MCALLEN, Texas – U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales toured the Texas-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday to get an update on the migrant surge in the region. The congressional delegation from Texas was joined by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
The lawmakers toured the U.S. Border Patrol’s Donna Temporary Processing Center, the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Delphi Emergency Intake Site, and the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge. They also met with local elected officials, stakeholders and law enforcement officials.
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The delegation then held a joint press conference at the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge.
The tour comes weeks after the lawmakers introduced the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act. According to a news release, the legislation aims to respond to the migrant surge by improving the Department of Homeland Security’s and the Department of Justice’s capacity to manage migration influxes and adjudicate asylum claims in a timely manner, protect unaccompanied migrant children, reduce the impact on local communities, ensure migrants are treated fairly and humanely, and ultimately deter those who do not have realistic asylum claims from placing themselves in danger by making the treacherous journey to our southern border.
Last week, the lawmakers sent a letter to Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting that DHS commit to a plan, benchmarks, and timeline for removing the restrictions to non-essential traffic through land ports of entry like the McAllen-Hidalgo Port of Entry.
Cornyn and Sinema on Tuesday toured the Arizona-Mexico border region.