Sen. Marsha Blackburn on Thursday questioned the accuracy of the data on the number of immigrants crossing the border, telling Newsmax it should be easy to gather.
"When they say, well, we had 208,000 in July and we have less than that in August, we have so many gotten aways. Are they giving us accurate date or not?" the Tennessee Republican said on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now."
"And again, with the Afghan refugees, those that are being vetted, looking at the numbers that are there. We are hearing that only 3 percent of our SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) holders were able to get on those planes that were leaving Afghanistan. And American citizens and SIV holders were the ones who were to be allowed on the planes."
There are also still many questions about whether the refugees allowed to the United States were adequately vetted, particularly after there have been arrests of two refugees in recent days, one having been arrested for raping a child and another for abusing his spouse.
"This is why the vetting is important," the senator said. "I have tried to get over to a vetting center in Germany or Italy last week, and they said, well, you can't go because there's a measles outbreak. We're still trying to set foot in this center so we can see firsthand exactly what it is that they are doing."
Blackburn also slammed Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. for her complaints that border patrol agents have been resorting to inhumane methods to corral the massive surge of migrants that illegally entered the U.S. in the last week, comparing their actions as being "worse than what we witnessed with slavery."
"What we would like to hear people talk about is the way the cartels are basically practicing modern-day slavery," said Blackburn. "They go into communities. We have people from 150 different countries that have come over, they have to pay the cartel fee. They have a wristband that is put on them. They have to work out their fee once they come here, and the women and the girls, the sex trafficking, the human trafficking the gangs. These are issues that we have been raising."
This all adds up to a "major crisis" for the Biden administration," said Blackburn.
"It's a human rights crisis," she said. "You hear about the COVID, the measles...the Border Patrol is bringing that home to their families."
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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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