Cuellar: I ‘Stopped Talking to the White House’ on Border — Broken System Excuse Is ‘Easy Way’ to Avoid Following Law

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Ana Cabrera Reports,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) stated that he has “stopped talking to the White House” on immigration because some staffers were holding back career border officials and that the excuse that there is a “broken” immigration system — which the White House and administration have used before — is an easy out to avoid doing what needs to be done at the border.

Cuellar said that he has confidence in Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, “I just think that there were other forces — and I’ll leave it like that — that were holding him back, holding the career people like Troy Miller and like Raul Ortiz and other — the Border Patrol chiefs that we have down there [back.]”

Host Ana Cabrera then cut in to ask, “What are the forces holding them back?”

Cuellar answered, “It’s the White House. Quite honestly, there were some staffers at the White House that — I stopped talking to the White House. I just talked to Homeland because their perspective was very different from our perspective. It was okay to try to bring in as many people.”

Cabrera then said, “I hear you, but respectfully, Congressman, it is the U.S. Congress that has the power to change immigration law, and that hasn’t happened in decades. It’s been something multiple administrations have been trying to grapple with for decades. The system is broken, and you could be part of that solution.”

Cuellar responded, “Yeah, but let me tell you this, it’s very easy for people to say the system is broken. Let me tell you this, I agree, I believe in full immigration reform, but there are a lot of things on the books right now — what do we mean by the system is broken? It just — basically, what I think, we can enforce the law. We can put policies in place, and it’s — just saying that the system is broken is an easy way to not [do] what we need to do at the border and working with other people, other countries like Mexico, Guatemala, and other folks that want to work with [us]. I agree, I support immigration reform, but just to say, the system is broken is an easy way out to not doing what we need to do at the border, and that is provide law and order at the border and still respect the dignity of the immigrants that have legitimate, I emphasize, legitimate claims.”

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