McALLEN — After two-and-a-half hours of meeting with local officials at the Convention Center on Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz posed for a selfie with a man wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and said there needs to be more “boots on the ground” to secure the border.
The Rio Grande Valley sector is front and center in the immigration and border security conversation, but it’s tough to truly understand it unless you’re here. That’s part of the reason Cruz wanted to come to McAllen for the border security roundtable conversation with local elected officials and law enforcement personnel.
Cruz said he hopes the Trump administration will reverse many of Obama’s immigration moves, which include “catch and release” regarding those in the U.S. illegally who have committed violent crimes. Cruz wants that to change quickly and assured he intends to do everything he can do help that happen.
Cruz mentioned working closely with potential new U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, if his nomination from Trump gets confirmed by the Senate, on many things. Sessions was originally going to be part of Friday’s session but as the possibility of attorney general heightened, that has been occupying much of his time, multiple sources said.
State Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville; Chris Cabrera, Border Patrol agent and spokesman for their union; Sister Norma Pimentel and Mayor Jim Darling, among others, were at Friday’s roundtable with Cruz. After Cruz gave some opening remarks, the group went around the table in a private session to explain their concerns and needs. Darling was last and brought up a federal need for McAllen.
The city has spent nearly a half-million dollars on immigration humanitarian work but has not been reimbursed by the federal government. Darling said Cruz would look to potentially help McAllen get reimbursed.
Pimentel had to leave the roundtable a little early, but on her way out mentioned an obvious but often forgotten, at least for those who aren’t at the border, part of immigration and border security.
“We must all do our job and not forget the human aspect,” she said.
