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Henry Cuellar’s Constituents Are Restless, But Are They Ready for AOC Ally Jessica Cisneros?
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| Contributor | BrentinCO |
| Last Edited | BrentinCO Feb 29, 2020 11:44pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, February 28, 2020 05:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | With every passing day, Elsa Hull can feel Trump’s wall getting closer. In recent months, her neighbors who live downstream from her three-acre homestead in San Ygnacio on the Rio Grande, south of Laredo, have been receiving letters from the federal government requesting access to their land in order to conduct surveys for the border wall. Hull is angry, of course, at Trump: like many in this hot strip of borderland in South Texas, she thinks the wall is pointless and a danger to the delicate desert ecosystem she’s called home for nearly twenty years. But she’s also upset with her congressman, Henry Cuellar, an eight-term “Blue Dog” Democrat who has played a pivotal role in negotiating border security matters for Nancy Pelosi.
Cuellar is ideologically opposed to the wall, but he’s also a self-described dealmaker willing to put together what he believes is the best bargain for the Twenty-eighth Congressional District. During the Trump administration, he has twice voted to fund the wall, once after negotiating protection for sites like the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, and again in 2019 to avoid a government shutdown. Despite Cuellar’s efforts to minimize the damage, a 69-mile stretch of proposed border wall from the Laredo–Colombia Solidarity International Bridge to just south of San Ygnacio is now threatening Hull’s property. She said she took the 45-minute trip to Laredo to protest outside Cuellar’s office twice last year, and also called his office in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to speak with him, all to no avail. (A spokesperson for the congressman said they have no record of her requests for a meeting.) |
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