Welcome back to inside Texas politics.
There is a place in southern
Panama called the Darien Gap.
It's the most dangerous part ofe
journey for migrants in Colombid
Venezuela who want to come to this country.
It's a jungle.
Poisonous snakes flooding river.
It takes 10 days to get across on foot
and no law enforcement for mile.
The United Nations is warning rt
now that a record number of migs
will likely use the Darien Gap
on their way to the US this yea.
The question some in Congress
are asking Can it be sealed off?
That is one of our first topics
with Congressman Keith Self,
a Republican who represents Coln
and Hunt counties in North Texa.
Congressman, good morning to yo.
Let'll start with the border
in a place called Darien Gap.
It's been around obviously fore,
but it's it's it's a rough.
Dangerous jungle area between Columbia
and Panama and the number of migrants
moving through there right now,
the United Nations says,
has already doubled what came
through last year, and it's on
pace to go even farther than th.
The problem?
As you well know,
no one and nothing has been
able to stop him so far.
What more should the US be doing
specifically on the ground
there to seal off this entrance?
Well, first of all,
the Darien Gap is a place that I
think we could do exactly that.
It's about 160 miles wide.
It's jungle, it's mountainous.
There are only so many routes through
that terrain and it's very dangerous.
I mean, we talk about
decomposing bodies in the river.
We talk about trash,
we talk about plastic.
It is a very dangerous place.
So I think that we probably coud
do more and frankly I'm told tht
the Panamanian government woulde
to close the border with Colomb.
So I believe we need to get dowd
talk to the Panamanian governmet
if we can get the policy of the
United States to at least try to
close that part of the border.
What
would the Panama and and Colomba
have been unsuccessful doing it
whether there was will there or?
If Petta Mall, welcome to Congressman,
do you think the US should
put boots on the ground there?
Well, they can certainly make a difference.
But that's a tremendous policy
decision that would have to be
made at the highest levels of
the United States government.
Make no mistake about it,
That is a major policy change.
Would I like to see it?
I think we need to at least consider it.
With the agreement of the
Panamanian government,
hard right Republicans forced that vote,
Impeachment vote.
On President Joe Biden over his
handling of the US Mexico borde,
you said in an interview the otr
day on the Fox Business Channel
that the American people are not
yet ready to impeach Joe Biden.
If that's the case,
what was the point that?
What was the point of this impeachment vote?
Well, to highlight, I,
I think the point of the impeact
was to highlight the fact that e
southern border is a dereliction of duty.
But I will also say that the American
people may get there with a different issue.
And that's all of the whistleblowers,
that's all the documents that the oversight
and judiciary committees are getting.
Because it's starting to look
like if we have hard evidence of
the crimes of the Biden family,
the American people might come along.
So I think that that's far more likely
to be instrumental in any future vote.
Congressman, this summer Congres
will will finalize appropriatio.
How it's going to spend money.
What? What do you hope to see?
During this process, cutting spending,
we're specified that already tod
the leadership that we will not
vote for the $1.56 trillion bil.
If they add up to that, we still want
to go back to the FY22 bill lev,
which is $1.471 trillion.
That's not much of A cut,
but at least it's a start.
And I I think, I think we're inl
danger of not being able to pass
the 12 appropriation bills on t,
which means we'll have a CR.
Hopefully the CR will go into nt
year and we'll have the automatic cuts
that will come in at 99% level on what,
January the 1st.
And the CR is a continuing resolution,
which essentially just just gete
keeps the federal government operating.
How likely though is it is going back to
the 22 budget because that didn't seem
to get very far earlier in the .
Well, again, unless the Republin
leadership is going to make a permanent
coalition with Democrat votes,
which I don't think they're going to get.
They are. They are going to have to find
a way to get to 218 Republican votes.
That's the issue. And to get th,
I realize they're negotiations,
but certainly the 1.586 trillion
is not acceptable. Congressman,
we will be watching to see how it turns out.
Thank you for the time, as alwa.
Absolutely. Thank you,
Jason. Have a good day.