CONGRESSMAN GONZALEZ RELEASES STATEMENT ON REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE USING THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY AS A POLITICAL BACKDROP
WESLACO – Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34) released the following statement after the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a Joint Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and Subcommittee on Health field hearing in the 34th Congressional District of Texas:
"House Republicans continue to use the Rio Grande Valley as a political backdrop without proposing any real solutions to fix our broken immigration system. This partisan hearing was organized in secret and undercuts any meaningful bipartisan conversations. Rather than take any meaningful action to improve the lives of the American people, Congressional Republicans are wasting government resources to air their grievances against the Biden Administration.
"Despite the Rio Grande Valley continuing to be one of the safest regions in the country, House Republicans continue to paint it as dangerous. The implication that my colleagues think they know better than our community – a community that is dealing firsthand with increased migration is insulting to say the least.
"Chairwoman Rodgers should have a field hearing in her home district of Spokane, Washington before coming to the Rio Grande Valley. These resources would be better spent helping her constituents figure out why they have the highest crime rate in America compared to communities of any size. Spokane, Washington has a reported crime rate of 53 per every 1,000 residents compared to Brownsville, Texas at 22.3 per every 1,000 and McAllen, Texas at 20.09 per every 1,000.
"I urge the Chairwoman and Republican Leadership to stop using South Texas for political theater and engage in meaningful conversations on how to adequately address the fentanyl crisis, fix our immigration system and deliver actual results. Do it for the constituents that elected us."
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