Rep. Will Hurd Wednesday said the drowning of a migrant father and his daughter in the Rio Grande is "absolutely terrible," and noted that Border Patrol agents have had to do several rescues in the past few months.
"I was just in Eagle Pass this weekend, and the men and women on the Border Patrol there had to do 96 rescues in the last couple of months," the Texas Republican told CNN's "New Day." "That's a lot of rescues."
He said agents are seeing human smugglers "that are tossing children into the river" to get them to react.
"In some cases, these men and women on patrol have to go tell a family member that somebody else, that another family member drowned, and that's hard for those individuals," said Hurd. "So it's unimaginable to think about what are they leaving to take this perilous journey."
He said the dangers are another reason the root causes of the crisis, including the lack of economic opportunity, violence and extreme poverty in the northern triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras must be addressed.
The aid bill that passed in the House Tuesday does not address those issues, said Hurd.
"I think the State Department should have a senior diplomat involved in coordinating these three countries with Mexico," said Hurd. "This is a problem for the entire Western Hemisphere and the entire Western Hemisphere needs to get involved."
The Trump administration has cut aid to Central America, and Hurd said he disagrees, as solving the issues there would cost far less than it does when people come to the border.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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