Bruno Lozano, the Democrat mayor of Texas border town Del Rio, is directing friendly fire at President Joe Biden for the "crisis of great proportion" at the Southwest border, and asking the administration: "Whose side are you on?"
Lozano told Fox News on Monday that he spoke to Julie Rodriguez, the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, who "stated that they were trying to facilitate the needs, and trying to come up with a plan of action, but this is nothing new. We were managing it in 2019 and here we are in 2021 managing another crisis of great proportion and nothing is being done."
"It is a Biden border crisis, in my opinion, because there's no kind of action," Lozano said. "Seeing what we're seeing now, what was happening in the Rio Grande Valley with people wrapped around in blankets made out of silver, it’s just kind of absurd what is happening."
Lozano said he was stunned by the administration's apparent lack of planning that's resulted in illegal immigrants released en masse into Texas towns that have already been beset with their own challenges.
"When you're pleading with the president to stop the release of migrants into your community, while we're dealing with a weather phenomenon that hasn't happened in 20-30 years ... It's like whose side are you on?" he said. "The American people were without water, electricity for days on end in Del Rio, Texas, and you're going to release migrants? Those individuals that are seeking a better life and opportunity into this weather phenomenon? I don't understand — I don't understand how that could happen."
Lozano, who represents a town of about 35,000 residents, previously tried to get Biden’s attention with a video that was released just before the devastating winter storm that slammed the state. In the video, Lozano had asked the president not to release any illegal immigrants into his community because it lacked the resources to "accommodate" them.
"Mr. President my name is Bruno Lozano, mayor of the city of Del Rio, Texas, and I am pleading and requesting with you to please put a halt to any measures regarding the release of immigrants awaiting court dates into the city of Del Rio and surrounding areas," Lozano says in the video over footage of empty shelves and lines in grocery stores.
He continues: "We do not have the resources available to house and accommodate these migrants within our community ... If you do send these individuals into our community, we will be forced to make a decision to leave them without resources under these dire circumstances. I’m asking to please stop, please make another plan for this federal issue."
He told The New York Post on Sunday that he's "not trying to demonize the humanitarian aspect" of the border issue, but is simply trying to live up to his "responsibilities ... to the American people that got me elected."
"Nobody wants to actually tackle the issue, you’re condoning unlawful behavior, period," Lozano said. "There’s a lawful way to enter the United States, there’s a lawful way to seek asylum and it just undermines the entire immigration process."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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