Republicans turn up heat on Biden after border tour he 'doesn’t want the American people to see'

“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,” Cruz said in a tweet.

Among those who took part in the tour were Sens. Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, Tom Cotton, Mike Braun, and Thom Tillis.

SMUGGLERS EMBEDDING CRIMINALS WITH FAMILIES TO CROSS BORDER, TEXAS TROOPERS SAY

“Why are 18 senators here? Because it’s the biggest issue facing the country in many ways right now,” said Graham, who criticized President Joe Biden’s Thursday press conference during which he said his administration would aim to make 5,000 beds available at the southern border this week.

“This was a nightmare press conference,” the South Carolina Republican said. “He told everybody, ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got crowded facilities. We’re going to build 5,000 more beds in Texas and a military base.’ So, how does that play in Central America? They’re going to expand the number of people they can take.”

Last month, the U.S. Border Patrol encountered almost 100,000 people who attempted to cross the southern border to enter the United States illegally, including 10,000 children without parents and 20,000 families. Sixty percent of the families encountered last month were not returned to Mexico, according to federal data.

Cornyn said the first priority for Congress should be to end the “catch and release” policy, which refers to letting a migrant go free as he or she awaits a hearing in immigration court, rather than holding him or her in a detention facility.

“The Border Patrol and Health and Human Services and the nongovernmental organizations that are struggling to deal with this flood of humanity tell us they cannot get ahead of this without policy changes in Washington, D.C.,” the Texas Republican said during the press conference.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, lamented the limited access people have in the north to cross into the U.S. from Canada, a problem he said that has exacerbated the economic hit COVID-19 took on his state.

“We have an upside-down border policy in America,” Sullivan said. “My state is facing an economic catastrophe. People want to come, travel there, even after being vaccinated, and we have that border closed. What we need is the opposite. A closed border here for the time being and an open border on the northern border.”

The press was not allowed to take footage at border facilities under the Biden administration’s current media blackout on the southern border.

The Republicans’ trip came the same day a group of Democratic House lawmakers, including Reps. Joaquin Castro and Ilhan Omar, visited Carrizo Springs, Texas.

Democrats went to a facility being operated by HHS, which provides temporary care for unaccompanied minors who crossed the border. Rather than border security, Democrats at the facility focused on the treatment given to children as well as working out a plan to reunite children with their families.

Omar, who herself came to the U.S. from a refugee camp in East Africa, defended GOP-driven attacks on Biden’s handling of the border, saying he wasn’t at fault for the surge in migration.

“I know that people living in these conditions are not turning on the news to see whose president,” Omar said during a press conference. “What will they be met with when they come to the border? They are thinking about what it takes to survive.”

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Cotton expressed a different view, urging Biden to do more to discourage people from entering the country illegally.

“The madness needs to stop, and there’s only one way to stop it,” the Arkansas Republican said. “It’s for Joe Biden to say, ‘Do not leave your home, do not come to our country. If you do, you will not get in, and we will send you home.'”