Cuellar seeks prep for another migrant surge

A Texas Democrat warned on Tuesday that the U.S. should be ready for another surge of migrant children and families at the Southern border.

“We gotta make sure we secure the — the border because … when the weather comes, gets a little better, historically, numbers go up,” Rep. Henry Cuellar told Fox News.

{mosads}“So we might see families trying to cross again. So we gotta do the prevention instead of paying later.”

He said the government’s priority should be working with the countries where migrants come from to stop them from attempting the difficult journey north in the first place.

The numbers of unaccompanied child and migrants crossing the border in families developed into a crisis this summer, though the problem has largely waned. The Obama administration, however, has continued to expand the facilities that hold the families.

“We believe it’s necessary to build more of that capability in the event we have another spike like we had last summer,” Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in October.

Cuellar expressed hope that the administration would be able to avoid another crisis, should the number of migrants spike again.

“I hope there were some lessons learned. I hope … the secretary, Johnson, does a better job. I think he will,” Cuellar said “But again, we better learn the lessons that we saw, because we get caught flat-footed again, the American public is not gonna be happy.”