SAN ANTONIO — Congressman Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, represents the largest border district in the country, with TX-23 covering more than 800 miles of the southern border.
After recently visiting Del Rio and Eagle Pass, the Republican said there’s a night and day difference under President Donald Trump, with illegal crossings dropping to their lowest levels in decades.
And a who’s who of government officials joined the Congressman, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
“In my eyes, this is all of the above, whole of government approach. We all need to be paddling in the same direction,” Congressman Gonzales told us on Inside Texas Politics. “My district, as you know, has been at the epicenter of it. Texas has been impacted by this. So, to have so many folks come down and visit, high-level visit like that, I think sends a very clear message to the world that things have changed in the United States.”
Congressman Gonzales spent two decades in the Navy, deploying multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan.
He told us he’s comfortable with active-duty, armed troops patrolling the southern border, a break from recent Presidential precedent.
The Republican said he discussed the issue with Secretary Hegseth while visiting the border and learned this is only phase one of four.
What the other phases look like, according to the Congressman, will depend on the numbers.
“They’re about to surge an entire division, you know, 10,000 people to the border in different forms or fashion. A lot of those have expertise are in security and engineering,” relayed Gonzales. “This is a long-term, sustained operation. It’s not just a, hey, we’re packing it up at the end of the month and patting ourselves on the back. I think you’re going to see this is the new norm.”
We also asked the Republican lawmaker whether he thought Congress was ceding too much power to the President through the flurry of executive actions, mass firings, freezing of funds and potential closure of some departments, including the Department of Education.
Gonzales argued that Congress isn’t getting much done anyway, and he doesn’t blame President Trump for not waiting on lawmakers.
“Congress will punt on first down if you give them the opportunity. And they will say it’s somebody else’s fault but their own,” the lawmaker said bluntly. “Right now, Congress is as weak as can be. So, if the President is going to make some of these changes that are keeping us safe and putting us in the right direction, I’m all about it.”