EDINBURG, Texas (Border Report) — The thousands of migrants Department of Homeland Security officials release into Hidalgo County, Texas, are “legal immigrants” because they are allowed to legally travel within the United States, County Judge Richard Cortez says.
That’s something not many people fully understand and something that adds to misperceptions about the Rio Grande Valley region, Cortez told Border Report during Monday morning sit-down interview he hopes will set the record straight between who is “legally” allowed to be in the country, and who is here illegally.
“What we have now is an overflow of ‘legal immigrants,’” Cortez said from his office in Edinburg, Texas. “These are legal immigrants that our law says they can come here and they can stay here and this is what’s causing the problem.”
Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez is seen at his offices in Edinburg, Texas, on Aug. 2, 2021. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
“That’s the concern that we have and that’s what I want people to distinguish, is that we have two classes of immigrants: The immigrants who are here legally and we, as the law, have to process them, and the illegal ones that are not here legally and they’re different. And the problem we’re having is with the legal immigrants more so than the illegal immigrants.”
In a nutshell, Cortez describes the “legal immigrants” as the vulnerable migrant families with tender-age children under 6 who since early February have been released by DHS agents with a Notice to Appear or documents indicating future U.S. immigration court hearings or information on how they must report to an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their final destination. They are seeking asylum due to fears of persecution, gangs or other issues in their home countries.
We both know that is a truckload of BS :/
Is this judge saying that someone who entered illegally and was caught by Border Patrol, who then was brought to a court to get a summons to appear, has been made "legal" by virtue of the summons to appear?
That can't be how that works...
Wouldn't that be like saying that someone who was arrested for drunk driving and then given a summons to appear in court has made that drunk driving "legal" by virtue of the summons to appear?
-PJ