Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) expressed his optimism regarding an upcoming meeting with Tom Homan, the soon-to-be border czar.
In the weeks since President-elect Donald Trump won the election, Homan was among his first appointments. Homan is a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director and visited Cuellar’s border state Tuesday. While many Democratic members oppose Homan’s commitment to enact mass deportations, Cuellar appeared Tuesday on NewsNation’s The Hill to agree that deportations are necessary.
“We can deport people quickly under Title A, we can do ‘stay in Mexico,’ we can do so many things on policies that can work right away,” Cuellar said. “In fact, today, I was communicating with Tom, and we talked about getting together sometime when I head back to D.C. in the next week or so, and I think we can find a lot of common ground.”
Cuellar agreed with Homan’s strategy to prioritize criminals and immigrants who already have deportation orders.
“We might not agree on everything, but certainly we can agree to deport quickly the criminals, the national security folks, the 1.3 million final deportation people that have a final deportation order and are still here,” Cuellar said.
The Texas representative also showed an inclination toward Trump’s promise to issue tariffs against Mexico. While he acknowledged the financial hardship that could follow, he predicted that tariffs would “definitely get Mexico to the table so we can solve the problem about immigration and fentanyl.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Homan promised to put a stop to the federal lawsuits Texas has faced from the Biden administration over efforts to secure its border. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government has the constitutional power to remove barbed wire on the state’s territory but also did not block the state from putting up more barbed wire fencing.
Cuellar won reelection despite the federal indictments against him and his wife. Their charges include bribery, money laundering, and acting as foreign agents for the Azerbaijani government and a Mexican bank.