DONNA, Texas–Democrats and Republicans are back at the U.S.-Mexican border. Rep. Victoria Spartz said in an interview Wednesday morning, while traveling near Donna and McAllen, Texas, that the mission this time was to ride with the Border Patrol, and visit spots where people are coming across the Rio Grande, and also to determine what work Congress needs to do to slow down the large numbers of people who are coming into the country illegally.
LINK: Previous article on previous border visit
“This trip was a different part of the Judiciary Committee, where we actually went with the Border Patrol, and you need to see all parts of the situation to be able to figure out what to do with it,” she said.
LINK: Interview with Rep. Victoria Spartz
Spartz, a Republican representing the northern part of Indianapolis, to Grant County, was at the border last on March 28, but was visiting an area near El Paso. She said the Mexican government across the border from Donna, is not accepting anyone back.
“Actually every Mexican province has a different policy at different parts of the border and we’re at their mercy.”
Spartz said the Border Patrol is being forced to release entire families into the U.S., because they can only hold them for so long.
“The Biden administration terminated the MPP program (Migrant Protection Protocols), which, under Trump, would ask people to stay in Mexico before they get their day in court,” she said. “They didn’t replace it with anything.”
Spartz also pointed to reports that people on the Terrorism Watch List may have been caught at the border, coming into the country illegally.
“Whether common or not, there were people detained from the terrorism list. It doesn’t take too many of them to create harm.”
Spartz said her experiences on the border are informing her ideas about what Congress can do to help ease the situation. She said during her last visit they legal immigration should be made easier and that the U.S. should have a policy in place to help people apply for asylum while in their own countries, or countries next to their own.
“We need to have some mechanism or just be honest with the American people and say we’re opening the border. It’s the wild west. Everyone can come in,’ she said.
Spartz said she is also traveling with Democratic colleagues, because she does not believe the problem is political.
“I’m glad to see some of my Democratic colleagues are concerned. I went with Congresswoman Escobar (Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas), and she is concerned with what’s happening on the border. So, I hope there is going to be pressure on the administration to deal with it.”
Spartz will be back in DC next week, and promises she will be reaching out to the administration and Democratic colleagues to try to find solutions for what she says is justifiably being called a crisis on the border.
