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WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar is claiming some credit score for Texas’ controversial buoys to stop migrants from crossing the Rio Grande, saying he pitched the concept to Border Patrol years in the past.
The conservative Democrat mentioned in a latest interview with Newsweek that he made the pitch to Border Patrol to stop migrants from claiming asylum by setting foot on U.S. territory.
“I said, if you put a wall in Texas in the river, you’re about a quarter mile away. So when somebody crosses and touches the riverbanks, they can claim asylum,” Cuellar advised the information journal.
In a short interview with The Texas Tribune, Cuellar added that the concept didn’t go wherever on the time as a result of the Worldwide Boundary and Water Fee didn’t give the required permits. However he was smitten by an alternative choice to a land-based border wall in his district.
Gov. Greg Abbott deployed buoys and razor wire on the border final 12 months to discourage migrants from crossing the Rio Grande. Dozens of individuals have died attempting to cross the river lately. Then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador criticized the ways final 12 months after a physique was reported on one of many buoys.
Texas Democrats in Congress, together with Cuellar, despatched a letter to President Joe Biden urging his administration to research Abbott’s actions underneath Operation Lone Star, together with using razor wire and buoys on the Rio Grande. The letter asserts the buoys and razor wire are “potentially illegal and may violate multiple bilateral treaties” designating water rights between america and Mexico. Each Democrat in Texas’ congressional delegation on the time signed onto the letter.
Cuellar, who has represented the twenty eighth Congressional District since 2005, expressed comparable issues throughout a press convention in 2023 about Operation Lone Star, the place he mentioned the buoys might change the border if there’s flooding and that Border Patrol brokers have expressed issues that the razor wire can impede them.
“We need to have border security, but at the same time, we have to respect the rights and the dignity of the migrants who are trying to come into the U.S.,” Cuellar mentioned on the information convention. “One of the things that we’ve asked the state and that I’ve asked the federal government is, are we coordinating with the state, and it looks like the state is going solo on this.”
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Talking with The Texas Tribune, Cuellar mentioned he was not against using buoys, however he signed onto the 2023 letter in opposition to the state’s unilateral use of the boundaries with out working with the federal authorities. He mentioned he was optimistic the state will work with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump on hardening the border.
Cuellar additionally mentioned he didn’t wish to take credit score away from Abbott for deploying the buoys.
“I’m not taking anything from Governor Abbott,” Cuellar mentioned. “I congratulate him.”
Cuellar is among the many most conservative Democrats in Congress and has sometimes crossed over to help Republican efforts on border safety. He helped launch a Democratic activity pressure on border safety earlier this 12 months.
He has just lately proven openness to working with Trump’s administration, saying he noticed alternatives for “common ground” with Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar. Homan served as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement throughout Trump’s first time period. The pair plans to satisfy someday subsequent week. Cuellar mentioned he might see an settlement with the Trump administration on working with Mexico to maintain migrants from reaching the U.S. border.
Cuellar stays politically battered, reeling from a federal indictment charging him with bribery, cash laundering and dealing on behalf of the Azerbaijani authorities and a Mexican financial institution. He has denied the allegations and received reelection in November by 5.6 share factors. He received reelection in 2022 by greater than 10 factors.
Republicans declined to closely fund a problem in opposition to Cuellar this 12 months regardless of the indictment, which got here out after the primary spherical of the district’s Republican major. However South Texas stays a serious goal for the social gathering, and nationwide Republicans have telegraphed they’re retaining their sights on the district sooner or later.
Cuellar’s trial is ready to start subsequent spring in Houston, through which extra particulars of his alleged prison exercise are anticipated to be aired out. He’s charged with accepting practically $600,000 in bribes to advance the pursuits of Azerbaijan’s oil and gasoline sector and the enterprise pursuits of Banco Azteca. He’s accused of establishing money-laundering schemes to hide the bribes with the assistance of his spouse, Imelda. Cuellar mentioned his conduct was according to different members of Congress.
