Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) said that he hopes the border crisis doesn’t become President Barack Obama’s “Katrina moment” in an interview on Monday’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” Cuellar said, “I’m sure that President Bush thought the same thing, that he could just look at everything from up in the sky, and then he owned it after for a long time. So I hope this doesn’t become the Katrina moment for President Obama saying he doesn’t need to come to border. He should come down.”
He also said that entire busloads of illegal immigrants are crossing over the border into the United States, reporting, “Border patrol intelligence has basically told us that there’s buses coming into south Texas at least across the river, and then they’re directed to come across the river and turn themselves in.”
Cuellar added that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson “is trying to do his best,” but reported that Obama had ignored concerns and requests for information from him and other members of the Texas Congressional Delegation.
“A month ago, I sent a letter, giving [President Obama] my suggestions how we ought to set up a one-stop center where we actually have immigration judges down there, we have the detentions, we do the removals, just the way we treat contiguous countries like Mexico and Canada, in this case mainly Mexico, and you do everything down there, but I never got a response. Sen. Cornyn and I also sent a letter asking about the status, how the kids are being treated, never got a response so unfortunately we have not gotten those responses.”
He also argued that the administration could not claim it did not see the border surge coming.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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