A Texas Democrat who represents a congressional district along the U.S.–Mexico border said he believes he can find “common ground” with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
“We can deport people quickly under Title 8, we can do ‘stay in Mexico,’ we can do so many things on policies that can work right away,” Cuellar told the outlet, referring to policies that could be implemented by the Trump administration. There are “lot of things we can work on,” he added.
“In fact, today, I was communicating with Tom [Homan], and we talked about getting together sometime when I head back to D.C. in the next week or so and I think we can find a lot of common ground,” Cuellar said.
The Democrat added that while he and Homan do not agree on all of the administration’s proposed policies, “certainly we can agree to deport quickly the criminals, the national security folks, the 1.3 million final deportation people that have a final deportation order and are still here.”
Both Homan and Trump have said they will prioritize mass deportations, starting on Day 1 of his administration. Homan specifically has said that he would target about 1 million illegal immigrants who are considered national security threats or who have a criminal record.
“Some of the recent crossers are some of the folks we need to look at,” Cuellar said.
“So, there’s a lot of things that I think we can do, and certainly Mexico has done a lot, but they can do much, much, much more stopping fentanyl and stopping people from coming in.”
Homan, who served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from 2017 to 2018 under Trump, will bring a deep understanding of the U.S. immigration system after three decades working in the Border Patrol and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Trump also is expected to end President Joe Biden’s programs that allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to enter the United States under temporary parole orders in recent years and could encourage those with expired statuses to leave voluntarily.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimated there were 11 million immigrants without legal status in 2022, a figure that has likely since increased. Some cities that received illegal immigrants, including New York, Chicago, and Denver, struggled to house and aid them.
Earlier this month, Trump named South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to become secretary of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement. Noem, whose Midwestern home state is closer to Canada than Mexico, took a hardline stance on illegal immigration and made several trips in recent years to the U.S.–Mexico border, which she called a “war zone” in January.
This week, the president-elect ramped up pressure on Mexico, Canada, and China, warning in social media posts that he would implement tariffs on goods being imported into the United States. If Mexico and Canada do not work to curb illegal immigration, the president-elect said he would quickly hit the countries with a 25 percent tariff.
For China, Trump said he would place a 10 percent higher tariff on the country if its ruling Chinese Communist Party does not move to curb the production of fentanyl precursors.
Cuellar represents Texas’s 28th Congressional District, which covers an area starting from the southern part of San Antonio and ending at the U.S.–Mexico border. Cities within the district also include Converse, Laredo, Rio Grande City, and Universal City.
