ON U.S.-MEXICO BORDER TOUR, HYDE-SMITH SAYS LAX BIDEN POLICIES FUELING NATIONAL SECURITY, HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Says Mississippi, All States Affected by Historic Illegal Entries, Human & Drug Trafficking
VIDEO: Senator Hyde-Smith Comments on Findings from Time on U.S.-Mexico Border.
PHOTO: Senators Hyde-Smith, Blackburn and Britt Briefed at Border Wall near Eagle Pass, Texas.
PHOTO: Senator Hyde-Smith Briefed by Texas Department of Public Safety Officer.
PHOTO: Senator Hyde-Smith Listens to Victim of Human Trafficking.
PHOTO: Senators Hyde-Smith, Britt and Blackburn Hear from Ranchers Affected by Illegal Border Activity.
DEL RIO, Texas – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today affirmed that the Biden administration’s misguided border security and immigration policies are directly linked to historic illegal immigration rates, a surge of human trafficking cases, and a root cause of the skyrocketing drug overdose deaths among Americans.
Hyde-Smith on Tuesday concluded an all-female congressional delegation trip to the Del Rio Sector of the U.S.-Mexico Border that included briefings from federal, state, and local law enforcement and border security officials, a roundtable on human trafficking, and a visit to a privately-owned ranch overrun by illegal border activity.
“The saying ‘All States are Border States’ isn’t a talking point. It’s the truth. Mississippi and all states are affected by the lax and dangerous border security policies allowed by President Biden,” Hyde-Smith said. “Our border patrol officers and law enforcement are overwhelmed by illegal crossings, which represent a national security and humanitarian crisis.”
“The American people understand that something is very wrong when the drug cartels are delighted with the current administration as they make billions off trafficking women and girls, and flooding our country with fentanyl,” the Senator said. “Anyone can see that the border is not secure. This is a dangerous and heartbreaking travesty that must change, first and foremost by enforcing our existing laws.”
Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, joined U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) at the border. Key points from the congressional delegation tour:
- Briefed on Operation Lone Star from officials with the National Border Patrol Union, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Border Patrol, the Senators learned more about the escalating number of migrant encounters with federal, state, and local law enforcement—including a surging rate of “gotaway” immigrants on pace to exceed the 600,000 who slipped into the United States illegally and without processing in FY2022. The Senators’ first day ended with a late-night tour of the border in the Eagle Pass, Texas, area.
- The delegation toured the completed and incomplete portions of border wall early Tuesday, saw drug and human smuggling hot spots, and witnessed migrants crossing the Rio Grande below the Eagle Pass Port of Entry.
- A roundtable discussion on the human trafficking of females featured a victim and former Mexican Congresswoman Rosa Maria de la Garza, whose career includes targeting human trafficking and operating a rehabilitation shelter for trafficking victims.
- The Senators also viewed the Fire Fly Processing Facility, a temporary Customs and Border Protection (CBP) site that costs taxpayers $16 million a month to process migrants in border patrol custody. There are similar facilities in the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, El Paso, and Yuma Sectors. Processing the surge of illegal entrants is serving to divert CBP officers from border security, which plays a role in rising fentanyl smuggling into the United States.
- Finally, Hyde-Smith and her colleagues visited a working ranch near Uvalde, Texas, to visit with local ranchers whose lives and livelihoods are being harmed by the historically high rates of illegal immigration and drug trafficking since President Biden came to office.
The visit to the Del Rio Sector follows Hyde-Smith’s March 2021 visit to the Rio Grande Valley border region after President Biden began cancelling the successful border security policies set during the Trump administration.
###