SHOWS: DEL RIO, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 16, 2021) (OFFICE OF U.S. CONGRESSMAN TONY GONZALES (TX-23) - Broadcasters: NO RESALES / MUST ON SCREEN COURTESY OFFICE OF U.S. CONGRESSMAN TONY GONZALES (TX-23) Digital: NO RESALES / MUST ON SCREEN COURTESY OFFICE OF U.S. CONGRESSMAN TONY GONZALES (TX-23) )
1. VIDEO OF MIGRANTS TAKEN FROM INSIDE CAR (MUTE)
2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN TONY GONZALES OF TEXAS, SAYING:
"I represent 42 percent of the southern border. I've been to the border over and over and over again. I have hosted 30 members of Congress. This is as bad as I have ever seen it. There is no southern border, its pure chaos. Border patrol agents are doing everything they possibly can. God bless them for the work that they are doing to push back against it. But there's literally thousands of migrants that have come. And there's tens of thousands on the way. The latest reports I have there are 8,300 migrants waiting to be processed. -- not to mention those that are already being processed. This is as bad as it has ever been. It's as if there is a flash mob here in Del Rio this ends one way, a policy decision. This occurred because of a policy decision from the White House. And the only way that this goes away is by a policy decision by the White House."
3. WIDE STILL SHOT OF MIGRANTS BEHIND FENCE(MUTE)
4. WIDE STILL SHOT SHOWING CROWD OF MIGRANTS AND CLOTHING ON FENCE (MUTE)
5. WIDE STILL SHOT OF MIGRANTS STANDING UNDER BRIDGE (MUTE)
STORY: Haitians fleeing a country hammered by political turmoil and two natural disasters made up most of over 10,000 migrants sleeping on the ground and desperate for food in a squalid camp under a bridge in southern Texas on Friday (September 17), in a growing humanitarian and political challenge for U.S. President Joe Biden.
Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales, who visited the border, said in a released video: "There is no southern border, its pure chaos"
The Haitians were joined by Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans under the Del Rio International Bridge connecting Mexico to south Texas. They slept under light blankets. A few pitched small tents.
More migrants were expected after long and harrowing journeys through Mexico and Central and South America. Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border said most of the migrants were Haitians.
(Production: Deborah Lutterbeck)
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