Republican lawmakers are slamming President Biden’s handling of immigration at the southern border and arguing that his policies are aiding child sex traffickers.
“Human trafficking, my friends, is slavery,” Rep. Burgess Owens told reporters on Wednesday, adding that “30% of the women and girls coming through this [migration] process are going to be raped.”
SMUGGLERS PUSH TRIPLE-DIGIT GROUPS OF FAMILIES AND CHILDREN ACROSS BORDER, THREATENING BIDEN AGENDA
“President Biden should be ashamed of himself,” Owens continued. “Ashamed. This was preventable. There are people suffering, going through misery because they were given false hope.”
Rep. Maria Salazar, a Republican from Florida, spoke to reporters in Spanish, agreeing with Owens’s assessment.
“Unfortunately, once again, we have a crisis at the border,” she said. “Our Hispanic community is being used on the one hand by human traffickers, drug cartels, and coyotes who create false hope for immigrants who want to reach the United States. On the other hand, we have the Washington politicians … who play with our community’s hopes to stay in power and win votes.”
“We are, in essence, funding sex trafficking,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart added while making the case, in Spanish, that the Biden administration is lining the pockets of smugglers and coyotes at the border by making life easier on them.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was also present at the press conference and said, “Biden has lost control of the border.”
Biden has been widely panned by conservatives over a significant surge in illegal immigration since the beginning of the year that his administration has denied is a crisis.
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A total of 14,000 unaccompanied minors are reportedly being held in U.S. migrant detention centers, and Republicans have been arguing for weeks that the Biden administration is putting them in danger by swiftly releasing them to adult sponsors.
It has been estimated that as many as 80% of women and children who cross into the U.S. illegally are raped during the journey.
