Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said Wednesday that American taxpayer money is fueling the waves of migrants heading to the U.S. southern border.
While appearing on Newsmax’s “The Chris Salcedo Show” Gaetz explained to host Chris Salcedo how money is driving migrants to attempt to enter the country illegally and how, as a result, “the U.S. government may be one of the biggest human traffickers in the world.” (RELATED: Democratic Rep. Says He’s ‘Been Warning’ Biden Of Border Crisis, Human Trafficking And Cartels)
Salcedo began by saying that President Joe Biden is “finally speaking out” about the border crisis and “telling foreign nationals not to come here illegally.” He added that it took “slow Joe” awhile to try to stop “his illegal immigration crisis.” He then played a video clip of what he claimed Biden said “to cause this crisis.”
The clip, from a September 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate, showed Biden saying he wanted to “immediately surge through the border” everyone who was attempting to claim asylum in the U.S., and that if they were “fleeing oppression” then they “should come.”
After the video, Salcedo turned to Gaetz and asked if he agreed that Biden is repeating the same mistakes former President Barack Obama made and that the country is “paying the price” for it. He didn’t specify what specific “mistakes” from Obama he was citing.
“Absolutely, Joe Biden’s policies are open arms to illegal immigration, and the crisis we have at the border right now is like a gathering storm, and the flood is coming,” Gaetz responded. “What I can share with you, Chris, is that I’ve got intelligence directly from Northern Triangle countries that these cartels, these waves of illegal immigrants, they aren’t just being fueled by the organized crime in that part of the world, they’re also being funded by U.S. taxpayers.”
He went on to say that “U.S. taxpayer money flows through the State Department” and “USAID,” before it ends up “in the hands of NGOs that are advertising for, and facilitating, the caravans and movements of people into our country.”
“It’s sad to admit it, but the U.S. government may be one of the biggest human traffickers in the world, because even after we get these folks, the policies of Joe Biden have us just sending them all around the country under a catch and release policy that Donald Trump had reversed with great success,” Gaetz concluded.
Gaetz didn’t provide details of the specific intelligence he claimed to have possession of, or proof that taxpayer money was going to cartels and NGOs that help migrants come to the U.S.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department have been criticized in the past over where some American taxpayer dollars have been spent around the world, including funding for left wing activist George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. According to USAID, Mexico received just over $72 million in total funding in fiscal year 2020 for various projects.
