WASHINGTON — Both Republicans and Democrats have used migrant surges along the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to score political points, according to U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas.
“I don’t have that luxury,” Gonzales said in an interview. “My district is at the epicenter of it. It’s on fire.”
Gonzales represents Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, which covers about 40% of the U.S.-Mexican border and includes some of the areas most often featured in news accounts of migrants seeking to cross the border: Eagle Pass, Del Rio, El Paso.
He tried in vain to participate in President Joe Biden’s recent trip to the border and has expressed frustration that the administration isn’t working with members such as himself on potential bipartisan solutions.
Gonzales said his constituents fault the Biden administration for much of what’s gone wrong at the border, but also tell him they want Congress to fix the problem rather than play the blame game.
Gonzales described himself as hawkish when it comes to border security.
“But you can also be warm and welcoming toward those who want to come and live the American dream through the legal process,” he said.
That’s why he’s been an outspoken critic of the Border Safety and Security Act introduced by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, which Gonzales says has a catchy but ultimately misleading name.
Critics say Roy’s legislation would require the Department of Homeland Security to turn away people seeking asylum unless it had the capacity to hold them for the duration of the process — and DHS would never have that capacity.
“This bill would essentially ban all asylum claims, to include legitimate asylum claims,” Gonzales said, citing an incident in which young girls were left in a field last year by the cartels. “If this bill was enacted into law, what do you do with those little girls? Do you throw them down the river? Do you throw them over the fence?”
Border security was a key element of the Republicans’ midterm message, and the party continues to criticize the Biden administration for not doing more to stem the flow of migrants.
Texas Republicans last year unveiled a border security plan focused on physical infrastructure and tougher enforcement. Gonzales was the only House Republican in the Texas delegation not to sign off on that framework.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, called Roy the “Thomas Jefferson” behind the delegation’s framework.
The framework includes requiring DHS to turn away “all individuals at the border that cannot be detained for the pendency of their proceedings, including by using programs consistent with Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).”
At the news conference unveiling the framework, Roy cited the migrants who died in an overheated trailer near San Antonio last year and children being sex trafficked by Mexican cartels.
“In what world is this somehow compassionate?” Roy said. “It’s not. This is destroying lives. It’s destroying American lives. It’s empowering cartels.”
Securing the border will involve not just physical barriers such as a wall but also changes in policies, he said.
“You cannot encounter and release. You must be able to detain and/or turn away in order to stop the flow that is devastating lives,” Roy said. “That’s how you actually secure a border, is to enforce those policies.”
The text of his bill, co-sponsored by a dozen other Texas Republicans, says the Homeland Security secretary would have the ability to bar “the entry of covered aliens at an international land or maritime border of the United States” if that’s necessary to “achieve operational control over such border.”
The bill would require the secretary to suspend entry if the government cannot “detain such covered aliens.”
That goes too far, according to opponents such as El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, who is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee.
Seitz recently wrote members of Congress urging them to oppose Roy’s bill, saying it runs contrary to the nation’s international obligations and its moral principles.
“If enacted, this legislation would sever access to protection for vulnerable persons on the move, including asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, victims of torture, and victims of human trafficking who are fleeing life-threatening situations,” wrote Seitz, who served in the Diocese of Dallas before moving to El Paso.
Gonzales has his own border security proposal, co-sponsored by three fellow Texas Republicans, that would push to designate the cartels as terrorist organizations and double from $90 million to $180 million the funding for Operation Stone Garden grants that allow local law enforcement to coordinate with federal efforts at the border.
Gonzales noted that he was the sole House Republican to vote against the new rules package, based largely on objections to potential defense spending cuts. But he indicated his opposition to Roy’s bill would go further.
“This is an area where I’m not just going to vote no,” Gonzales said. “I’ve been very active on educating members on what the bill does and what it doesn’t do.”
Roy’s bill had been expected to come straight to the floor early this session, but it appears concerns expressed by Gonzales and other Republicans have prompted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to instead send it through the Homeland Security Committee.
Gonzales recently joined that panel, so he will be in a position to offer amendments when it comes up for consideration.
He said he has no interest in being a “lone wolf” and that he’s working to rally like-minded GOP colleagues interested in real solutions.
“We can’t just message for two years,” Gonzales said. “The American public didn’t put House Republicans in the majority to just message. We’re counting on real results, whether that’s inflation or border security. We’ve got to deliver.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, recently led a bipartisan group of senators on a tour of the border, including some of the same senators who came together to write a landmark gun safety law last year.
During a floor speech Monday, Cornyn said senators are talking but need to be realistic about what can garner enough support in the Senate.
In an interview, Cornyn said he has talked to Gonzales and planned to meet with Roy later this week.
“What I’ve told both Tony and Chip is — you guys pass a border bill and send it over here, please,” Cornyn said. “That’s our only chance of having a vehicle that ... we might actually do something with.”
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