Ted Cruz on Biden's Border Crisis: I've 'Never Seen it Close to This Bad'
Republican senator says Biden's policies caused surge
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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Democrat Joe Biden has "caused the border crisis we are seeing right now" due to his removal of Trump's policies in his first week in office.
The Republican senator said the current crisis is "one example of the extreme partisan failure" of the Biden administration.
"Joe Biden made the strange choice to pivot hard left," he said.
"I think he is captive to AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders."
Biden axed a series of Trump's policies, including having asylum seekers remain in Mexico instead of the United States.
Biden's changes have resulted in massive record surges of migrants and unaccompanied minors at the border.
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Cruz said he witnessed a manmade "humanitarian disaster and crisis" during his trip to the border last week.
Cruz said, "this year, we have the worst illegal immigration in 20 years … and it occurred when Joe Biden became president, and it occurred because of decisions he made."
"I've been to the border many, many times over the past ten years, and I've never seen it even close to this bad," Cruz said.
"The numbers are through the roof, and it is the direct result of decisions Joe Biden made in his very first week as president."
The halting of the border wall and Biden's decision to reinstate "the failed ‘catch and release’ policy" has added to the problem.
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"That results in people being apprehended and given a court date sometime in the future and let go, and inevitably most of them never come back," Cruz said.
He then noted the "Remain in Mexico" international agreement.
The policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, involves migrants who arrive at the southern border and claim asylum.
In 2019 the Trump administration established the policy, which called for returning migrants to Mexico to await their hearings instead of being allowed into the United States.
"Last year, we had the lowest illegal immigration in 45 years, and on week one, Joe Biden ripped that agreement to pieces and caused the border crisis we’re seeing right now," Cruz said.
Earlier this week, Cruz accused Biden of intentionally trying to prevent the American people from seeing his administration’s “failures” amid the spiraling border crisis.
"This past Thursday and Friday, eighteen of my Senate colleagues and I visited the border and witnessed firsthand the staggering public health and humanitarian crisis caused by your policies,” Cruz wrote.
Cruz posted a video to social media on Sunday that allegedly showed a Biden administration official repeatedly trying to block him from taking pictures of migrants being crammed together in overcrowded facilities during a pandemic.
