Texas representative on southern border, border proposals and Trump at Arlington Cemetery
WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Nancy Cordes spoke with Representative Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) on Face the Nation Sunday about what he has seen at the southern border since an executive order went into place early June.
"What I can tell you is things are getting worse. And let me give you an example. So...in the New Mexico area, to date, there's been 100 illegal immigrants that have perished. Okay, every part of the border is different. Parts of my district it takes you three days humping through the desert in order to make it to the border. In the New Mexico area, it takes you one hour. So, how is 100 people dying in one hour? The reason is these criminal organizations are holding these migrants in these stash houses for sometimes over a month, feeding them one meal and one bottle of water a day. So when it is time for them to finally make that trek, they give them caffeine pills and they try to rush them over. So in many cases, the humanitarian crisis along the border is getting worse. The other piece of it too in El Paso, one of the safest countries in America, the FBI just conducted an operation this week, and they scooped up dozens of these criminal gangs, these anti gang task forces. So in many cases, Americans are less safe because of this, and migrants are less safe because of this. I've been of the advocate, this is how you solve it. If somebody comes over illegally, they immediately get deported. You also double down on legal immigration...if we want to win the space race, we're going to need engineers from all over the world. If we're going to grow our economy, we're going to need the hospitality industry, construction workers and other areas. You double down on work visas, you vet people, and you double down on that. We're not seeing any of that."
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas)
During the interview, Cordes and Gonzales talked about the latter not liking any of the bipartisan proposals, including Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (D-Texas)'s bill, which he says the bill "has no chance of going anywhere."
When asked if he was writing his own proposal, Gonzales said: "I do. Yeah, I have a bill. It's actually three-pages long, and what it does is it extends work visas from one year to three years, and it allows people to streamline the process. Instead of mailing in work visas, you do it online, like everyone else. And there's also a border security piece to it too. So...you can do both. We can both be warm and welcoming, and we can both secure the border."
In addition, Cordes and Gonzales talked about former President Donald Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery last week.
"I can tell you Veterans support Trump far and away, and the fact that he was there to highlight that the 13 Americans that were killed at Abbey Gate, I think that's something that's overlooked...Arlington is a very special place. We have to make sure it's a special place, and we have to keep politics out of it. And I think it's important that we do that. And so, you know, I wish both President Trump and, you know, President Biden were there highlighting the fact of these Gold Star families. This is what we need to get back to. It's so much finger pointing. I get it. It's towards the tail end of the election, but we have to get back to putting Veterans first, putting our families first, and putting the American people above everything else."
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas)
To watch more of Cordes' interview with Gonzales, click here.
