Sen. Ted Cruz shared video footage of a reported Biden staffer blocking him from recording in a migrant facility in his home state of Texas.
“Please give dignity to the people. Please give dignity to the people. … Please respect the people, the rules,” the staffer told Cruz while standing directly in front of his camera.
The footage was shown exclusively on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox News show, Sunday Morning Futures.
“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 to her.
BORDER TOUR: SENATORS HECKLED BY ‘COYOTES,’ BIDEN OFFICIALS TRIED TO BLOCK PHOTOS
“Please don’t treat the people as such,” the staffer responded.
“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 was among a group of senators who visited the Donna migrant facility in Texas last week amid the crisis at the border. The Washington Examiner reported that a Biden aide had informed lawmakers to delete photos taken during the fact-finding tour.
“There was one of Biden’s representatives. I felt sorry for the lady because she actually talked to me about deleting a picture, but by the time she got to me, all those other pictures were taken, and that shows you the hypocrisy,” Indiana Sen. Mike Braun told the Washington Examiner of the trip.
Cruz also posted photos of inside the facility to Twitter on Friday, showing migrants crammed into makeshift rooms.
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
“The Donna facility where that video you just showed was taken, the Donna facility is this giant tent city that they’ve built. It’s massive. It’s designed to hold a thousand people, but under COVID restrictions its capacity is 250. It right now has over 4,000 people in it. It is at a 1,500% capacity, and that meant you saw in these cages children, little boys and little girls, side by side, they’re not 6-feet apart,” Cruz said told Bartiromo on Sunday.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Biden administration has continued to shy away from calling the situation on the border a “crisis,” opting for language such as it being a “challenge” instead.
“Children presenting at our border, who are fleeing violence, who are fleeing prosecution, who are fleeing terrible situations, is not a crisis,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last Monday.
Local leaders in states along the border, however, have slammed the new administration for the influx of migrants, demanding more transparency and the deployment of forces such as the National Guard to cope with the crisis.
“The Biden administration has been an abject failure when it comes to ensuring the safety of unaccompanied minors who cross our border,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently said. “President Biden’s refusal to address the border crisis is not only enabling criminal actors like human traffickers and smugglers, but it is exposing innocent, unaccompanied children to illness and potentially unsafe living conditions.”
