TEXAS, USA — Congressman Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, says he believes Gov. Greg Abbott is right to send a message to migrants who may have been involved in a violent border breach last month in El Paso.
More than 200 migrants have been arrested on misdemeanor rioting charges already, with more arrests likely coming after the March 21 incident when officials say hundreds of migrants pushed through a cut hole in the surrounding concertina wire.
The El Paso County District Attorney says at least nine of those migrants also assaulted members of the Texas National Guard.
Abbott says he’s since dispatched more than 700 National Guard troops to El Paso and has ordered the arrest of every migrant involved for criminal trespass and destruction of property.
“The word has to be out that that will not be allowed in Texas. So, I welcome the Governor’s response,” Congressman Gonzales told us on Inside Texas Politics. “This is year four of this border crisis and people are exhausted, and they’re willing to try things that they weren’t willing to try two years ago. And there have to be repercussions for people’s actions.”
In the meantime, the issue of funding Ukraine’s war against Russia will loom large when federal lawmakers return to Washington, D.C. following the Easter recess.
The U.S. Senate has already passed a $95 billion aid package that includes Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
But the House has refused to act on that legislation.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has indicated he’ll soon allow a vote on Ukraine funding, angering the far-right faction of the Republican conference.
And in an interview, the speaker floated several ideas for what the aid package could look like, including a lend-lease program, or selling off seized Russian assets to help pay the tab, two ideas Gonzales says he could support.
“My position has been you cannot leave an ally on the battlefield to bleed out. There has to be a solution. But also, blank checks don’t work either,” Gonzales said. “I’ve heard from more and more Americans where they feel as if they are last in this equation. What about our border? What about our streets? What about our roads?”
And the Republican made clear he would not support any move to remove Johnson as speaker at this time, as has been threatened by at least one Republican member, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Georgia.
The U.S. House will be back in session following Easter recess on Tuesday, April 9.
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