at the southern border.
Cuellar (D-Texas) — a centrist and one of the administration’s most outspoken Democratic critics on issues related to the U.S.-Mexico border — echoed the concerns of a growing number of candidates and lawmakers within his own party who oppose President Joe Biden’s plan to end the public health order known as Title 42 on May 23.
That policy allowed for the immediate expulsion of migrants from the nation’s southern border without due process, citing the need to protect the homeland from the spread of Covid-19.
Biden had long promised to revoke Title 42. But even as the state of the pandemic has improved in recent months, Democrats fear the policy’s repeal could exacerbate a precipitous increase in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and expose the party to Republican attacks ahead of the midterm elections in November.
“Yes, they’re listening to the immigration activists,” Cuellar told “Fox News Sunday” in an interview, referring to the White House. “But my question is, who’s listening to the men and women in green and in blue? And more importantly, who’s listening to the border communities, the sheriffs, the landowners, the rest of the people that live on the border?”
“How can you ask for international travelers to make sure … they’re vaccinated or even show their Covid-19 negative tests if they fly in?” Cueller added.
“How can we have the federal public emergency extended to July 15 and say there’s a pandemic going on in the United States, but at the border, everything’s fine and just let people in into the United States. … Those are mixed messages.”
