WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) says the situation at the border is getting worse.
“Migrants are jumping on the trains so they can get to the U.S. faster,” Cuellar said.
On Sunday, to mitigate the sudden surge of migrants, Customs and Border Protection shut down operations at the international railway crossing bridges in Eagle Pass and El Paso. Cuellar says that hurts the economy.
“Especially in Eagle Pass,” Cuellar said. “There are 10 to 14 trains a day. Depending on them you can go from 5 to 10 million dollars per train. That’s a lot of business that we are losing.”
Republican senators are demanding the Biden administration re-open the rail ports of entry immediately.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Republicans argued “American producers and consumers will suffer daily as long as these entry points are closed.”
The White House says President Biden and Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are working together to address the unprecedented surge of migrants arriving at the U.S. Mexico border.
White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby says President Biden spoke on the phone Thursday with President Lopez Obrador.
“The two leaders agreed additional enforcement action is urgently needed so that key ports of entry can be reopened across our shared border,” Kirby said.
Kirby says Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will travel to Mexico to meet with President Lopez Obrador in the coming days to come up with a plan.
“About what can be done inside Mexico to slow that process down,” Kirby said. “And there are some things like checkpoints on rail lines and on highways and that kind of thing.”
But Kirby says this is only a band aid. He says any long-term solution is up to Congress to pass when they return in January.
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