Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz unloaded on President Joe Biden’s lack of action at the U.S.-Mexico border during a Senate hearing Wednesday.
Prominent Senate Republicans came forward calling for the southern border to be secured as illegal migrant apprehensions have reached a record-high since Biden assumed office in January 2021. Border officials have apprehended over 2.2 million illegal migrants in the 2023 fiscal year, which began in October 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Cruz said the U.S. is facing an “unmitigated” and “indefensible” crisis due to the policies of the Democratic Party during Wednesday’s press conference.
“Where’s Joe Biden? Where’s Kamala Harris? Where’s even a single Democrat senator? Where’s AOC, I assume she still has her white pantsuit. She just can’t be bothered to cry in front of the Biden cages, because with Trump no longer in the White House, suddenly the suffering of those kids doesn’t matter,” Cruz said. “You cannot see what is happening and defend it, and by the way, the reason Biden doesn’t go to the border, the reason Kamala Harris and other Democrats don’t go to the border, because if they did, y’all would follow it. The press would follow.”
“And their only defense, they cannot defend what they’re doing, their only defense is to cover it up,” the senator continued. “Karine Jean-Pierre stands at the White House podium and says, ‘people are not just walking across the border, it’s not happening.’ There’s a technical legal term for what that is, that’s called bullshit. It is an utter and complete lie. It is a deliberate lie. It is a known lie. And she is lying on behalf of the President of the United States in the White House.”
Cruz cited Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who warned that the migrant crisis is “destroying” the city. In the 2023 fiscal year alone, the city has spent over $1.5 billion on the migrant crisis and has converted hotels and other public places to shelter the approximate 100,000 migrants who have entered the city in the past year, Politico reported. (RELATED: ‘Democrats Do Not Give A Damn’: Ted Cruz Blasts Biden’s Border Crisis)
The Texas senator said the number of migrants in New York City is not comparable to the 7.6 million who have entered Texas and the border states. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing thousands of migrants to Democrat-led cities categorized as sanctuary cities, most notably New York City and Chicago.
“They can’t quite muster up the strength to put the blame where it lies, which is at the feet of Democrats who are doing this deliberately. Instead, Mayor Adams blames ‘that madman down in Texas,’ by which he means Greg Abbott,” Cruz said. “I have to admit I was kind of offended he wasn’t referring to me. But he blames Greg Abbott for putting a few thousand illegal immigrants on buses and sending them into New York City. The person who caused this crisis, his name is Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.”
He also criticized the lack of action taken by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who he said could not answer how 853 illegal migrants died crossing the border last year.
Cruz described the atrocities faced by minor boys and girls who are forced into sex slavery or illegal activity to pay off the Mexican drug cartels.
“This is human slavery, and it is caused by the Democrats not giving a damn about the people being abused and so I want to make a plea to the press,” he said. “The reason the Democrats can do this, can look the other way, is because they’re confident that the corporate media will not report on it. They’ll never have to answer questions about it, they’ll never be confronted with the dead bodies, with the people being brutalized by these policies. So I want to make a plea to you, if you’re not writing on it, if you’re not running stories on it, if you’re not telling what’s happening, you are complicit in modern day slavery.”
At the end of former President Donald Trump’s administration, border officials apprehended over 400,000 illegal migrants, according to the CBP. Apprehensions exceeded 1.7 million in the 2021 fiscal year, the beginning of the Biden administration.