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Texas mayor rips 'broken' immigration system amid migrant, drug surge: 'Where is the middle ground?'
By Bailee Hill
Published August 31, 2022
A Texas mayor ripped the Biden administration's "broken" immigration system, demanding moderate reform in order to mitigate the border crisis as it continues to spiral out of control.
Rio Grande City Mayor Joel Villarreal joined "America's Newsroom," Wednesday, to discuss the impact of the crisis and why he pinned blame on both parties for allowing it to get to where it is currently.
"Let's not sugarcoat, justify or minimize our current border policy of catch and release - which, by the way, it does bring into question legitimate concerns for national security, because at times we are not properly vetting these individuals," Villarreal told Fox News' Trace Gallagher. "And unfortunately, at times we have no idea who's coming into our country."
FENTANYL SEIZURES AT SOUTHERN BORDER JUMPED OVER 200% IN JULY
"However, it behooves us as Americans to carefully manage the balance of the immigration and border security, two concepts of which are not mutually exclusive," he continued. "They can coexist."
FILE - In this Thursday, June 10, 2021, file photo, a pair of migrant families from Brazil pass through a gap in the border wall to reach the United States after crossing from Mexico to Yuma, Ariz., to seek asylum. Border officials got the go-ahead Thursday, July 28, 2022, to fill four remaining gaps in the U.S.-Mexico wall near the southern Arizona community of Yuma for safety reasons. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File) (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)
Villarreal pinned the blame of the ongoing crisis on both Democrats and Republicans, citing it as a failure of all politicians over the course of the last three decades.
"We've had polar extremes relative to border policies," Villarreal said. "On one hand, we have catch and release. At the other extreme, we've had family separations at the border, indefinite detainment, so where is the middle ground?"
"So, yes, I agree there has to be some consequences," he continued. "However, what type of consequences are we going to bring into this fall? Because we cannot have these draconian consequences either."
Meanwhile, there have been more than two million migrant encounters at the southern border so far just this fiscal year. In all of 2021, there were 1.7 million encounters.
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Amid the flow of migrants, fentanyl and other lethal drugs are ravaging cities and communities nationwide.
According to CBP data, there were 106 pounds of fentanyl seized at the border in fiscal year 2021, compared to 12 pounds and 30 pounds in fiscal years 2019 and 2020, respectively.
"All of us are to blame for this because we lack the political will to address it," Villarreal said. "Now, it's not just one individual to blame. No, it's the whole system. Our broken immigration system is really what's at play here [sic] and on full display."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-mayor-rips-broken-immigration-system-migrant-drug-surge-where-middle-ground