Rep. Tony Gonzales appeared on “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy” where he talked about a meeting he had with DHS Secretary Mayorkas. The topic was border security. Mayorkas falsely claimed that the southern border is secure in Vail, Colorado last week. Gonzales said that Mayorkas’ statement is just not true.

The House Appropriations Committee member represents 42% of the border he said, and no one in his district thinks the border is secure. “It’s the furthest thing from secure.” It was foolish for Mayorkas to make such a statement because it is so easily fact-checked. If only the American press pursued stories about the southern border and illegal immigration. They don’t though unless a huge story breaks like the tragedy of tens of thousands of Haitian migrants living under an overpass along the International Bridge in Del Rio – a legal port of entry for immigrants though these immigrants didn’t bother to cross the border the legal way. They crossed the Rio Grande River. A Democrat operative made up a story that the Border Patrol agents on horseback in charge of controlling the crowd of migrants were whipping them. Suddenly the press got interested and Whipgate was born.

A little more than a week ago I wrote about the number of illegal migrants apprehended at the southern border. The numbers continue to escalate each month, including the number of ‘got aways’, those illegal migrants who run from law enforcement and Border Patrol agents rather than be picked up and processed. The gall of Mayorkas to tell an audience at a security conference session that the border is secure is off the charts. Rep. Gonzales is speaking out.

Gonzales met with Mayorkas about three weeks ago and asked for one thing to help the situation at the southern border – repatriation flights.

“About three weeks ago, Secretary Mayorkas came to my office in D.C., we sat, and we spoke about a few things. I asked him for one thing in particular: to help with this crisis. That’s repatriation of flights out of Del Rio, Texas. Those are essentially flights for folks that do not qualify asylum which are about 95% of migrants coming over. They get put on a plane, and instead of getting sent to another I.C.E. detention in the United States, they get sent back to their country of origin. It’s the only way this goes away,” he explained.

Rep. Gonzales called for a change of leadership in Congress so that the open border can be better remedied. Nancy Pelosi doesn’t bother to go to the border to see for herself what is happening but Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been to the border several times, Gonzales said. Gonzales has led many tours of the southern border for members of Congress and will do so again on Monday, he said. The solutions to the border chaos requires a bipartisan approach.

“It’s a one-off. You will never see Nancy Pelosi here. You will never see AOC and some of these others, but I think that is what it takes to say how do we put our politics aside and roll up our sleeves for betterment of everyone. I think it can happen, but you know better than anybody else how difficult it is to work in that lane,” Gonzales said.

I don’t know about you but I haven’t read about or seen any reports about an increase in repatriation flights from the southern border carrying illegal migrants back to Northern Triangle countries or wherever they came from. I’m sure Gonzales’ suggestion to Mayorkas fell on deaf ears.

Gonzales is hopeful about Republicans taking back the majority in the House and what that means in terms of Republican leadership in border management.

“I think it starts with us earning the trust of Americans. We saw a little taste of that, especially Hispanic-Americans are coming over in droves to Republican Party. I’m thinking we have an opportunity to change the scope of the party and politics, not for just this year but decades to come,” Gonzales said.

He concluded, “Once again when we the Republicans have the majority in the House, we have to deliver. It’s about governing, and I think a big part is the commitment to America that you’re going to see Kevin McCarthy roll out here soon, and all of us are going get behind it. That’s a good start. We have to start delivering for all Americans.”

I like his optimism about the November midterm elections, especially on how Texas Hispanic voters are moving to the Republican Party. Republicans may also take the majority in the Senate if everything goes well. However, though it is a good start, a Republican led House and Senate can only do so much when it comes to immigration policy and border security. The president will still be Joe Biden and he is the one who has deliberately shirked his responsibility to secure the southern border. American sovereignty and national security mean nothing to him. The only hope for a more secure border is for a Republican to win the presidency in 2024. Biden will never do the job, therefore Mayorkas will not do his job either. They believe in open borders and sanctuary cities and no deportations. The humanitarian crisis at the border is a result of Biden’s dereliction of duty.