Lawmakers tour South Texas border before heading to Mexico City

MISSION, Texas (Border Report) — A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers from Texas toured the Rio Grande Valley this weekend before embarking on a trip to Mexico City to talk border security with Mexico’s president.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, organized the weekend trip to South Texas which included fellow Republican Reps. Randy Weber and Monica De La Cruz, as well as Democrat Henry Cuellar.

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They spoke with community leaders and Border Patrol officials and took a boat tour from Anzalduas Park across a wide and deep section of the Rio Grande that overlooks Reynosa, Mexico.

“We are witnessing a human tragedy at this border. We got to see migrants that are detained. It’s a human tragedy that Border Patrol has to deal with every day, and the sad thing is it didn’t have to happen,” McCaul told reporters after wrapping up a boat tour with the Texas Department of Public Safety on Saturday afternoon.

“We need to go back to the policies that work and get this thing done,” said McCaul, who also is on the Homeland Security Committee.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, center, led a congressional delegation on a tour of the border on Jan. 20, 2024, in Mission, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)

McCaul has been leading hearings last week in an attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

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McCaul, Cuellar and Weber plan to fly to Mexico City on Sunday. McCaul says they will meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as well as the two leading candidates vying to replace him when his term ends.

They also plan to visit a fentanyl crime lab.

“I want to see if there’s a way the Mexicans can be a little more consistent with how they stop people over there,” Cuellar, who is from Laredo, told Border Report.

He cited migration numbers on the Southwest border that were upwards of 12,000 per day but have recently fallen to 2,800 to 3,100 encounters per day.

“That’s still a lot a day but they will do the work and then stop. And then they do the work and they stop and we got to get them consistent,” said Cuellar, the ranking member of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee.

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They also want to discuss fentanyl, which is made with precursor chemicals that Cuellar says are coming into two ports in Mexico on the Pacific Ocean.

Criminal organizations then turn that into fentanyl that is distributed north.

“That has to stop and we got to talk to them — how we can work together to stop that,” Cuellar said.

U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, listens as Department of Public Safety Regional Director Victor Escalon speaks with reporters on Jan. 20, 2024, in Mission, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)

De La Cruz, who is from McAllen, said after Saturday’s river tour and weekend talks that she believes more resources need to be put into technology to help border law enforcement.

“Border security includes several factors not only does it mean more boots on the ground but it also means increased technology as well,” De La Cruz told Border Report.

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McCaul said there are only 20 operational drones in the Rio Grande Valley operated by federal officials.

However, he said Mexican cartels regularly fly thousands of drones over the shore to snap intel on U.S. law enforcement to help them bring drugs and migrants illegally into South Texas.

Their visit comes just after Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown this weekend by passing a stopgap funding bill.

But that expires in March unless additional spending measures are passed.

Border security and immigration reforms have been at the center of budget discussions.

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The lawmakers who attended the tour said they’ll take what they learned back to their colleagues in Washington, D.C., and try to convince both sides to come up with bipartisan agreements that will lead to lasting immigration and border security reforms.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at [email protected].

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