A group of Republican senators on Friday visited the Rio Grande Valley—the busiest corridor for illegal crossings—and toured a holding facility, releasing graphic images of children packed into what Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called “cages.”
Cruz, who along with 18 of his Senate colleagues took part in a congressional delegation that toured the border area, shared a video from a facility in Donna, Texas. It showed children who had made their way into the United States illegally, packed inside a holding facility.
The Texas Republican described the scene as “footage of the Biden Cages” and blamed President Joe Biden for the increasing number of illegal immigrants coming into the country.
Footage of the Biden Cages inside the Donna, Texas DHS facility where kids are packed inside.
What the Biden administration is doing is inhumane and unconscionable. But worst of all, it was preventable. pic.twitter.com/Z1vf3hLyTR
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 26, 2021
“This is inhumane, it is wrong, and it is the direct consequence of policy decisions by the Biden administration to stop building the wall, to return to catch-and-release, and to end the stay-in-Mexico policy,” Cruz said at a press conference.
At the presser, Cruz complained that the Biden administration hasn’t allowed media inside the Donna facility.
“We requested that media accompany us in the facility. The Biden administration said no,” Cruz said.
He later shared a series of graphic images from Donna, writing on Twitter that “these are the pictures the Biden administration doesn’t want the American people to see.”
These are the pictures the Biden administration doesn’t want the American people to see. This is why they won’t allow the press.
This is the CBP facility in Donna, Texas.
This is a humanitarian and a public health crisis. pic.twitter.com/UlibmvAeGN
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 26, 2021
The Biden administration has sought to control media depictions of how people in U.S. custody are being treated, and how that compares to what was done in the Trump years. News organizations say they have repeatedly sought access to holding facilities and been blocked.
Biden has pointed to the need to establish safeguards for COVID-19 transmission and protecting the privacy of children as they work to set up their system for processing immigrants.
“I will commit to transparency, as soon as I am in the position to implement what we are doing,” the president said at a news conference Thursday. When pressed on how long it would take for that to happen, Biden said he didn’t know, but added, “you’ll have full access to everything once we get this thing moving.”
Biden also pushed back against claims his policies are responsible for the border surge, which has seen over 100,000 encounters between illegal immigrants and border agents in February, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics. This is the highest number since a May 2019 spike of just over 144,000 illegal crossings.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), one of the senators who was part of the 19-strong congressional delegation visiting the border area, shared photos and footage of illegal immigrants being housed under a bridge, saying that the situation is even worse than he expected.
“Sadly it’s worse than imagined, to the point where @CBP has been forced to house migrants under a bridge,” he wrote in a tweet.
Sadly it’s worse than imagined, to the point where @CBP has been forced to house migrants under a bridge. https://t.co/vkr86cB20e pic.twitter.com/56tfVF44Pe
— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) March 26, 2021
Biden, at Thursday’s press conference, sought to portray the border surge as a seasonal spike and not, as critics have said, a result of decisions such as halting construction of border wall projects started under former President Donald Trump, or his support for immigration reform that would, if it clears the divided Senate, give a pathway to citizenship for millions of people living in the United States illegally.
“It happens every year,” Biden said of the surge in illegal border crossings. “Does anybody suggest that there was a 31 percent increase under Trump because he was a nice guy and he was doing good things at the border? That’s not the reason they’re coming.”
“It’s because of earthquakes, floods. It’s because of lack of food. It’s because of gang violence. It’s because of a whole range of things,” Biden said.
A reporter at the press conference asked Biden about the children detained at the facility in Donna, saying it’s at over 1,500 percent capacity, filled mostly with unaccompanied minors.
“There are kids that are sleeping on floors. They are packed into these pods. I’ve spoken to lawyers who say that they—some of these children have not seen the sun in days,” the reporter asked. “What is your reaction to these images that have come out from that particular facility?”
“That is totally unacceptable,” Biden said, adding that there are plans “to be moving a thousand of those kids out quickly.”
Tillis, in a separate tweet, shared a photo of young children housed inside the Donna facility, captioning it: “Here are babies handed over by smugglers. Babies.”
Here are babies handed over by smugglers. Babies. pic.twitter.com/bECBwBvwvd
— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) March 26, 2021
Biden said that his administration is continuing to quickly expel most adults and families under a public health order imposed at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. The difference is that the government is allowing teens and children, at least temporarily, to stay in the country.
The situation along the U.S.-Mexico border has become an early challenge for the administration, drawing more questions than any other subject at the press conference.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times