Opinion

REPS MALLIOTAKIS, WAGNER And CAMMACK: Biden & Harris Cannot Ignore The Crisis They Created

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For decades, Democrats in our country have attempted to marginalize Republican women who dare support conservative policies and candidates, all to pass their radical left-wing policies. We have long known these smears are part and parcel of left-wing politicking, but recent events at our southern border have shed new light on this dangerous hypocrisy of the modern American left.

The three of us recently joined congressional delegations to the U.S.-Mexico border, where we witnessed the reality of the ongoing migrant crisis firsthand. Despite efforts by some to downplay this emergency, the most recent Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data indicate there have been over 170,000 illegal crossings at our southern border in the month of March alone, a 15-year high. This includes a record number of unaccompanied children who are being housed in our already overcrowded migrant holding facilities. The facility we visited, with a capacity of 250, is currently housing closer to 4,000 children. Some are fortunate enough to have family members with them; others find themselves alone.

The smugglers and cartels trafficking these migrants are making nearly half a billion dollars a month through their exploitative racket. They have sold minors into the sex trade and involuntary servitude. They have engaged in systematic abuse of women and girls making the perilous journey from Central America. By mid-summer, cartels will have smuggled more illegal immigrants across our southern border this year than there are citizens living in President Biden’s home state of Delaware and Vice President Harris’ home city of San Francisco. And aside from a handful of moderate southern border Democrats, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have turned a blind eye to this crisis.

Vice President Harris, who has been assigned the task of overseeing this issue, has yet to visit the border to see the situation for herself. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who cried about “children in cages,” is now nowhere to be found as children are crammed into pods during a global pandemic. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that all is on a “good path” at our southern border.

The reality, however, is that we are now witness to a full-blown humanitarian crisis — a crisis created by President Biden when he reversed Trump administration policies which stemmed the tide of illegal migration to and across our southern border. By repealing “Remain in Mexico,” reinstating “Catch and Release,” tying the hands of CBP and announcing to the world that our borders are now open, the Biden administration has created an unsustainable disaster for all involved. Migrants are being exploited and abused, Customs and Border Protection are being overrun and the American taxpayer is paying for it.

No one has benefited more from the Biden immigration policy than cartels and human traffickers. As CBP is reassigned to processing asylum applications and overseeing children in facilities, there are fewer agents available to monitor our now porous border. One Customs and Border Protection unit we visited has encountered 970 convicted felons, 63 gang members, 102 sex offenders, 20 AK-47s and thousands of pounds of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and meth. They made it clear that this was just what they were able to intercept.

We learned that smugglers will do almost anything to get CBP off their trail, once throwing a 6-month-old baby into the Rio Grande as they approached, knowing that agents would turn their attention to rescuing the infant.

What’s worse is that thousands of children are being trafficked across the border, smuggled in by cartel members and adults who aren’t parents or even relatives at all. During our trips all of us had similar experiences. Some of us met with several young girls, some as young as nine, who weren’t able to speak to CBP agents when they arrived at the border because their vocal cords gave out as they screamed for help during instances of gang rape prior to their arrival in the United States. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. Border protection officials told us they frequently take in young men and women who have been sexually assaulted during their journeys to our border. It has to end.

The greatest humanitarian crisis in our country this century is all-too-quietly unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border, and political motivations are muzzling left-wing public officials who might otherwise speak out. As Members of Congress, we refuse to remain silent on this issue. As women, we refuse to do nothing as a generation of children and women from more than 60 countries experience the terror of human trafficking, assault and violence as they travel across Mexico and attempt to enter the United States. As those elected to protect tax paying citizens, we will not stand for an immigration policy that harms the safety and wellbeing of Americans and migrants alike.

President Biden and Vice President Harris: Visit the border. Go see what we saw and hear what we heard. Anyone with a heart and mind can see that the only winners in this dangerous game are drug cartels, traffickers and abusers. For the sake of the women and immigrants you so often claim to represent, it’s time to put a stop to this crisis.

Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Ann Wagner and Kat Cammack all visited the Donna Migrant Facility in McAllen, TX, on two separate congressional delegations to McAllen, TX, in April. Their conversations, experiences and observations from their trips are detailed in this piece.