Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, shared a pair of videos on Twitter late Thursday night showing what he found while visiting near the Rio Grande along the US-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas.
In the first video, Cruz stands next to a barbed wire fence that runs along the border as he points towards Mexico, noting that there are “over 22,000 illegal immigrants on the other side of the river”.
“Joe Biden, it’s your fault,” Cruz said in the video, chastising the president.
“People who are killed crossing illegally, it’s your fault,” he continued. “The sexually abused women who cross illegally, it’s your fault. The brutalized children who cross illegally, it’s your fault. The people who die of drug overdoses – more than 100,000 a year last – it’s your fault.”
MAYORKAS SAYS 24,000 BORDER AGENTS READY TO STOP MIGRANT OVERFLY AS TITLE 42 EXPIRES: ‘THE BORDER IS NOT OPEN’
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, among a group marching to a press conference on the situation of migrants on May 11, 2023, in Brownsville, Texas. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Cruz urged the president to take responsibility for the current border crisis, demanding that he visit the border so he could see the madness firsthand.
“Come here, President Biden. Stop hiding in the basement, stop pretending this misery isn’t your fault, stop it. It’s not human, it’s not compassionate. It’s cruel,” Cruz said.
“You can see the lights, you can see a fire,” Cruz explained. “If you look, they’re waiting for Title 42 to expire, and then the invasion that we’re going to see is going to be massive.”
He continued, “We already have the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country and in just a few hours it’s getting worse.”
Migrants look over a fence as they try to locate family members and friends who arrived at a processing center in Brownsville, Texas on May 11, 2023.
A Homeland Security Investigations Gang Unit officer stands near migrants after they got off a bus at a processing center May 11, 2023 in Brownsville, Texas. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
In a second video, Cruz walked along a road near the Rio Grande and said he found a sandal belonging to a girl who was “no more than 5 or 6 years old.”
FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FROM RELEASING MIGRANTS WITHOUT HEARING DATE AS TITLE 42 EXPIRES
“She might even be younger than that,” he continued, describing the current immigration situation as “horrible and cruel.” Cruz also said responsibility for the border crisis should rest entirely with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and “all Democrats in Congress.”
The video was shared on Twitter just 30 minutes before the Title 42 public health order expired at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 11.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a press conference May 11, 2023 in Brownsville, Texas. (Michael Gonzalez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a press conference on the situation of migrants May 11, 2023 in Brownsville, Texas. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
The Republican added, “Biden brought back catch and release, he halted construction of the wall, and he ended the stay-in-Mexico policy. Now Biden has let #Title42 expire!”
“There is a full-scale invasion unfolding, and Texas is paying the price,” Cruz added in a third tweet late Thursday, again blaming President Biden and the Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alexander Mayorkas.
MAYORKAS ISSUES NEW WARNING TO MIGRANTS AS BORDER PATROL MAKES RECORD APPREHENSIONS BEFORE END OF TITLE 42
Around the same time as Cruz’s stern reprimand, Sec. Mayorkas released his own statement saying the US-Mexico border remains secure and said Border Patrol agents will continue to deport migrants.
“The border is not open,” Mayorkas said in a video. “From tonight, people who arrive at the border without taking a legal route will be presumed ineligible for asylum.”
In this aerial photo taken May 11, 2023, National Guard trucks are parked near a road with clothing thrown away by migrants after crossing from Mexico, in Brownsville, Texas. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
In this aerial photo taken on May 11, 2023, people push a tank with migrants across the Rio Grande to the United States from Mexico, in Brownsville, Texas. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
He added: “We have 24,000 Border Patrol agents and officers on the southwestern border and have brought in thousands of soldiers and contractors, and over a thousand asylum officers to help to enforce our laws. Don’t believe the lies of the smugglers.”
AS MIGRANT WAVE HITS BORDER, MAYORKAS SAYS IT WILL ‘TAKE TIME’ FOR RESULTS OF TITLE 42 PLAN TO BE REALIZED
Immigration officials have been warning for weeks that the expiration of Title 42 Public Health Order, a COVID-era rule that allowed border officials to quickly remove migrants, would cause a wave of migrants at the border.
Customs and Border Protection officers met more than 10,000 people at the border on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, just before Title 42 expired, sources told Fox News.
In this aerial photo taken on May 11, 2023, clothes thrown away by migrants are seen on the US side of the border, opposite a migrant camp in Mexico, in Brownsville, Texas. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
On May 11, 2023, the United States will officially end its 40-month COVID-19 emergency, also rejecting Title 42, a tool that has been used to keep millions of migrants out of the country. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
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Each of them is the highest single-day record ever. Officials have predicted the border could see up to 14,000 migrants a day after Title 42 expires.
Congressional lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have criticized President Biden’s handling of border security between the United States and Mexico.
