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By Mark Truppner Published Mar 16, 2021 06:00 am
US Capitol View Photo
House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy held a press conference on the Texas border to discuss ‘Biden’s border crisis’.
McCarthy was Tuesday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. Here are his words:
“I want to thank every man and woman for the border patrol, for the exceptional job they’re doing and under extraordinary times. Their attitude, their work was exceptional. The security of our nation and our border is first and foremost the responsibility of our president. I came down here because I heard of the crisis. It’s more than a crisis, this is a human heartbreak. The sad part about all of this, it didn’t have to happen. This crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new administration. There’s no other way to claim it, then a Biden border crisis.
Every part of what we sat and talked to, we learned more of how it was created. Congressman Gimenez talked to a family from Honduras and asked, “How long have they been traveling?” 22 days, just in coincidence of the actions taken by President Biden of why people think they come here to break the law. We went through a new facility that was built just more than a year ago. They built it with the capacity they thought they could never meet, 1,040 people be processed. Today, broke that record today. Today, they’re beyond capacity. They’re having to build into the parking lot a makeshift facility. Even though the US Congress just passed a $1.9 trillion bill, not $1 in there to help them. It’s taken away the operation costs for the border to be protected. But for all these children, that are on a company that’s sitting in there, there’s 120 border agents that are now inside that unit that are not on the border protecting us when a surge is coming.
As we went up to Monument Three, speaking to the men and women on the front lines, they catch from a hundred to 200 people a night. As we talked to the medical units… And as I tell you, not as a member of Congress, but as a father of a son and a daughter, and you look in the eyes of these children, they came unaccompanied. They tell the story of a one, a three and a five-year-old holding their hands, walking up to an agent with no parents, no adults in sight, who brought them? When you talk to the medical units, talk about the percentage of that get trafficked, they get harmed along the way, who knows what dangerous and who doesn’t make it. All because the policies of our president has changed and told them something different, told them to risk their lives and broke families apart.
We were better as a nation than this. This is about the safety and security of our border, but it’s also about the opportunity that Americans want, and the prosperity. I know the president is going to travel this week. This is where he should bring Air Force One. This is where he should look the people in the eye. This is where he should talk to the border agents and let them know that this is beyond a crisis. He can continue to deny it, but the only way to solve it is to first admit what he has done. And if he will not reverse action, it’s going to take congressional action to do it. And that’s why we’re here, we want to find solutions.
Before we even came here, I sent a letter to the President to work together, to solve this problem. I thought maybe he would reach out. Maybe he’d set an appointment. He doesn’t even acknowledge a letter, let alone a crisis that his policy has created. So we will work together, across the aisle, within our own party, because we know the solutions that it will take. When you talk about what’s coming across, I just left a few border agents and I asked them, ” Who are the individuals you’re catching?” “Yeah, they’re from Central America.” But you know who else? Iran, Yemen, Sri Lanka. When I walked through the facility, there was more Haitians than any other nationality I saw. And why were they coming now? You asked the border agents, they were shocked themselves because they’re being released into the country.
When I talked to the doctor to see when they’re being tested for COVID, when they get out. More than 10% are testing positive, while you’re being stored together. In a time when the president will keep our country closed, when maybe we have hope for a 4th of July to get together just with our family, how much spread of COVID is he creating every single day by his policies along this border? It’s wrong, and it has to end and it needs to end now.”
The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
Written by Mark Truppner.
