[ad_1]
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday tweeted footage of what he said was smugglers shouting across the Rio Grande at members of Congress touring the US-Mexico border.
“That’s Mexico and you can see there are three smugglers right there standing on the Mexican side looking at us. They have been shining their flashlights at us, they are yelling at us,” Cruz said.
The nighttime shot was poorly lit and it wasn’t possible to clearly see the alleged smugglers.
A surge of migrants has crossed the border since President Biden took office, presenting the first major crisis of his presidency.
Many migrants tell reporters they are drawn by Biden’s promises to accept asylum seekers and reform immigration laws.
Another Republican who toured the border, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, wrote Friday on Twitter that “Mexican cartels control who crosses the border. A young mother from Guatemala, sitting on an aluminum blanket with her 1-year-old, told me she paid smugglers $6,000.”
Biden on Thursday denied that he’s culpable for the crisis, insisting the surge is seasonal, despite ABC News reporter Cecilia Vega noting that a detained 9-year-old’s mom said she sent him alone from Honduras due to Biden’s words.
The Biden administration has allowed all unaccompanied children who illegally cross the US-Mexico border to stay at least temporarily in the country, but says it expels all single adults and some families under a Trump-era COVID-19 policy.
However, an average of just 13 percent of nearly 13,000 members of families who tried to cross the border illegally were turned back to Mexico last week, according to a report — undermining the chorus from the Biden administration that most people crossing unlawfully are sent back.
[ad_2]
Source link
