Texas Border Business
HOUSTON, Texas – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today joined Fox News’ ‘America Reports’ with Sandra Smith and John Roberts to discuss his trip to the Rio Grande Valley to address the border crisis and President Biden’s lack of leadership. Highlights of his interview are below.
WATCH: Cruz on Fox Slams Pres. Biden: The President Is Directly Responsible for Creating the Border Crisis
On his trip to the border and the ongoing crisis caused by President Biden’s policies, Sen. Cruz said:
“I’ve been to the border many times over the past 10 years, and I’ve never seen it even close to this bad. The numbers are through the roof. […] It is the direct result of decisions Joe Biden made in his very first week as president. His first week as president, he made three critical decisions. Number one, he immediately halted construction of the border wall – that leaves huge holes where it wasn’t finished being built. And through those holes, we have illegal immigrants that are streaming every night. Number two, he reinstated the failed ‘catch and release’ policy 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. Number three, he ended the ‘Remain in Mexico’ international agreement. This was the most important of the three. President Trump had negotiated with the government of Mexico, an agreement that immigrants from Central America who crossed illegally through Mexico would remain in Mexico while their asylum cases were proceeding, and that worked. It produced results. Last year, we had the lowest illegal immigration in forty five years. And on week one, Joe Biden ripped that agreement in pieces and caused the border crisis.”
On President Biden’s lack of leadership or transparency during the border crisis, Sen. Cruz said:
“Nobody’s in charge. Joe Biden certainly doesn’t want to be in charge. He wants to wash his hands from it. So he appointed Kamala Harris to be in charge of the border, but she very quickly realized she didn’t want it because she didn’t have any answers. And so within a day or two, she either quit or was fired because the administration then announced it. […] The truth of the matter is nobody’s in charge. When I went last week, I brought 19 senators to the border. We went into that Donna facility. The Donna facility’s capacity with COVID restrictions is 250 people. It had over 4,000 people crammed in it. It was over 1,500 times capacity. And by the way, I asked then for the media to come in. Fox News wanted to embed with me. ABC News wanted to embed with us and go in and see. The Biden administration said, ‘No, no cameras, no media, no reporters.’ Thankfully, the attention that the 19 senators got – we filmed it, we took pictures. We put it out despite the Biden administration trying to silence us, trying to hide it from the American people. That pressure was so great that this week the Biden administration finally gave in and allowed media camerasin. But it was only after repeatedly refusing our requests and the public pressure becoming too much to bear.”
On President Biden’s hyper-partisan policies, Sen. Cruz said:
“The border is one example of the extreme partisan failure of this administration. There are many – Joe Biden made the strange choice to pivot hard left. I think he is captive to AOC, and Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders. The reason the border is unfolding – last year, we had the lowest illegal immigration in 45 years. We had policies that worked. This year, we have the worst illegal immigration in 20 years. That’s about as dramatic a shift as you can ask for. […] Today, AOC’s tweeting, ‘The answer to this is abolish ICE, just shut down ice altogether and have open borders.’ That’s the answer of the crazy left. And it’s why Biden and Kamala are trapped, because there is no solution that stops this wave of humanity, this suffering, as long as they take their marching orders from the radical left and they’re doing the same thing on this massive tax increase on small businesses that they just rolled out – they’re calling an infrastructure bill, but it’s a massive tax bill. They’re doing their same thing on the federal takeover of elections, the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act,’ all of it is being captive to the hard partisan left. That’s not what the American people want. We want solutions that actually work, and that’s not what Joe Biden is giving them.”
Read more about Sen. Cruz’s Congressional Delegation trip to the Rio Grande Valley and the crisis at the border here and here.
