TRANSCRIPT: LEADER JEFFRIES PRESS AVAILABILITY WITH REP. CUELLAR IN LAREDO, TX

CUELLAR: Good morning. Buenos días. Good morning. I just want to welcome all of y'all today, we have the pleasure of having Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is our leader in Congress, come visit Laredo. What we've done here today is just to have a very balanced view of everything that we have. We saw the importance of trade, tourism, which is so important to us. What we talked about was to have a balance with how we look at border security in a balanced way. We've talked to federal, state officials, local officials here. We just had a meeting. I've always said it's very important to listen to border communities, so we just had some of the stakeholders here with us. 

So with that, I just want to welcome Leader Jeffries to Laredo, and I'll finish with one more thing. So we're going to be doing a whole day of business today, but tomorrow we're going to do something very special, which I think he's going to enjoy. As you know, Laredo is known for the Washington birthday celebration. Tomorrow we have the big abrazo in the middle of the bridge. So we'll be joining Américo Villarreal, the governor from Tamaulipas where we're gonna do the abrazo to show the symbolic relationship between Mexico and the U.S. And as I said, welcome to the largest inland port in the whole country. 

JEFFRIES: Good afternoon, everyone. It's an honor and a privilege to be in Laredo today with Congressman Cuellar, who's been such a fierce advocate for Laredo and the communities that he represents here in South Texas. And we appreciate his continued leadership and emphasis on wanting to make sure that, in Washington, we are listening to border communities and stakeholders and people who are on the ground who, of course, have an incredibly important perspective on how we deal with some of the challenges and issues around border safety and security, but also how we continue to lean in to the promotion of international trade and Laredo here is such a significant inland port of entry, and we're greatly appreciative of Congressman Cuellar's leadership. 

It's been a wonderful trip to Laredo so far, a little bit colder than I expected, but other than that, the people have been incredibly warm and our city, state and federal partners have been very enlightening in terms of some of the challenges that are faced here by the men and women who are trying to protect and secure our border while, at the same time, providing a level of humanity and decency that is consistent with the values of who we are in the United States of America. And so we're going to continue to lift up those principles as we get back to Washington to tackle the challenges that we are facing. There's no challenge that America has not been able to overcome and it's because of the resilience of our people, the people that I've gotten the opportunity to interact with here in Laredo, evidence of that resilience, that decency, that humanity and that strength and I'm certainly appreciative of Congressman Cuellar's leadership in that regard.

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JEFFRIES: One of the things that we've been able to do with the leadership of President Biden, as well as Democrats in the House and the Senate is to invest in technology. And it was very enlightening to see the importance of how that technology is being deployed to try and secure the border, to try to make sure that contraband is interdicted in an appropriate way and to supplement the limitations of manpower, resources and almost all of the stakeholders within the law enforcement community at he federal level, also at the city and the county level, have made clear that it's that technology that's been helpful, but that technology is also needed to continue to supplement their efforts.

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JEFFRIES: President Biden and the Biden administration has taken some decisive steps that in particular has eased some of the migration pressures from countries like Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua. But we do need a congressional solution. We do need a comprehensive immigration reform that is both humane but also respects the rule of law and the tradition of public safety and the importance of that for border communities. That effort is going to be led and that effort will be achieved if people on the other side of the aisle are willing, in our view, to have a straightforward, authentic, direct conversations that don't politicize the issue but are designed to achieve real solutions. And what Congressman Cuellar has been all about is that facts matter, the experiences matter across the board. Those experiences, as Congressman Cuellar has consistently indicated, should involve the thoughts, ideas, perspective and life experiences of the border communities such as those here in the city of Laredo and that will be one of, I think, the more important parts of the trip for me. And I'm going to continue to encourage my colleagues in Washington as part of trying to arrive at a comprehensive solution, to take a field trip, to come down to the border communities, to speak to the people who experience life at the border each and every day.

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JEFFRIES: As I mentioned earlier, the challenge of fentanyl is a serious one. It's a real one and it impacts people all across the country, urban America, rural America, suburban America, small town America, Appalachia and the heartland, it's important for us to come together as Democrats and Republicans to address it. And speaking to the federal officials earlier today, one of the things that has become clear, again is the importance of Congress further investing in providing our Border Patrol officials, our customs officials with the technology necessary to intercept fentanyl and other narcotics that are being illegally trafficked across this border and across the United States of America. Everyone has been pretty clear with us today that it will be that investment in technology and innovation that will dramatically increase our ability to stop the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the United States of America. That's something that House Democrats have led on, Congressman Cuellar has been involved in this effort, in investing in technology and innovation for a long time and it's something that we look forward to continuing with.

Full press conference can be watched here.