After returning from a two-day trip to the southern border, a group of House Republicans described the humanitarian crisis at the southern border as “disturbing” and slammed President Joe Biden for turning the entire country into a “sanctuary nation.”
The trip, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, included several Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee.
House Democrats were invited but did not go, Jordan said.
“In all my years in Congress, this has been the most disturbing field tour that I’ve ever taken,” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, we watched literally hundreds of illegal migrants crossing the border and turning themselves in to the Border Patrol,” he continued. “Groups who were in the company of children under seven had their basic biometric information taken down, and then [they were] dispatched to bus stations to continue into the United States.”
The situation is “getting worse by the day” as thousands of illegal immigrants cross the border every week and Mexican drug cartels net roughly $500 million per month through human trafficking, the Republicans said.
“One-hundred family units illegally crossed the border the week of the election,” McClintock added. “By the week of the inauguration, the number increased to 1,100 family units. It reached 15,000 the weekend of March 24.”
“We are feeding the Mexican crime cartels,” McClintock said. “The crime cartels are taking in roughly a half a billion dollars a month through this human trafficking network.”
Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, recalled speaking with sobbing children and a young woman who couldn’t talk because of the trauma following a horrific sexual assault.
Jordan likened the situation to a “catastrophe,” and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said it was “horrific to see.”
The House Republicans blamed Biden for repealing several of the Trump administration’s key immigration policies, including the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced immigrants to remain in Mexico while they awaited a court hearing in the U.S.
The result, said McClintock, is that “our entire country is now a sanctuary nation.”
