Rep. Tim McClintock, R-Calif., says the facilities where illegal migrant children are being held in McAllen, Texas look like “cattle pens,” and that border patrol agents replaced chain link with plastic sheeting.
“They forbade us from taking any pictures but smuggled pictures have already leaked out,” McClintock said Wednesday during an appearance on Newsmax TV’s “American Agenda” following his two-day visit to McAllen, Texas, with the House Judiciary Committee.
“They are cattle pens, they replaced the chain-link with plastic sheeting, and I can’t think of a more perfect viral incubator than taking 500 children in a space meant for about 30 and leaving them there for days on end in a humid, plastic enclosed environment. It is shocking.
The administration’s response is not let’s go back to the policies that prevented these children from being dragged up here 2,000 miles, what they’re simply doing now is trying to process them through as quickly as possible.”
McClintock also said Health and Human Services sent out a memo requesting 60,000 more beds for minors.
“Those minors only stay in those beds for about 24 days at a time, so that means if you do the math, they’re expecting over 900,000 illegal minors to be moved into this country this year,” he said.
“This is a mass migration of historic purposes; no civilization has survived such a mass migration and we’re watching it unfold before our eyes with the active encouragement of our administration.”
Border facilities are grossly overcrowded, a problem the Biden administration is scrambling to fix – the president last week called conditions at McAllen “unacceptable.”
“Is — that’s a serious question, right?” he asked a reporter who questioned whether kids sleeping on floors and packed into pods was acceptable.
“Is it acceptable to me? Come on. That’s why we’re going to be moving a thousand of those kids out quickly,” the president said.
“That’s why I got Fort Bliss opened up. That’s why I’ve been working from the moment this started to happen to try to find additional access for children to be able to safely — not just children, but particularly children — to be able to safely be housed while we follow through on the rest of what’s happening.”
The number of illegal crossings at the southern border skyrocketed in March to more than 171,000, the highest levels in at least 15 years, according to preliminary data reported by The Washington Post.
The U.S. is on track to receive a record 2 million migrants or more this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.
The last time apprehensions by U.S. Border Patrol surpassed 1 million was in fiscal year 2006, according to publicly available data from Customs and Border Protection.
Note: See Newsmax TV now carried in more than 100 million U.S. homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Frontier Ch. 115, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, Mediacom Ch. 277, AT&T TV Ch 349, and major OTT platforms like Roku, Youtube, Xumo, Pluto and most smart TV’s including Samsung+, Sony, LG, Vizion and more – Find All Systems that Carry Newsmax – Click Here
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.