Cuellar: Biden Should Act on Border the Way Obama Did and Like Trump Did

On Friday's broadcast of MSNBC's “José Díaz-Balart Reports,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) said that President Joe Biden “can do more on border security” on his own by issuing an executive order under existing law like former President Donald Trump did with Title 42 and that while Biden has “done a good job” on pushing Mexico, “he needs to push Mexico more.” And Biden should use his existing power under Title 8 and push Mexico “the way President Obama did it.”

Cuellar said, “The President, in my opinion, can do more on border security. We just provided funding for border security. Now, we need to pass the Senate bill. But I still think that he can do an executive order on Title 8, just like Trump did an executive order on Title 42, which was the law. He can do that to show the American public that he's trying to do everything that needs to be done. Now, we still need to make some changes, but I think an executive order following Title 8 with expedited removal would go a long way to show that he's working with Congress to get the job done.”

He added that Title 8 “is the law that President Obama used, and it calls for expedited removal. You give the migrants their rights, and if they don't fit under the asylum claims, then you send them back, just like President Trump — I mean, President Obama did with Secretary Jeh Johnson. The other thing that he needs to do more, which he's done a good job, but he needs to push Mexico more. The reason the numbers have gone down from 10 or 12,000 to almost half, you know why? Because we got Mexico to do its job at the southern border. The more they do that, the less people. So, he's got to focus on this executive order working with Mexico, because those numbers will drop the numbers at the border. That's the way President Obama did it.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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