Republican Senator Ted Cruz detailed his encounter with human traffickers and cartel members, giving details on how they saw the crisis at the border up close.
Cruz provided details on how a Republican Senate delegation to the border which was led by him encountered human traffickers and cartel members. According to Cruz, they heard the traffickers and cartel members yelling at them and taunting law enforcement agencies.
We encountered human traffickers & cartel members tonight, yelling at us across the Rio Grande and preparing to cross. #BidenBorderCrisis pic.twitter.com/yXl3AyUIPd
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 26, 2021
Cruz said in a video, “We have been listening to and seeing cartel members, human traffickers right on the other side of the river, waving flashlights yelling and taunting Americans, taunting the Border Patrol because they know under the current policies of the Biden administration they can flood over here.”
Ha added, “They’re getting paid $4-5000 a person to smuggle them into the country and… when they smuggle them in, the Biden administration releases them.”
Republicans have been criticizing the Biden administration over its handling of the influx of migrants at the border. This account of Cruz only turned up the heat.
According to the GOP party, Biden’s rapid reversal of Trump-era policies, such as the Migrant Protection Protocols, (MPP), as well as the decreasing number of deportation priorities have encouraged migrants to take the often-dangerous journey north.
Over 100,000 migrants attempted to illegally cross the southern border last month. The #BidenBorderCrisis is bigger than our border. It’s a national security issue.
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) March 18, 2021
In February alone, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered over 100,000 migrants and that number is anticipated to have increased in March.
At present, there are over 5,000 migrants in CBP custody and over 11,000 in Health and Human Services. The administration is also attempting to open more facilities in a rush to house them.
In addition to this, Republicans have also raised question as to how the Biden administration restricts media access to these facilities, stating that the lack of media access to facilities is a move that contributed to a number of lawmakers trying to make a journey to the border to see first hand the situation that is happening there.
Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted that the numbers of migrants crossing the border are “overwhelming”. He also predicted that the U.S. would encounter more migrants than it has in the past 20 years.
Yet President Biden does not say that it's a crisis. https://t.co/GkP0sYNkEV
— Mark Bednar (@MarkBednar) March 25, 2021
However, despite the evident surge of migrants and overcrowded facilities, the Biden administration declined to call the situation a crisis and rather referred to it as a “challenge” as it attempts to move to what it describes as a more “humane” system.
On Monday, Democratic Texas Representative Henry Cuellar gave the public a first glimpse of what the migrant centers looked like.
The photos painted chiling images of overcrowded migrant center in Donna, Texas where migrants can be seen housed in clear pens akin to cages. They are also seen sleeping on pads on the floor and only has aluminum blankets to keep them warm.
Photos from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary overflow facility in Donna, Texas, show the crowded conditions at the border as facilities not designed for long-term custody continue to fill up https://t.co/YKyyTBhVW7 pic.twitter.com/IHBsqwhLbJ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 22, 2021
Due to the restriction imposed by the Biden administration, one well-known photojournalist John Moore tweeted on Friday, “I have photographed CBP under Bush, Obama, and Trump but now – zero access is granted to media. These long-lens images taken from the Mexican side.”
The photographer added, “there’s no modern precedent for a full physical ban on media access to CBP border operations.”
Then on Thursday, during Biden’s first press conference since he took office in January, Biden downplayed the overwhelming surge of migrants at the border, stating that he made “no apologies” for reversing Trump-era programs that prevented it from happening, such as the MPP.
Biden noted, “It happens every single solitary year. There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of January, February, March.”
