Photo courtesy of Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s Office
As part of a group of 19 Republican Senators, Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith visited the southern border for briefings and tours Thursday and Friday.
The visit, led by Texas Senators Ted Cruz & John Cornyn, comes as statistics shared by the senator show that apprehensions of single adults at the border rose by 175% compared to February 2020, while unaccompanied alien children/single minors rose by 171%. The apprehension of family unit aliens also rose 170%.
Following a tour of the Donna Temporary Processing Facility in McAllen, Texas, Senator Hyde-Smith spoke at a press briefing to discuss what she observed.
“I’m a mother, I have a daughter. After visiting where these kids are being kept, that are close to my daughter’s age, the stories we are hearing are beyond horrifying, that’s happening to these young girls. We have a job to do. We’ve got to go back to D.C. Not only do we have to save this border, we’ve got to save this country,” she said.
Other stops included a visit to the inspection and arrival situations at the Pharr International Bridge, an outdoor temporary processing site, and the delegation took part in a public safety riverine tour on the Rio Grande. After arriving in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas on Thursday night, Border Patrol agents hosted the Senate delegation on a night operation tour of the border.
“We have talked to these border patrols and they have told us how overwhelmed they are, how over-capacitated they are. These guys have a hard job and they were just beginning to get a little relief before these policies changed,” Hyde-Smith said referring to the Biden Administration’s efforts to rollback Trump-era immigration policies.
Hyde-Smith serves on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the federal agencies dealing with enforcing U.S. immigration and border security laws. She also serves on the subcommittee that funds the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the agency responsible for handling unaccompanied minors who cross the border.
