AUSTIN, Texas -- Today, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa released the following statement applauding today’s newly-announced Biden-Harris Administration efforts to increase border security – as well as on the news that President Biden will be traveling to the El Paso Sector of the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday:

“Texas Democrats applaud President Biden for his pragmatic, bipartisan leadership on issues that are critical to Texas and the well-being of Texas’ working families: whether that be fixing our broken infrastructure, making Texas one of the world’s foremost technological innovation hubs, or, today, stepping up efforts at the country’s southern border to further address the current elevated number of international migrants crossing illegally into Texas.

“As the President said today, our immigration system is broken. That has been true for decades now, regardless of which party has held the White House. This current historic number of migrants – fleeing political oppression and gang violence in Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Cuba – has nothing to do with the party in power in Washington. But, unlike Republicans, who just use this humanitarian crisis as a fundraising tool or a way to demagogue and stoke racist fears, the Biden-Harris Administration and Texas Democrats know the buck stops with us and it’s our responsibility to handle this problem – with our Party’s trademark compassion, fairness, pragmatism, and competence. As President Biden said today: this is a hard one to deal with, but we have to deal with it.

“We look forward to welcoming President Biden to El Paso this weekend. The firsthand experiences he’ll have seeing our border enforcement operations, as well as the conversations he’ll have with our brave CBP personnel, will help inform Executive Branch actions to improve and streamline border operations. But, critically, we know what the President said today holds true: these efforts will not fix the border problem completely. We desperately need Republicans in Congress to finally put partisan politics aside and work with us in good faith to fix our country’s broken immigration system.”

President Biden’s visit to El Paso comes after Republicans rejected the Biden-Harris Administration’s requests of an additional $3.5 billion to secure the border, funds for 2,000 new asylum officers and 100 new immigration judges.

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