Migrant mayhem at US border ‘nothing short of heartbreak’: Congressman

A US Congressman has expressed deep dismay at the situation of migrants, in particular unaccompanied children, at the US border, saying it is “nothing short of a heartbreak.”  

Tracey Mann, Republican representative from Kansas's 1st congressional district wrote on twitter that "migrant children have been traumatized and been taken advantage of by Mexican cartels."

He made the remarks after visiting the southern US border and the US Customs and Border Protection Facility in Donna, Texas.

“These cartels are making hundreds of millions of dollars every day by exploiting children. Under the Biden Administration, cartels are the winners, and innocent children are the losers,” Mann said.

US President Joe Biden is accused of inciting a chaotic migrant rush on the US border with Mexico after he vowed to unwind many of the immigration policies of his predecessor Donald Trump when he assumed office in January.

The Biden administration, however, opened detention centers, used by Trump, to lock up refugee children — a move the Democrat had criticized as former president’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.

Alarming images circulated on social media, showing packed border holding cells, where refugee children rested on side-by-side floor mats.

Republicans ripped Biden for undoing Trump’s policies, saying he created the border chaos with a "naive immigration stance."

Mann said that by the end of the year, a projected 2 million migrants will cross the southern border, adding that the daily average of unaccompanied minors crossing the border has nearly doubled since 2019, and “there is no end in sight.”

“Texas migrant facilities are over 700% capacity. The children are housed here until they are transferred into a long-term care facility. This transfer legally is supposed to occur 72 hours after being processed, but children reside there as long as 18 days.”

“After being processed, the children are separated into rooms meant to house 30 people, but instead, there are anywhere from 300 to 600 children at one time. Today, there are over 4,000 people being detained in the Donna facility,” Mann tweeted.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data released showed that border apprehensions in the United States increased by more than 70% in March.

According to preliminary CBP figures, more than 172,000 migrants were picked up along the US-Mexico border in March, the highest monthly total since 2006.

The Biden administration is now on pace to top the previous annual record set in 2019 of over 977,000 apprehensions.

The Republican Congressman said, “The heartbreak doesn’t stop at the Donna facility. Last week, (Texas) Gov. Abbott called on the federal government to close a facility housing migrant children in San Antonio, due to complaints of abuse, sexual assault, and COVID positive children not able to be isolated.”

US Border Patrol officials detained more than 11,000 unaccompanied migrant children between February 28 to March 20, a massive increase from the 5,600 children the agency apprehended in January.

Biden said recently his administration is “sending back the vast majority of the families that are coming.”

Last month, the Pentagon said it would hold thousands of the detained migrant children at two military facilities in Texas.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon approved a third military base in California to hold the migrant children.

Mann said “President Biden and VP Harris are doing nothing to stop the flow of illegal migrants crossing the border. We must end these disastrous policies; secure our border through a physical barrier, and patrol agents; and adhere to or modernize our country’s immigration system.”

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