Sen. Cruz on Fox News: ‘Congressional Democrats Stonewalled and Blocked the Funding to Deal With This Border Crisis’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today appeared on Fox News' America's Newsroom to highlight his recent visit to the Texas-Mexico border and the ongoing humanitarian crisis there. He also discussed his letter to Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan, urging him to establish a process to allow charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGO) to make charitable donations to individuals in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) custody.

Last week, Sen. Cruz toured the largest immigration processing center in the country, the Rio Grande Valley Centralized Processing Center. He highlighted the massive influx of illegal crossings happening along the border, including the over 144,000 apprehensions in May, and called on congressional Democrats to secure the border.

"Well, on Monday of last week I was down at the border, at the Rio Grande Valley. I have been down there many times and we have a full-blown crisis, I mean it is horrific," Sen. Cruz said to Fox News' Sandra Smith. "In the month of May, over 144,000 people were apprehended coming into this country illegally. It is a crisis. And what we are seeing in particular is more and more kids. Children who are being brutalized. They are being brutalized by human traffickers, they are being brutalized coming over. And the reason for the crisis is congressional Democrats, and in particular, the loopholes in the laws. I'll tell you one of the stunning things I heard down at the border last week. It used to be several years ago that of the adult males coming into this country roughly two percent had a child with them. You know what that number is today? Fifty percent of the adult males now have a child. I saw in one detention facility what they call ‘daddy daycare' because it is all these single adult males that have a little kid, and it's because Congress has screwed this up. The Democrats have put in place loopholes that say to a human trafficker and drug trafficker, ‘If you bring a child, if you grab a little boy, grab a little girl and bring them with you, that child is a get out of jail free card and you will get let go.' That is cruel, it is heartless, it is inhumane, and we need to end it."

Sen. Cruz also highlighted his call to DHS Acting Secretary McAleenan to establish a policy allowing donations to assist the border patrol with the influx of individuals, including children, detained by CBP.

"I have asked the DHS Secretary to implement a policy that they can receive donations," Sen. Cruz said. "They can receive donations from Americans in terms of diapers, in terms of supplies. Look, the reason that this became problematic is because congressional Democrats stonewalled and blocked the funding to deal with this border crisis, and it is simple common sense to say that if a local church, or charity, or citizens want to donate supplies and they are needed, the DHS ought to be able to accept it. I think there is enough flexibility in the law to allow that, so I am asking the secretary to implement a policy to do that."

When asked about the Supreme Court's ruling on the inclusion of a citizenship question in the census, Sen. Cruz described the addition as necessary in order to get an accurate count.

"The constitution gives to the federal government the responsibility to do a census every 10 years," Sen. Cruz said. "That census needs to be an accurate count, needs to count people who are in this country. And for virtually every census for over a century, it has included a question, ‘Are you a citizen or not?' You know, one of the problems as we are debating public policy is that a lot is unknown. So, for example, you see the figure that there are 11 to 12 million illegal aliens, you see that bandied around quite a bit. The truth of the matter is no one really knows whether that is 11, or 12 million, or 20 million, or a bigger number. So, it's important that the census get an accurate count, and it's basic common sense that you ask about citizenship as a part of that."

"As a legal matter, virtually every census for over a hundred years has asked that question," Sen. Cruz continued. "Bill Clinton asked the question whether there was citizenship. Barack Obama asked the question whether there was citizenship. And there are two different censuses that are done. There is the long-form census and the short-form census, and this dispute is about whether to include it on the short-form census as well, and as a legal matter, if you can do it on one, you can obviously do it on the other."

Sen. Cruz's full interview may be viewed here.

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