Democratic Rep Tells Mayorkas: 'The Presient Can Do An Executive Order' On Border

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At today's House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) spoke about the need for the Biden Administration to do more to secure the border.

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Transcript

00:00 Mr. Chairman, thank you so much and I want to thank you and the members on both sides

00:04 of the aisles and the staff for putting together a very good appropriation bill for FY '24.

00:11 I think we'll do the same for FY '25.

00:14 But I certainly want to say thank you to the Secretary.

00:17 I want to say thank you to the work that you do, your men and women that do the work every

00:24 single day.

00:25 I was, as you know, I always say I don't go visit the border, I live at the border.

00:29 But I did go on the riverboat just last week, less than a week ago with Border Patrol.

00:35 We talked about the importance of getting rid of Carrizo Cane so they can see river

00:41 roads which are so important to us, technology that is so important to us.

00:46 So I just want to say thank you for the work that you and your men and women do across

00:51 the country.

00:52 I do want to say, looking at the numbers for the last three, 21 days, in between ports

00:59 there are about 3,800 a day.

01:02 3,800 a day.

01:03 You add the CBP, maybe add a little bit over 1,000, so you're talking about 5,000 a day,

01:10 but 3,800 a day coming in.

01:12 Very different.

01:13 So we're doing something right.

01:15 And I ask you to continue to looking at what we need to do to bring those numbers down.

01:21 3,800 in between ports a day for the last three weeks.

01:26 So let's continue doing that.

01:29 I do agree with the Chairman.

01:31 We did fund 41,500 bets.

01:32 I don't want to speak for anybody else, but I do support 41,500 bets.

01:38 I do support the charter air for ice.

01:42 And I certainly want to ask you about that.

01:44 And somewhere down the line, I certainly want to ask you about what the President's looking

01:48 at.

01:49 I've always felt that the President can do an executive order.

01:52 My understanding is that there is talk about another executive order, because if you get

01:58 100 people that ask for asylum, at the end of the day, they go to a judge four, five,

02:05 six years later, 87 to 90% are going to be rejected.

02:10 So we got to do something at the very beginning.

02:12 If they don't qualify for those five reasons, persecution by the state on those five reasons,

02:17 I think we need to look at that.

02:19 If we do, if the President does that, I'm sure there'll be a court case by some folks

02:23 that don't agree with him.

02:25 But we certainly have to look at that.

02:26 So I certainly want to say thank you.

02:29 I hope that on the 22,000 Border Patrol agents that we had, I hope that you all look at the

02:34 polygraph.

02:36 That's been a big problem.

02:37 I talked to the Border Patrol.

02:38 Whoever that vendor is, and hopefully they're listening to me, we got to do something about

02:45 that.

02:46 And certainly because we don't hire people, I know at one time, even under the Trump administration,

02:52 we were losing more people to attrition than we were hiring Border Patrol.

02:58 So we got to do a better job on that.

03:01 I certainly want to say, you know, the technology that we're looking at is very, very important.

03:06 I do want to say there is a court order, and let me see if we can put a little bit of more

03:10 legislative intent here, where a recent injunction by a federal judge in my home state, who I

03:16 think is wrongly interpreting the congressional intent of funding, provided border barrier

03:21 assistance for fiscal years 2020 and '21.

03:25 If you look at the language, Congress purposely chose the broader system, the word system

03:33 language to intend that it was to fund a system and not just a vertical wall.

03:39 So that means because of this injunction, we can't do river roads that are so key to

03:45 Border Patrol, lighting, border technology, they're all on hold.

03:50 And if this funding is lapsed, then we got to come back and reappropriate that while

03:59 we have funding right now.

04:00 So I hope you all appeal that injunction.

04:05 And again, I have questions, but I just want to say to all your men and women that are

04:11 under Homeland Security, I just want to say thank you for the job.

04:15 3,800 a day, you know, in between ports.

04:21 Then you add, you know, what comes to CBP close to 5,000.

04:25 But in between ports is what we're focusing on.

04:29 Continue doing and let us know what we need to do to make sure we do that.

04:33 And certainly to close up, Mexico has been a partner and whatever you need to do to make

04:40 sure they continue doing what they're doing, less numbers of people come to the northern

04:44 border than the numbers go down working with the enforcement levels that you're doing.

04:49 So I certainly encourage you to continue working with Mexico on that.

04:52 With that, Mr. Chairman and members, thank you so much.

04:55 And Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here with us today.

04:57 Thank you, Mr. Cuellar.

Democratic Rep Tells Mayorkas: 'The Presient Can Do An Executive Order' On Border

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