‘It’s a humanitarian crisis’: Rep. Rick Crawford tours border facilities in South Texas
‘It’s a humanitarian crisis’: Rep. Rick Crawford tours border facilities in South Texas
Written by Shelby Rose
Published by KATV
LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The U.S. continues to see a sharp increase in the number of migrants crossing the southern border, including a record number of unaccompanied minors. On Friday, members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation traveled to the border to see what’s going on for themselves.
Representative Rick Crawford toured three separate facilities in Brownsville, Donna, and McAllen, Texas. He said that he considers what he saw to be a humanitarian crisis.
Facilities meant for 250 people are currently housing 5,000, with many of them holding migrant children. Diseases like chickenpox, scabies, lice, and of course, COVID-19 are running rampant.
Crawford blames this increasing problem on the current administration. He and his colleagues urge both President Biden and Vice President Harris to do something about it. “Our folks here, border patrol, HHS, and FEMA are all doing everything they possibly can, but I think it’s not enough to be present,” he said. “You have to address the policy flaws, and look, regardless of what anyone thinks about the Trump administration, those policies that he implemented with regard to border security were working.”
He urges the president and vice president, who was recently named immigration czar, to come to the border, and see for themselves the problem at hand.
As far as the changes that need to be made, Crawford had a couple in mind. “We need to go back to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and others where most of the immigrant population emanates from and say, look, we need you to partner with us to curb this. And if you’re not going to do that, we’ll have to use the funding that we send your way to help improve your quality of life; we’ll have to redirect that funding to help us shore up our border.”
The other members of the Arkansas delegation present at the border included Representatives French Hill and Steve Womack.