Ted Cruz confronts DHS chief over 'Biden cages' for migrant kids



Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) grilled Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday with questions about migrant children being kept in what Cruz called "Biden cages" at the southern border.

Mayorkas told the senator he "respectfully" disagreed with his use of the term "cages" to describe the pens where hundreds of migrant teenagers were held at overcrowded immigration detention facilities in Texas earlier this year.

"Fine, you can disagree with it," Cruz said. "How many children have been in the Biden cages? I've been to the Biden cages, I've seen the Biden cages. How many children have you detained at the Donna [Texas] tent facility in the cages you built to hold kids? How many children have been in those cages?"

"I, respectfully, am not familiar with the term 'cages' and to what you are referring," Mayorkas said.

I\u2019ve been to the border and I\u2019ve seen the Biden cages.\n\nBut Secretary Mayorkas doesn\u2019t know how many \nchildren have been in the Biden cages.\n#BidenBorderCrisispic.twitter.com/0It5sGvWXc

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) 1637095660

"Enclosures in which they are locked in," Cruz said slowly. "In which I took photographs and put them out because you blocked the press and didn't want people to see the Biden cages. These secure facilities in which they are locked down in Donna, those facilities, how many children have been in them?"

Senate staff then held up a photograph of the migrant detention facility in Donna, Texas to support Cruz's claim. The photograph was taken in the spring and showed children confined in overcrowded conditions.

"Oh, by the way, here's a photograph of the Biden cages," Cruz said. "Children sleeping on floors, crushed in upon each other. When I took this photograph, the rate of COVID positivity was over 10 percent."

"That is precisely why I stated in March of this year that a Border Patrol station is no place for a child," Mayorkas said. But he could not provide Cruz with a specific answer on the number of children detained at that facility and he continued to insist that children were not being held in "cages."

Cruz then brought up the fact that President Joe Biden has not yet visited the southern border and criticized Democrats for failing to end the migrant crisis at the border. Mayorkas confirmed that neither Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris had visited the Donna facility.

"Has any Democratic member of this committee given a damn enough to see the children being locked up by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris because of your failed immigration policies?" Cruz demanded.

"Democrats have been down to the Donna facility," Mayorkas answered. "Whether they are members of this committee, I do not know."

New photos show another overcrowding situation at migrant detention center in Donna, Texas



Illegal immigrants detained by the Biden administration at a center in Donna, Texas, are being held in cramped, overcrowded holding cells, new photographs and video footage reveal.

The conditions are reminiscent of the crisis situation in March, when the Washington Post reported that the administration was detaining thousands of minors and unaccompanied children in cells for longer than was legally permissible. The detention facility in Donna is one of the places where migrants apprehended by Customs and Border Protection are processed before either being expelled from the country or released.

Images obtained by Fox News show migrants being held in overcrowded "pods" as they await processing. A Border Patrol source said there are currently 5,300 migrants in custody with 40-60 individuals being held in each pod. Each pod is only supposed to hold 10 people to comply with COVID-19 safety protocols.

NEW: @FoxNews has obtained exclusive new images from Border Patrol’s processing facility in Donna, TX, showing over… https://t.co/XIr7zrtqpZ

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) 1628279629.0

Video shows the cramped conditions as well:

Illegal immigration has surged again in recent months, overwhelming communities at the border and leading to calls from local officials for the Biden administration to send additional resources to handle the large number of border crossers.

Border Patrol agents encountered more than 200,000 migrants at the southern border in July, smashing records.

President Joe Biden's policy is that single adults and some migrant families apprehended by Border Patrol are to be expelled from the United States under Title 42 health protections to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. But according to Fox News, the administration faces difficulties because Mexico refuses to take back certain families with young children.

In some cases, families are released into the U.S. and told to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at their destination, though not everyone shows up.

Unaccompanied children are transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which currently is taking care of more than 14,000 children and teenagers who if possible will be released to parents or guardians who are already in the United States.

On Thursday alone, more than 800 children were apprehended at the border and 612 of them were released to HHS. "Overall, there was an 8% increase in UAC encounters between May and June, and a 25% increase of migrant family encounters," Fox News reports.

Many migrants are testing positive for COVID-19, creating concerns that the large volume of people being held together and then released into the country might contribute to the spread of the Delta variant.

Without a change in policy, there is no indication that the surge of illegal immigration will slow down.