President Joe Biden's reversal of former President Donald Trump's border policies has created multiple crises, from children packed into facilities to health concerns to national security issues, Rep. Van Taylor, R-Texas, tells Newsmax TV.
"What I saw is really heartbreaking," Taylor said Tuesday on "The Chris Salcedo Show." "Literally thousands of children, all males between ages of 13 and 17 in the facility that was empty one week ago and is designed to have 2,300 children and will actually be full."
The Biden administration's "reckless" policy, he said, has created an open border crisis. "And it's not just a humanitarian crisis. ... I saw the human impact of that this morning, but It's also a healthcare crisis. … We've got real problems dealing with COVID."
Biden has created peril for national security, Taylor added, saying that Mexican cartels are taking advantage of the fact that immigration officials are spread thin, so they are exploiting the situation to smuggle in drugs and engage in human trafficking along the border.
Responding to Vice President Kamala Harris' laughing and saying, "Not today," when asked by reporters if she plans to tour the southern border to assess the situation, Taylor told Salcedo, "You've got to be callous to not see the pain and suffering."
The Biden administration "probably thought it was cute" to simply reverse all Trump's policies on Day One in the White House, and assumed everything would be smooth sailing. The old policies obviously were bad, they figured, because "Trump did it."
"But you know, there's a real human cost here and there's a financial cost to the taxpayer," he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's idea that the Biden administration has the sitution under control, Taylor said, is "laughable. They're just there is not opening their eyes. I mean, you've got to be willfully blind to not see the humanitarian, healthcare and national security crisis on our southern border that was created."
Trump's policies were working and could have just been left alone, he said. "I mean, all you have to do is nothing."
Trump worked "very hard" and without the help of Congress to forge international agreements to get control of the southern border following serious problems in 2019, the congressman said. "And as soon as Biden got in office, he got rid of those exact same policies."
"There are so many victims in this story, and it was really, really heartbreaking to see how the children are being treated."
Reports from Republican members of Congress who have toured the facilities include children being housed in such close proximity that they are forced to stand, and are not allowed to socially distance to meet COVID protocols.
"They're literally putting them a few feet from each other," Taylor said. "Twenty-three hundred in one room."
Space already has been exhausted multiple times, and more is having to be built, Taylor added. Further, he said, there is a danger of running short on staff to run the facilities.
"We only have so many female resource officers, and they're throwing tremendous amounts of money and resources at it, he said.
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