Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he was told by a Biden administration staffer that he could not record a video at a Border Patrol facility along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Please give dignity to the people. Please give dignity to the people. … Please respect the people, the rules,” the so-called staffer told Cruz while blocking the camera with her face, according to a video he showed Fox News.
“So you work for the commissioner, you’re a senior adviser, you were hired two weeks ago and you’re instructed to ask us to not have any pictures taken here because the political leadership at DHS does not want the American people to know it,” Cruz said in response to the official. She did not disclose her identity, and The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment.
The staffer then told him: “Please don’t treat the people as such,” to which Cruz responded that “your policies are unfortunately trying to hide them.”
“I understand that you were instructed,” Cruz said. “I respect them, and I want to fix this situation, and the administration that you work for is responsible for these conditions.”
Cruz and more than a dozen Republican senators went to the border last week, with many describing overcrowded and severe conditions in facilities used to hold unaccompanied minors—children who unlawfully enter the country without an adult.
These are the pictures the Biden administration doesn’t want the American people to see. This is why they won’t allow the press.
This is the CBP facility in Donna, Texas.
This is a humanitarian and a public health crisis. pic.twitter.com/UlibmvAeGN
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 26, 2021
In recent weeks, Republicans have blamed President Joe Biden’s administration for the surge in illegal immigration, although Biden in a press conference said such surges are routine and blamed the previous administration for the humanitarian conditions on the border.
The senator also posted photos that the “Biden administration doesn’t want the American people to see,” according to a tweet that included images of a crowded illegal immigrant facility in Donna, Texas—near the border.
“This is why they won’t allow the press. This is the CBP facility in Donna, Texas. This is a humanitarian and a public health crisis,” Cruz tweeted.
Journalists will be eventually allowed to go to the border to film Border Patrol facilities after they have been largely denied access, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki in a Sunday interview.
Some Democrats whose districts lie on the border have said Biden needs to take action immediately to deal with the situation.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) told CBS News on Sunday that numerous family units who crossed the border illegally have been released into the United States without a notice to appear in court.
“They’re supposed to appear, show up, maybe in 60 days, report to an ICE office,” he said. “This is unprecedented.”
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