McAllen Monitor - After August Recess, Cuellar Planning to Fund RGV Immigrant Expenses, Central American Aid Packages

News Article

By Jacob Fischler

A local congressman said Tuesday he hasn't given up on securing federal reimbursement for U.S-Mexico border communities affected by the surge of Central American immigrants. And he wants to provide aid to those countries, too.

"We need to do something that's more comprehensive to Central America," said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo.

Cuellar, whose district stretches from his hometown of Laredo to much of western Hidalgo County, was accompanied by Honduran Foreign Minister Mireya Aguero de Corrales at a Tuesday news conference inside the McAllen City Hall.

Cuellar said he supports an aid plan for Central America similar to the Marshal Plan for Europe after World War II or the Plan Colombia program, where the U.S. poured resources into the world's top cocaine-producing nation to fight drug organizations.

Plan Colombia had mixed success in sapping power from organized crime in Colombia, but also pushed those organizations into Central American countries, Aguero said, opening a Pandora's Box of new problems there.

Cuellar said officials discussed the possibility of "trade missions" from McAllen to Honduras to scout for opportunities for private investment.

The congressman plans to reintroduce legislation to reimburse communities like McAllen and Hidalgo County that have spent their own money to respond to the influx of Central Americans over the summer, he said.

A similar measure Cuellar attached to a broader bill to address the situation collapsed after the Democrat-controlled Senate and the Republican-led House could not find common ground to pass any bill before their summer recess.

In his next try, Cuellar said he would divorce the reimbursement plan from a measure to expedite deportations of Central American children, which he said became too politically toxic to result in any action. Instead, he said he'll attach the reimbursement plan to a continuing resolution -- which he expects Congress to consider in September to avoid a government shutdown.

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