SAN ANTONIO – Rep. Will Hurd in the 23rd District and Rep. Henry Cuellar, of Laredo in the 28th District, who both represent much of the Texas-Mexico border in Congress, have asked for supplemental funds for humanitarian relief.
Hurd said the money would go toward reimbursing communities and nonprofits up and down the border and even in San Antonio for the upfront costs of providing aid to migrant families.
The funds would come from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but nothing has come yet.
“DHS is likely going to run out of their existing funds sometime around August,” Hurd said. “This is something that needs to be done probably before August.”
But, he said, the root cause of the exodus from Central America remains persistent violence, poverty and the lack of opportunity and jobs.
“This is not just a problem for Mexico or the U.S., it’s a problem for the entire Western Hemisphere,” Hurd said.
He said that the State Department should appoint a senior diplomat as a special envoy to the Northern Triangle, the countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
“We need to solve the problem together and having a representative coordinating those efforts would be a great first step,” Hurd said.