Cuellar: I intend to bring Biden cabinet members to South Texas border region

LAREDO, Texas - U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar says he intends to bring at least four cabinet secretaries to the South Texas border region once President-elect Biden is sworn into office.Cuellar is critical of the way President Trump’s cabinet secretaries, when visiting the border region, would not meet with the business community or environmental leaders. Instead, he said, they only focused on the border wall, and stopping drugs and undocumented immigrants from coming into the country.The five cabinet secretaries are Deb Haaland, Biden’s pick for interior secretary, Xavier Becerra, who is set to be health and human services secretary, Marcia L. Fudge, who has been chosen to run housing and urban development, and Alejandro Mayorkas, the president-elect’s nominee to run homeland security.All four will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.“There are some friends I intend to bring down here. Deb Haaland is going to be the new interior secretary. She is a friend of mine from New Mexico. I want to see how she can work with us, from the Department of Interior,” Cuellar said.“We have got Xavier Becerra, who is going to be the health and human services secretary. That is the second person I want to bring down to Laredo. Marcia Fudge, also, is someone that I served with and she is the HUD secretary. Those are the folks that are coming in.”Mayorkas, the son of Jewish Cuban refugees, would be the first Latino to run the department of homeland security. “The new homeland secretary is a friend of mine. I intend to bring him down to Laredo and to the Valley and do a border tour,” Cuellar said.“They usually go to El Paso and down to the lower Rio Grande or Arizona. I want them to see different areas, including Eagle Pass and other areas that have asked me to look at.”Editor's Note: To read the full story go to www.riograndeguardian.comGo to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.