Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas Democrat, said Friday there must be a shared responsibility between the United States and Central American countries in dealing with the current influx of illegal alien children coming into the country.
“If we continue playing defense on the one-yard line called the U.S.-Mexico border where I live and my family lives, and I work there. We see the results right now [if] we continue to do that,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.” “We have to work with those folks.”
Mr. Cuellar said he told the presidents of Honduras and Guatemala that the U.S. will work with you, but that “you have to take responsibility of your country.” President Obama is scheduled to meet with the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to discuss the border crisis Friday afternoon.
Mr. Cuellar, a persistent critic of Mr. Obama’s handling of the situation at the border, said it would be bad if Congress leaves for its August recess without passing something to deal with it — which appears to be an increasingly likely prospect at this point.
“It would be a horrible symbol for us to go home, [where] we go back to our districts and leave this crisis, this humanitarian crisis without it being resolved,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.