Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-TX) spoke with Breitbart Texas about President Joe Biden’s visit to the border next week and outlined his wish to join the White House delegation to show real problems in the region.
The President’s scheduled visit to El Paso on Sunday will involve meeting with local officials, according to a White House statement issued on Thursday. Gonzales, whose district includes 800 miles of U.S.-Mexico Border within its boundaries, says the President needs to hear from a multitude of impacted parties. “We are in year three of this border crisis and people are expressing a wide range of emotions that run from anger, sadness, and for some, just giving up,” he emphasized.
Gonzales also says he will soon be meeting with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to push for a focus on the connections between immigration issues, border problems, and national security. “I’m worried, as are my constituents, about the 100 people on the terror watchlist. Who are they? Where were they going?” he added.
Gonzales believes his seat on the House Appropriations Committee will afford him the opportunity to leverage the White House and DHS to make changes to the border enforcement strategy once the new session of Congress begins. “You can want 87,000 IRS agents all day long, if you can’t fund them, good luck with that.”
As reported by Breitbart Texas, a noticeable pause in large migrant group crossings is being experienced along the southwest border, including El Paso. According to a source within Customs and Border Protection, in El Paso, where more than 5,000 migrants were being detained several weeks ago, that number has reportedly reduced to slightly more than 1,000.
Gonzales suspects the temporary lull may be a planned precursor to the President’s visit. “Nothing is a coincidence, anytime there is a high-level visit, traffic dies down, it’s perfectly fine until that person is wheels up. Then, it’s business as usual again.”
Border Patrol agents in the El Paso Sector experienced a massive surge in migrant border crossings in the last four months of 2022, apprehending nearly 209,000 migrants. The crossings have increased substantially from one year ago when 63,000 migrants crossed.
Gonzales says he hopes the visit will be productive and include representatives from all parties experiencing the border crisis first-hand. “That’s why it’s important to have a multitude of viewpoints represented during the President’s border visit. We know what it was like last week and what it is going to be like the following weeks, he needs to hear that,” he emphasized.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.