WASHINGTON – Groups of lawmakers visited the U.S.-Mexico border Friday, as the Biden administration continues to come under fire by both Republican and Democrats for the influx of migrants at the southern border.
Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of Texas, led a group of more than a dozen Republican senators to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. That area is seeing some of the largest numbers of migrants crossing into the United States.
The lawmakers received a briefing by officials on the situation at the border, toured the Customs and Border Protection Facility in Donna, Texas, and took a boat tour in Mission, Texas. The group also received a nighttime border tour by the National Border Patrol Council in Mission on Thursday.
“John and I were able to bring 18 senators down to Texas, down to the Valley, to see firsthand the crisis that is unfolding here,” Cruz said in a press briefing Friday. “All of us today witnessed the ‘Biden cages.’ What is occurring here on the border is heartbreaking, and it is a tragedy.”
Separately, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D- Texas, and a group of Democratic House members toured the Carrizo Springs, Texas, temporary influx facility for children that is run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
“We want to find solutions for this situation,” Castro said during a press conference after touring the Carrizo Springs facility. “We want to figure out how this system can work better, so that it’s more humane, more respectful of people’s dignity, and ultimately achieves its goal which is to give people their day in court to be considered for asylum.”
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Republicans and Democrats have called the situation on the border a “crisis,” a term the White House has refused to use. President Joe Biden on Thursday said “a vast majority” of migrants coming to the U.S. are being sent back.
“If you take a look at the number of people who are coming, the vast majority, the overwhelming majority of people coming to the border and crossing are being sent back,” Biden said during a press conference. “Tens of thousands of people who are, who are over 18 years of age and single… have been sent back, sent home.”
An increased number of migrant children are being accepted into the United States, leading to overcrowding in short-term, jail-like facilities run by Customs and Border Protection, including in facilities in the Rio Grande Valley.
The footage was released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection as media has been denied access to border facilities.
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The Biden administration has struggled to move children quickly out of those facilities and into those run by Health and Human Services, like the facility in Carrizo Springs. By law, children are supposed to be moved out of CBP facilities within 72 hours.
Biden announced Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris is taking the lead in mitigating migration at the border by working with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
As of Thursday, Health and Human Services had 11,900 unaccompanied minors in its care, while another 5,156 children were in CBP custody.
The CBP facility in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, has been heavily criticized for overcrowding. In photos released earlier this week by the Biden administration, children could be seen sleeping on mats on the floor, with foil blankets.
No media has been allowed to visit the CBP facilities, with the administration citing COVID-19 restrictions. Cruz criticized the Biden administration in a letter earlier this week, saying requests for media access to the Donna CBP facility were ignored.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) stand aboard a Texas Department of Public Safety boat for a tour of part of the Rio Grande river on March 26, 2021 in Mission, Texas. The senators are part of a Senate delegation visiting the Texas-Mexican border. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images)
The senators who accompanied Cruz and Cornyn to the Rio Grande Valley, where they tooka boat tour in Mission, Texas, included:
- Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
- Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
- Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa
- Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine
- Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
- Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
- Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
- Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah
- Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
- Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.
- Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.
- Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska
- Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
- Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
- Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss.
- Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind.
- Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.
Many of the senators who visited the Donna facility shared videos and photos.
Lankford posted a video Friday morning from the Donna facility showing overcrowding, with children sitting or lying down with the foil blankets wrapped around them. The Biden administration has repeatedly said it istrying to quickly move children out of the facilities and noted that they are not made for children.
The White House says it's "working to finalize details" of a plan to allow press access to the southern border facilities where migrants are being held. Press secretary Jen Psaki again refused to call the migrant surge at the border a crisis. (March 22)
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