WASHINGTON, D.C. Citing the deaths of a 71-year-old woman and her 7-year-old granddaughter March 13 in Ozona at the hands of a man transporting illegal immigrants and fleeing the highway patrol, Congressman August Pfluger confronted the director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to say the lack of border security was a national emergency.
Chairing his House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement and Intelligence, Pfluger told Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to turn and apologize to the survivors of Maria Tambunga and her granddaughter Emilia.
Mayorkas told the family his “heart breaks for all victims of criminal activity,” but he didn’t apologize. Ozona is 135 miles southeast of Odessa.
“I think the most important thing to know is that we have an administration that is not only completely OK with wide open borders, but they are encouraging it,” Pfluger told the Odessa American Monday.
The San Angelo Republican, who represents Ector, Midland and 18 other counties in the 11th Congressional District, said Mayorkas disputed his own Border Patrol chief, Raul Ortiz, by telling the subcommittee April 19 that the U.S.-Mexico border was secure.
“He disagrees with the professional who has been doing this for 35 years when every single American knows the border is not secure,” he said.
Noting that Mayorkas accused him of being political for bringing the Tambunga family to Washington, Pfluger said they had met him at a town hall meeting in Crockett County and asked him to hold Mayorkas accountable.
“They said they wanted a change in policy to prevent things like this from happening again,” he said. “I asked, ‘Would you be willing to come to D.C.?’ And they said, ‘Absolutely, we want to tell our story.’”
Pfluger said he and his fellow Republican subcommittee members had considered trying to remove Mayorkas from office, “but that is a high bar when you look at the requirements and we want to focus on passing legislation and doing things that might actually have an impact on the security of our nation and the safety of our communities.”
Two of the 11 illegal immigrants whom 22-year-old Rassian Comer of Bossier City, La. was allegedly transporting in his pickup also died in the crash, before which Comer recorded himself laughing while attempting to escape at 105 mph, according to reports. Comer has been charged with trafficking illegal immigrants and causing the four deaths.
Pfluger said the scheduled May 23 expiration of Title 42, which let officials turn back illegal immigrants at the border for health reasons without allowing them to apply for asylum, “is yet another indicator of the administration’s desire to open the border.
“They have systematically taken away every available tool that the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs & Enforcement had to keep our country safe,” he said.
The congressman said the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives’ first 100 days of the 118th Congress “have been very successful from the standpoint of doing what we said we were going to do.
“We in Congress are doing our part to show the American public our plan and the administration has fought us every step of the way,” Pfluger said.
Noting that the GOP’s House Resolution 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, had passed the House and was being considered in the Senate, the House Energy and Commerce Committee member said, “We want to unleash the Permian Basin and the administration has doubled down on the Green New Deal to raise the costs of energy generation for every American.
“There are Senate Democrats who know we have the right plan, but they’re being held hostage by the radical leftists. We are at the tip of the spear when it comes to getting our country out of this mess.
“In the first 100 days of this year I have held 10 public town hall meetings, visited 14 counties, sponsored 15 bills, had two provisions pass the House, filed two pro-life amicus briefs, held two field hearings on the border, held field hearings in Odessa and Midland, solved 167 constituents’ service cases and returned $1.7 million to my constituents in IRS tax returns and Social Security and veterans’ benefits.”
Pfluger will attend a ribbon cutting and open house at his new office in Room 106 in the Ector County Administration Building at 1010 E. Eighth St. at 4 p.m. Monday, May 1, where his regional director, Monica Mauldin, will be eager to meet constituents about any problems they might have, he said.
“It has nothing to do with being a Republican or a Democrat,” he said. “People can come by and receive help with any federal agency at any time they need. We were in a city building downtown before and we feel like this offers more accessibility. The only question we ask is, ‘How can we help you?’”
