Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, was interviewed on Sunday Morning Futures and made an interesting statement about his recent visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. He said that a Biden administration official instructed the senators in the delegation led by Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to delete their photos. None of the Republican senators did.
Barrasso, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, described the situation in a detention center set up in Donna, Texas to shelter unaccompanied minors. He said the children were being packed “like sardines” in the facility.
“This is both a humanitarian crisis and a national security crisis,” Barrasso said during an interview on Fox News.
Barrasso said on “Sunday Morning Futures” that GOP senators were told by officials to delete photos they took of the facilities during a recent visit to the US-Mexico border.
“We were told to delete the pictures,” he said. “No one did. You’ve seen the video coming out of all of these kids crammed together under the foil blankets, huddling together.”
Unaccompanied minors, who have been flooding the border in recent weeks, are “crammed like sardines,” he added.
Perhaps it was the same Biden administration official that got in the face of Senator Cruz as he tried to film children in overcrowded holding spaces made with plexiglass walls. The Biden administration is trying hard to keep the humanitarian crisis on the southern border away from the eyes of Americans. Biden, you may remember, made a big show of talking about how transparent his administration will be yet his handling of the border crisis is in stark contrast to that pledge. The senator told show host Maria Bartiromo they are trying to hide them from the American public.
Senator Barrasso also addressed the public health threat posed by the flood of illegal migrants. US Customs and Border Protection officials only test the migrants when they leave their facilities for other government-run centers, not when they arrive. There is concern that this will produce a spike in coronavirus cases in border states and spread throughout the country to other states where they are being sent to ease overcrowding at the border.
“They do the instant test. And then those that have been tested positive are just kind of moved to one side of the courtyard, those negative to the other of this courtyard,” Barrasso said.
“They’ve all been exposed, and then they’re sent all across the country. You know, that is the real tragedy of this. And we’re not sure what variant of the of the coronavirus they’re carrying. They are carrying it, though, all around America.”
In March, the number of illegal migrants crossing over into the U.S. reached a 15 year high. The administration is scrambling to house them and that now includes moving them to military bases.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked the Department of Defense (DOD) to house more unaccompanied children who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in the midst of an influx in illegal immigration, said a spokesperson for the Pentagon.
“We have received a request for assistance from HHS for the potential use of Camp Roberts in California to house unaccompanied minors,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters on Thursday. “We are moving forward with analyzing that request for assistance right now.”
Camp Roberts is a California Army National Guard base in northern San Luis Obispo County.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Shiroma said that HHS wants to use an area of land on the base. This would be used to house migrant minors but it isn’t clear if a new facility will be built for them. It is supposed to be used as a temporary facility. This will be the third military base put into use to ease overcrowding at the border – Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and Fort Bliss in Texas are currently being used for the same reason.