The Biden administration on Tuesday denied a dozen Republican lawmakers access to a Texas border facility run by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The delegation of 12 GOP congressmen was physically restricted from entering the El Paso Intelligence Center during their visit to the southern border, Fox News reported.
For weeks, the lawmakers have tried to gain access to the facility but have been repeatedly rebuffed by Biden officials.
The GOP lawmakers, including Reps. Brian Babin, R-Texas, and Mike Garcia, R-Calif.,said it was their “constitutional duty to have oversight over these facilities that are paid for by taxpayer dollars” and slammed the administration for interfering.
“All I can say is, I don’t know what they have to hide,” Babin said.
“For some reason, we were not allowed in,” he continued. “I can only imagine what is it that they want to hide and not show the very representatives of the American people that have oversight over this facility that fund it and that authorize it. What don’t they want us to see?”
Garcia added the Republicans’ trip was not a surprise to Biden’s border officials.
“We’ve been trying to get in there for a couple of weeks and it’s coming from the top. It’s coming from the White House. They don’t want us to see what it is,” he argued.
“You can make a conjecture about why they won’t let us in there,” Garcia added. “In my opinion, they have data they are gathering at this intelligence center which clearly indicates that our open borders are actually a more serious than the average American understands right now.”
This isn’t the first time the Biden administration has denied access to its border facilities.
During the beginning of the border crisis, members of the media were routinely denied entry to the massive, newly reopened detention centers where unaccompanied children were being held.
Although the cage-like facilities were first established during the Barack Obama presidency, Democrats slammed the Trump administration early on for relying upon them.
However, the success of Trump’s policies, along with the political pressure, led to their closure until the Biden administration reignited the border crisis in January by reversing the immigration-enforcement efforts.
Biden officials then blamed the prior Republican administration for having left it without the adequate resources and infrastructure to deal with the self-inflicted disaster.
Leaked photos and videos of those facilities revealed that the Biden administration didn’t want the public to know about the crowded conditions in which these children were being held.
In addition to risking coronavirus exposure, the underage detainees also were reportedly subjected to widespread sexual and physical assaults.
Although the White House appears to have succeeded in tamping down the mainstream-media outrage over its lack of transparency, the unsanitary conditions in some of the facilities have seen little improvement.
This week, a report by Reason magazine revealed that more than 4,500 migrant children are being held in tents on a military base in Texas without access to basic necessities.
“They’re filthy. They’re dirty. There’s food on the floor. There’s wet spots all over the place. The beds are dirty,” one person who works inside the facility told the publication.
“I don’t know what’s going on or who’s responsible for ensuring that the dorms need to be clean, but we all need to be responsible for telling the minors to clean up after themselves,” added the whistleblower.
Another federal employee said that the Biden officials were depriving the captured children of their basic dignity.
“Many of the boys and girls have not been given underwear, particularly ones who’ve been in COVID isolation,” said the official.
“After they come out, they’re issued new clothes, but no underwear,” the person continued. “And very often it’s only one set of clothes, so no clothes to change into, and no underwear.”
Other federal employees familiar with the facility said several minors have attempted to escape by jumping the fence that surrounds the shelter.
