HOUSTON — Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas announced Wednesday he’ll visit the U.S.-Mexico border Friday with 17 other members of Congress.
"This crisis is unfolding and getting worse and worse and worse by the day,” said Sen. Cruz during a Wednesday afternoon press conference with eight other Republican senators on Capitol Hill.
The group plans to visit a migrant processing facility in Donna, Texas.
"The Donna facility has a capacity to hold 250 detainees,” said Sen. Cruz. “There are nearly 4,000 detainees in the Donna facility right now."
The senators discussed plans to join Border Patrol agents on midnight patrols. They also criticized the Biden administration for not allowing media on the trip.
"For four years, we heard Democrats go on and on about kids in cages,” said Sen. Cruz. “Well, Joe Biden desperately does not want you to see the Biden cages. His solution is to say, ‘No cameras, no TV cameras, no media.’"
The White House allowed one network pool TV camera Wednesday inside a federal shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas, for unaccompanied teenage migrants.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the administration is factoring in privacy concerns and pandemic precautions.
"We will look for ways to continue to increase transparency and provide additional access,” Psaki told reporters at a briefing Wednesday afternoon.
About an hour later, President Joe Biden announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the White House effort to handle the surge in migrant crossings at the southern border.
"There's no question that this is a challenging situation,” said Vice President Harris.
Vice President Harris vowed to enforce the law while also addressing the root causes of migration.
“I look forward to engaging in diplomacy with government, with private sector, with civil society and the leaders of each in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras,” said Vice President Harris.
FEMA has sent migrant teenage boys to emergency shelters in Dallas and Midland to ease overcrowding in facilities in South Texas.
As of Wednesday, the agency had not established any shelters in Houston.
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