Latest Monica De La Cruz News | Fox News

I was born in the Rio Grande Valley, here’s how Biden needs to handle the massive border crisis he caused

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 02:00:15 -0500

Recently, President Joe Biden visited a microchip factory plant in Arizona. When asked by a reporter if he would be visiting the U.S./Mexico border, Biden claimed he had more important things to do.

His response encapsulates the border policy of this administration: ignore the problem. Touring a factory might make for an easy photo op, but it’s certainly not more important than the national security of the United States. To properly understand this issue, Biden must first accept the reality of the border crisis and must then visit South Texas where I’d be more than happy to show him how severely broken our border really is.

As a native and longtime resident of the Rio Grande Valley, I have a unique understanding of border security issues and how they affect the hardworking families in my community. They face a wave of illegal drugs, stash houses, human trafficking, dangerous felons on the run, and constant streams of illegal immigrants. Farmers and ranchers often discover dead illegal immigrants in their fields and even small children are found alone, abandoned by smugglers.

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It is no secret that the consequences of the Biden administration’s border security failures extend far beyond the valley and into countless communities. Over 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses, the vast majority from synthetic opioids smuggled by cartels. Cartels have also mastered how to exploit our lax immigration enforcement and illegal immigrants.

The Biden administration claims to be pursuing humane policies, but nothing could be further from the truth. They are allowing criminals to get rich off their bureaucratic incompetence and malfeasance.

The numbers are staggering. Since January 2021, DHS has encountered more than 4 million illegal immigrants at our border, with approximately 1 million illegal immigrants evading capture by CBP.

Earlier this year, Biden ended the successful Remain in Mexico program that allowed immigrants to wait in Mexico to have their asylum claims reviewed. To add insult to injury, Title 42 will be ending in late December, which allows for the rapid removal for public health concerns of those who cross our border illegally.

A top priority of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives will be to support Border Patrol with the resources they need to do their jobs. As the future representative of many Border Patrol agents and their families, I have a few ideas on how to do it.

Border Patrol agents tell me they have trucks that don’t work, old radios that can’t call for assistance when needed, and too few night-vision goggles to see threats at night.

The need for these goggles was only amplified by the tragic death of a Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol agent who crashed earlier this month while in pursuit of illegal immigrants in my district.

Funding new training centers for Border Patrol agents closer to the border and their homes must also be made a priority. In my district, South Texas College has set aside land and resources to allow for Border Patrol training. This gives agents the flexibility to train close to home rather than travelling throughout the country to meet those requirements.

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The federal government should partner with South Texas College and other local institutions to help with these efforts. Not only would it better the quality of life for Border Patrol agents, but it would also improve day-to-day border security efforts.

I was proud to join Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales to discuss the crisis of suicide among CBP agents. I will continue to legislatively advocate for mental health resources that help our men and women in green cope with the stress of the job that has been made so difficult by non-sensical Washington policies and lack of concern from out of touch politicians.

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These issues should be addressed through a bipartisan effort and passed by the Republican-controlled House.

It is the duty of the American president and Congress to protect our national security and national borders. In order to see the scale, cost, and tragedy of our border crisis, I once again invite Biden to tour the border and understand why this is one of the most important crises facing our country. 

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I'm Monica De La Cruz: This is why I want Texas' vote in the midterm election

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 09:00:21 -0400

Ever since Republicans made surprising inroads with Hispanics in 2020, Beltway pundits have resorted to a cacophony of explanations to make sense of the Democrats’ problems with our community. While some have correctly pointed to the popularity of center-right policies among Latinos, others deny the shift is even occurring ("it’s just Miami Cubans," they argued) or turn to the fashionable, albeit false and condescending, theory that Spanish speakers are being duped by "misinformation."

As a former Democrat who is running to become the first Latina to represent Texas’ 15th congressional district in January, I know a thing or two about why so many Hispanics are saying adios to the Democratic Party.

For decades, if you were a Hispanic living in South Texas, voting Democrat was something you did by rote. In fairness, few Republicans outside of Florida took Hispanic outreach seriously. Then, something changed.

The Democrats went from being a party of union halls to a party of elitist faculty lounges preoccupied with pronouns, political correctness, and equality of outcomes. A transformation also occurred within the Hispanic community.

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The Hispanic poverty rate dropped by over 30% between 2010 and 2020. In 2019, Hispanic unemployment hit an all-time low as we led the country in the creation of new small businesses. These are not just statistics. As a single mom and entrepreneur, I saw the American Dream that brought my abuela to this country become my American Reality. Rather than coming to terms with these developments, the Democrats’ rhetoric and policies are increasingly out of touch.

A flashpoint was when former President Barack Obama pulled his party away from Bill Clinton’s "pro-growth" message that was popular with Latinos, toward a neo-Marxist preoccupation with "income inequality," by declaring it "the defining challenge of our time." Obama’s comments drew cheers from campus intellectuals, but it left upwardly mobile Hispanics scratching our heads.

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What Democrats, like my leftist opponent, fail to understand is that Hispanics are focused on moving our families hacia adelante. We do not envy others’ wealth; we aspire to success through hard work and faith in God.

Democrats are equally oblivious to the fact that we do not view ourselves as victims in this country. In fact, polling from WPA Intelligence shows that 7 out of 10 Hispanics categorically reject this notion. Yet, Democrats approach Hispanics with the same cookie-cutter victimhood narrative they impose on all minorities by invariably reducing their Latino outreach to talk of "racial equity" and promises of amnesty.

East coast liberals are hardly the only promoters of the "victimhood" framework though. For over a century, South Texas Democrats have assured our community that we are oppressed and that they — and only they — can help us. It is true that too many Rio Grande Valley families struggle, but the Democrats’ self-serving solution is to hold Hispanics back to make us more dependent on them. No, gracias.

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Their policy failures are patently obvious. After over a century of Democrat control, The RGV remains among the poorest regions in our state; President Biden’s porous border policy draws drugs, gangs, and murderous cartels to our communities; and we have entire counties without doctors.

As if liberal policies were not bad enough, the 2022 iteration of the Democratic Party does not even respect our culture. Hispanics could not be clearer in our rejection of the synthetic gender-neutral term, "Latinx," that is part of an effort to gut the Spanish language of its grammatical gender. Yet, bizarrely, the Democratic Party — from Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren to the DNC and its cultural allies — insists on shoving this linguistic aberration down our throats. Their attack on our heritage is wrong.

The good news for Hispanics who are fed up with the Democrats is that we have a better alternative. Republicans see Latinos as the fulfillment of America’s possibilities and want our families to prosper.

The Democrats are the party of Latinx. We are the party que respeta tu cultura and recognizes Hispanics as the people who have given the world cultural icons the likes of our beloved Selena, Luis Miguel, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz.

The Democrats are the party of extremists, like AOC, who demand ideological uniformity. We are the party of strong leaders as diverse as Congresswoman Mayra Flores, Congresswoman Maria Salazar, Cassy García, Yesli Vega and me.

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The Democrats call us "uneducated" and "susceptible" to misinformation when we do not vote for them. Republicans understand that good people can have honest disagreements.

Surely, Democratic leaders realize our community is fundamentally at odds with their policies and cultural diktats, which is why they resort to conspiracy theories — like MSNBC’s patently absurd notion that "misinformation" on Miami AM radio is turning Hispanics as geographically dispersed as Boricuas in The Bronx and Mexican American nevadenses into Republicans — to avoid confronting the fact that their party’s Hispanic outreach is a disaster.

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To be clear, Republicans have our work cut out for us. According to research data, large numbers of Univision and Telemundo viewers believe the lies those networks tell them about conservatives. Despite this, polls show the GOP is on track for record gains with Hispanics in next week’s midterm elections. Our community is sending America a message: La ola roja is just beginning.

Fox News Digital has also invited the author's opponent, Michelle Vallejo, to submit an oped about why voters should choose her in the midterm election.