Democratic lawmaker breaks from party ranks over border crisis, blasts Biden for hypocrisy on Title 42: 'You just can't have both'

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) broke party ranks Monday and sharply criticized President Joe Biden for his failure to adequately address the ongoing border crisis.

What did Cuellar say?

Speaking on "Fox & Friends," Cuellar, whose congressional district sits on the U.S.-Mexico border, called out Biden's hypocrisy in repealing Title 42.

"You can’t say we have a pandemic or a public health issue here but then say everything is fine at the border and then lift the Title 42, which is a health order,” Cuellar said. "You just can’t have both."

The Biden administration is slated to repeal Title 42 next month. The public health provision, first used by the Trump administration but continued under Biden, allows immigration officials to force migrants to wait outside the U.S. while their asylum claims are processed. Left-wing immigration advocates oppose the policy.

"Certainly, right now, the cartels are looking at Title 42. The moment they lift that, you're going to start seeing a lot more people coming across [the border]," Cuellar explained.

Later in the interview, Cuellar revealed that only 40% of Border Patrol agents in the Laredo and Rio Grande border sectors, the heart of the border crisis, are working on border security.

"Think about that: 60% in both of those sectors right now, their men and women are changing diapers, are making food for the migrants — important work, but they don’t belong there. They should be out there. So we are only working with 40% of our personnel, Border Patrol," Cuellar said. "You can bet that the bad guys know this."

The result of the situation, Cuellar added, is that Border Patrol agents have become extremely demoralized.

"Right now, when you talk to men and women in green and in blue, they feel demoralized. They don't feel that Washington has their backs," Cuellar said.

"You know, the other 60% of the Border Patrol, the two sectors I mentioned, they want to be out there securing a border. They don't want to be changing the diapers and all that," he continued. "Look, it's OK to listen to immigration activists when this policy has been made, but who's listening to the men and women in green, who's listening to the border communities?"

Anything else?

Cuellar's remarks come after Border Patrol agents intercepted 221, 303 migrants in March, the most during Biden's presidency and nearly an all-time monthly record.

At the same time, government data shows that at least 23 individuals on the FBI's terrorist watch list were intercepted at the southern border last year.