Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democratic Congressman, criticized AOC’s comments about AOC being pro-life and said that he should be ashamed of any Democrat. He also criticized the Biden administration’s inaction in securing the southern border.
Cuellar, the only pro-life Democratic congressman, responded to AOC’s comment that the Democratic Party should “reassess if it’s appropriate” for pro-life members of her party to continue serving their constituents as Democrats. Cuellar’s response to AOC was posted on Fox News Digital.
“I’m a pro-life Democrat … I know it’s a decision that, unfortunately, divides a lot of people. It’s a very emotional issue and I understand that.”
Cuellar, a centrist, common-sense Democrat, has views that are different from the progressive wing. Recently, he faced Jessica Cisneros in Texas’ 28th Congressional District. Cisneros is an AOC-backed progressive and has asked for a recount as Cuellar won by 289 votes.
Cuellar to Democrats: “Let me be me” https://t.co/flbXNKa98f
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) July 1, 2022
He continued that the remarks by AOC were “laughable” and said that AOC should look up the definition of progressive, as “the squad” may have forgotten what progressivism is.
“I would ask her to look up the definition of a progressive in the dictionary … It says that a progressive is one that’s open to new ideas. The only thing wrong with some of these new progressives is that they’re not open to the new ideas, they’re only open to their ideas. And somebody down the line came up with a standard that the only standard there should be is ‘you have to agree with me, and if you don’t agree with me, then you’re the pro-enemy’ and that’s what makes it so hard to work in Congress because people set these artificial standards when we ought to be looking at how do we work together.”
Texas Congressman said that AOC shouldn’t be the decision-maker on who should or should not become Democrat. Instead, let the district voters decide.
“Who is she to decide what’s the standard of being a real Democrat,” he said. “If you look at what we do as members of Congress, we represent a district – she represents her district, I represent my district – and that’s the way it should be.”
Cuellar expressed concern about the abandonment of the San Antonio semitrailer containing the bodies of migrants and said that his party had not made meaningful reforms regarding immigration in the face the continuing crisis at the southern border.
“They are working on some things that they feel is the right thing to do,” he said. “I agree with some of the issues, I disagree with some of the solutions.”
Cuellar spoke out about how he will deal with the illegal migration that is crossing over the southern border.
“The metric I use, you look at what the law is, and you enforce that law,” he said. “Under that, there will be some that stay under the current asylum laws because that’s what the law says. If 100 people are brought before an immigration judge they will likely only allow between 10 and 12% [to remain]. My question then is: Why are we allowing 100 percent of people, when 10-12% should be allowed, as per the immigration judges? That’s the issue. While there are people who believe open borders exist, I disagree. Some believe in eliminating border patrols and getting rid ICE. I don’t believe in that.”
He also emphasized the need to keep ICE and Border Patrol in place, especially when there is an influx of migrants at the southern border.
“I think we need to provide more for our border patrol and ICE … If you look at what’s happening at the border right now, Laredo, or even the Valley, 60% of the border patrol agents in my sector are in border processing centers doing logistics for migrants or taking care of the migrants. Sixty-five percent are. Another 10% do administrative work and outreach. That leaves only 30% of all the border patrol agents in my sector, or in the Valley, that are actually manning the checkpoints or the border itself at the river.”
Cuellar was questioned about the Associated Press’ report that nearly 1.7million people switched party affiliations over the past 12 months. Cuellar added that if Democrats want to win future elections, they need to do a slew of things to regain their momentum, which does not seem likely at the moment, but for the country’s greater good, hopefully, it happens.
“It should bring alerts to Democrats that you cannot be for open borders, you cannot be against oil and gas, you cannot favor getting rid of border patrol and ICE,” he said. “I say all that because I, in a primary against a lefty, used all that. She was open to oil and gas jobs, but I hit her. She tried to abolish ICE and border patrol. This was a Democratic primary. In South Texas, my victory in those border counties with about 80% of the voting came from Democrats. [those]questions, as well as being for and supporting the Second Amendment. I used those issues that I know are important to South Texas.”
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