LAREDO, Texas ( Border Report ) — The Democratic leader of the House as a matter of fact, toured the South Texas border for the first time this Friday and dared Republicans to come up with “real solutions” to immigration reform, rather than political attention, which is somehow a very important facet to be brought up. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he was “enlightened” on his first trip to the border, and he invited his colleagues in Washington, D.C. as well in order to make the effort and also take a trip to see the U.S. border with Mexico for themselves. “I’m going to continue to encourage my colleagues in Washington — as part of trying to arrive at a comprehensive solution — to take a field trip and come down to the border communities, and speak to the people who experience life on the border,” Jeffries told reporters after touring the World Trade Bridge — the largest inland commercial port on the Southwest border — with U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. Now ain’t that just lovely?
“We do need a congressional solution. We need comprehensive immigration reform that is both humane and also respects the rule of law and the traditions of public safety and border communities,” Jeffries remarked. “That effort will be achieved if people on the other side of the aisle will be willing, in our view, to have straight-forward, authentic, direct conversations that don’t politicize the issue but are striving to achieve real solutions.” His visit came a day after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy toured a remote section of the Arizona border on Thursday with four freshmen Republican lawmakers. And it followed the first in-field hearing of this new Republican-led Congress that was held Wednesday night in the Rio Grande Valley border town of Weslaco, Texas, U.S.
During that hearing itself, the issue of deadly fentanyl crossing the border from Mexico was perpetually and repeatedly brought up. On Friday, Jeffries agreed that illicit drugs are killing Americans and traffickers must be stopped. And he advocated that Congress spend more federal funds on technology to help border law enforcement agents to detect illegal drugs, per se. “The challenge of fentanyl is a serious one, it’s a real one,” Jeffries said. “That’s why it’s important that Congress further invest and provide our Border Patrol officials and our Customs (and Border Protection) officials with the technology necessary to intercept fentanyl and other narcotics that are being illegally trafficked across this border and across the United States of America,” he remarked quite after.
Over 200,000 commercial trucks crossed south to Mexico over the World Trade Bridge in December, according to the City of Laredo. Jeffries said more advanced technology will help CBP officers to detect drugs and illegal cargo crossing at this port. Cuellar, who serves as chief deputy whip in the House, thanked Jeffries for his visit and said he had two days of tours planned for the Democratic leader. “What we’ve done here is just to have a very balanced view of everything we have. We saw the importance of trade, of tourism that is so important to us,” said Cuellar, who is from Laredo. “We talked about how we look at border security in a balanced way.”
