'THESE ARE BIDEN CAGES'
Sen. Cruz’s outrage on Texas tour
Sen. Ted Cruz posted a disturbing video of severely overcrowded conditions at migrant detention centers near the US-Mexico border.
“These are the Biden cages. (Faces blurred.) Thousands of kids, in the midst of a pandemic, crammed in at 1500% capacity,” the Texas Republican tweeted along with the video of a facility in Donna, Texas. “This is just one of the ‘pods’ at Donna. There are SEVEN more, equally full.”
Cruz led a delegation of 18 GOP senators to inspect the border crisis and the conditions of migrants.
“We just saw a dead body floating on the Rio Grande coming by, someone who died crossing no doubt with a trafficker. This is inhumane what is going on,” Cruz said Friday at a news conference, where he was flanked by his fellow lawmakers.
“Joe Biden and the Biden administration have made decisions that are causing these people to suffer and to do this in a pandemic is particularly irresponsible.”
In recent weeks, the US-Mexico border has seen a surge of migrants from South and Central America, drawn by President Biden’s promises to accept asylum seekers and expectations that he will reform immigration rules.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is using a less stringent standard to vet those caring for thousands of unaccompanied minors in migrant facilities at the border.
Instead of subjecting caregivers to FBI fingerprint checks, which could reveal those using fake identities or changed names, the Health and Human Services Department is simply relying on public-record checks as it screens such workers, HHS said in a statement.
While FBI fingerprint tests rely on proprietary criminal databases, public-record tests are dependent on the subject providing accurate information.
HHS’s own inspector general has warned that the lower-grade tests would not be as effective at uncovering past sexual or criminal offenses.
“That’s placing the children under care of HHS in the path, potentially, of a sex offender,” Laura Nodolf, the district attorney for Midland, Texas, said. “They are putting these children in a position of becoming potential victims.” Midland is home to an HHS migrant facility that opened this month. Nodolf warned that without FBI checks, “we truly do not know who the individual is who is providing direct care.”
Weighing in Saturday night, former President Trump sat down with Judge Jeanine Pirro for an exclusive interview on Fox News.
Trump said that he will probably visit the border over the next few weeks.
Trump called Biden’s undoing of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, or the Migrant Protection Protocol, a “very bad decision.”
There are currently 18,000 child and teenage illegal migrants in custody in the US — a figure that is growing by the day.