Sen. Cruz on Biden Border Crisis: ‘This is a Dereliction of Duty,’ ‘Every Month it’s Getting Worse Because They’re Not Fixing it’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today joined Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, City of Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls, and National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd in urging President Biden to address the current humanitarian crisis at our southern border and end the radical immigration policies that created it. Read excerpts of Sen. Cruz's remarks at the press conference below.

"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have produced an absolute disaster on our southern border. The crisis that is unfolding is a humanitarian crisis, it is a public health crisis, and it is a national security crisis. Just over a month ago, I led a group of 19 senators to go to our southern border. Representing Texas, I've been to our southern border many, many times in the Rio Grande Valley. This was by far the worst I've ever seen it. Masses crossing illegally, a caravan, one after the other, after the other, and all of this is made.

"We saw facilities that were packed at over 1,700 percent their capacity in the midst of a global pandemic. With a 10 percent COVID positivity rate. And the Donna tent facility where kids were lined up in the Biden cages. For four years, the press talked incessantly about kids in cages, and what was never reported is that Barack Obama built the cages and Joe Biden is building more cages, they're bigger cages, and they're more full. In those Biden cages, we saw little boys and little girls not six feet apart, as you would want during a pandemic, not three feet apart, not even three inches apart - lying on the floor, side by side, no beds, no mats, no cots. Packed in as tight as they can be, wrapped in emergency reflective materials. Over 10 percent COVID positivity."

[...]

"The Trump administration allowed the press in. The Obama administration allowed the press in. The Clinton administration did. The Bush administration did, but not Joe Biden. Joe Biden wants the world to cover up and hide this crisis that he has created. So the 19 senators, we pulled out our cell phones and we filmed and took pictures, the Biden administration sent a political minder from Washington, D.C., who jumped in front of the camera and screamed at senators, do not show these images to the American people.

"All of this is man-made, the result of three decisions Joe Biden made. Halting construction of the wall on week one in office, reinstating the failed policy of catch-and-release, and most indefensibly, ending, ripping up the international agreement, ‘Remain in Mexico,' that had produced last year the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years. ‘Remain in Mexico' was an incredible success. So what did Joe Biden do? Ripped it up.

"We have right now today the worst illegal immigration in 20 years - 178,000 people came in last month, the month of April. We're on a path to two million people, and it's getting worse. This month is worse than last month, last month was worse than the month before. Every month it's getting worse because they're not fixing it. But as it's getting worse and worse, the corporate media has stopped covering it."

[...]

"In over 100 days in office, Joe Biden has not been to our southern border. Biden named Kamala Harris as in charge of the border. She has not been to the southern border once as vice president. I would say to the folks in the media, any time you're standing in front of the president or vice president, the very first question should be, ‘Why haven't you gone to the southern border to see the crisis, to see the little boys and little girls being physically abused, sexually abused because of your policy failures?' And by the way, the reason they don't go, there's an answer to this. They know if they go, they'll bring TV cameras. They know if they go, the press will be forced to cover it. Kamala Harris has been to the Canadian border as vice president, but not the southern border. The last I checked, we don't have a crisis of thousands of Canucks coming south across the border.

"This is a dereliction of duty. It is deliberate and they don't intend to fix it. They don't intend to fix it because they have promised the radicals they will have open borders and they will not enforce our laws. That is endangering the people of my home state of Texas. It's endangering people all across the country. It is unacceptable. It is inhumane. And it's wrong."

###