Texas Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R) said in an interview this week that the Biden administration is acting as “logistical support” for drug cartels with its open border policies.
Van Duyne made the remarks in an interview with Fox News where she was asked about Biden’s border policies, as Title 42 was originally expected to end last week. And, while the crisis at the border is surging, President Biden and his family jetted off to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands for a “taxpayer-funded vacation,” according to RealClear Energy.
With the 118th Congress about to begin, Van Duyne said she hopes that Republicans will hold more hearings centered around illegal immigration as well as sending more lawmakers to the border to see the crisis firsthand.
“I’m hopeful that with the new Congress coming in on January 3rd, we’re going to actually start having some hearings and hearings where they count. You know, we'll start having people go down and have hearings in Brownsville and McAllen, because that’s going to be important,” Van Duyne said, adding that she hopes that Democrats who’ve never visited the border will go.
“Basically what you are seeing is the Biden administration is acting as logistical support for drug cartels. When you're giving people plane tickets and bus tickets to cities where you know that they are being used, they're being human-trafficked to be able to work on illegal marijuana farms such as, you know, the 600 that they found in Oregon, where they are basically being worked to death under threat of death or looking down the barrel of a gun, that’s happening in our country right now. And you have a president who would rather go on vacation,” Van Duyne explained.
With a Republican majority, we will hold hearings at the border to force the media and our Democrat colleagues to see first-hand the humanitarian and national security crisis that is only getting worse. pic.twitter.com/teaPnZv1eR
— Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (@RepBethVanDuyne) December 27, 2022
ABC News reported this month that illegal immigrants have been sent to work on cartel-run, illegal marijuana farms near Medford, Oregon. At one farm in particular, armed guards prevented the workers from leaving, a woman called “Alejandra” explained to the outlet. She did not give her real name to protect her identity.
ABC noted that drug cartels took advantage of the “limited oversight” of marijuana in Oregon after it became legalized for recreational use in 2015. Since then, unlicensed farms in the state have exploited illegal immigrants and forced them to “live and work in deplorable conditions.”
Last year, lawmakers in the state realized that the issue of illegal marijuana farms had gotten “out of control” and “[recognized] the cartels had infiltrated the industry and migrants were being trafficked to work in the fields.”
This week, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz tweeted that agents have seen a “drastic increase” in loaded firearms being carried by human smugglers. And, over the course of five days, Border Patrol caught 14 sex offenders, two gang members and one child abuser. When Title 42 is lifted, these numbers are expected to skyrocket.