Cuellar: ‘Only 30%’ of Border Patrol Agents Are on Border in Some Parts as More Drugs and People Come in

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) said that “in the southern part of the area from Laredo down to the valley,” only 30% of Border Patrol agents are actually on the border because the rest are doing processing and administrative work, and that at a time when “we have larger amounts of drugs coming in, more people coming in, we have a lesser number of Border Patrol agents doing their work.”

Cuellar said the key question is “how do we cooperate with the state and the local governments and not just work separately? And I know they are doing that, but we’ve got to do a lot more because at the same time, we’ve got to understand that most of the drugs…don’t come in between the bridges. They actually come through the bridges. At one time, 90% of the fentanyl [was] coming through our bridges. So, we’ve got to make sure we have the right technology, the right — the canines, the personnel on the bridges.”

He continued, “But the problem is, as you know, Border Patrol right now in the southern part of the area from Laredo down to the valley, 60% of the Border Patrol agents are doing immigration processing, taking care of the migrants, 10% are doing the administrative, and only 30% — and I emphasize only 30% — are actually doing the checkpoints or are at the river at the border. So, when we have larger amounts of drugs coming in, more people coming in, we have a lesser number of Border Patrol agents doing their work.”

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