GOP Senators Come Face to Face with Human Traffickers at Border - WATCH
Republicans see the reality of Joe Biden's border crisis
© press
A Republican Senate delegation to the border led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, encountered cartel members and human traffickers, who taunted law enforcement, as they saw the reality of Joe Biden's border crisis for themselves.
"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," Cruz said in a video.
WATCH:
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
"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," he said.
© press
The Biden administration is facing more and more criticism for the handling of the surge at the border.
Republicans say the reversals of Trump-era policies, such as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) have encouraged migrants to flock to the border.
Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins tweeted she was among the lawmakers who spent three hours with agents on the night shift.
"Border Patrol is overwhelmed, overworked, & discouraged by new policies," Collins tweeted.
"Agents took us through a dangerous path to the Rio Grande where we could hear the Cartel members taunting us across the river."
"Human trafficking, child abuse, & drug smuggling are rampant. This is a crisis."
Border Patrol is overwhelmed, overworked, & discouraged by new policies. Agents took us through a dangerous path to the Rio Grande where we could hear the Cartel members taunting us across the river. Human trafficking, child abuse, & drug smuggling are rampant. This is a crisis.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) March 26, 2021
Republicans also noted the strange lack of media access to facilities at the border.
© press
This month, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted numbers were "overwhelming" but refused to call it a crisis.
Biden downplayed the surgeon Thursday:
"It happens every single solitary year," he said about the numbers.
"There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of January, February, March."
According to border patrol sources, human trafficking cartels are taking advantage of Biden's border policies and raking in as much as $14 million a day.
Former Tucson Border Patrol Chief Roy Villareal said, "trafficking is a multibillion-dollar industry."
"A lot of these vulnerable populations use their life savings," he added.
"Some are essentially indentured servants, and they're working off this debt for a long period of time. In other cases, some of these migrants are asked to transport narcotics or some form of crime to work off a different part of their debt."
