Texas Border Towns’ GOP Rep: Trump’s Border ‘Crisis’ Is A ‘Myth’

UNITED STATES - APRIL 18: Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference on the use of the "queen-of-the-hill" rule for DACA legislation in the House on Wednesday, April 18, 2018. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX), whose congressional district includes more than 800 miles of the border separating the United States and Mexico, said in an interview published Friday that President Donald Trump’s claim of a “border crisis” is a “myth”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Hurd asserted: “I think $67 billion of drugs coming into our country is a crisis. Now, I also think when you think of a crisis, that means people are afraid to leave their homes, right?”

But El Paso and other border towns are some of the “safest cities in the United States of America,” Hurd said.

The congressman noted that the Trump administration would have to cut off large areas of United States land along the Rio Grand in order to build a wall. “In my district alone there’s the potential of ceding 1.1 million acres of land to Mexico,” Hurd said. “There’s a thing in Texas we care about called private property rights.”

There’s also an unmet demand for labor in Texas and other states, Hurd said.

“Why aren’t we also talking about streamlining this immigration process so that we get people here legally who are going to contribute to our economy?” he asked. “It’s a problem that needs to be solved”

“In some places, a physical barrier is a helpful tool,” the congressman acknowledged. “But you can’t use the same tool over every single mile. Let’s be efficient. What I always say is building a wall from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security.”

Read the full interview here.

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  1. Avatar for outis outis says:

    The only question is whether it will be a near myth or a complete myth (terrible pun fully intended).

  2. To the typical trump voter, the ‘crisis’ they want fixed is the family that is ahead of them in the Walmart checkout that insists on speaking spanish and paying cash while they are trying to buy chips and dip with their SNAP card. The ‘wall’ is just a means to that end.

  3. Watching a Texas Republican speak calmly and logically is an almost shocking experience at this point.

  4. Glancing Blow…hard?

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