In an appearance on Fox News on Monday, Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) stated that the U.S. border with Mexico is not controlled by the United States, it’s controlled by Mexican criminal organizations.
“We don’t control the southern border of the United States the way the law requires right now,” Bridenstine said. “But the transnational criminal organizations in northern Mexico, they control the southern border on the south side of the border. If you pay them enough money you get into our country.”
Bridenstine added that many illegal immigrants in the United States “remain illegal residents in perpetuity.” Additionally, the failure to secure the border places children in the hands of these dangerous criminal organizations.
“There are a lot of children there that have suffered on the trek to the United States of America. We’re talking about cases where people were abused… when you pay criminal organizations to transport children, you’re putting your children in harm’s way,” Bridenstine said. “If you don’t pay [criminal organizations] enough money your children could be subject to forced labor, forced prostitution, sold in the slave trade, and in many cases many cases death. There are mass graves in northern Mexico because somebody didn’t pay the right criminal organization.”
Bridenstine is also worried that there are too many abused children who come to the United States to meet up with family members who are also in the United States illegally.
“Those folks are paying coyotes and transnational criminal organizations in Mexico and other places to transport those children here,” Bridenstine told Fox. “That is where the suffering is occurring. When you pay criminal organizations to transport children, you’re putting your children in harm’s way.”
[h/t Breitbart]