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Biden Official Asked GOP Senators To Delete Photos Of Border Facilities — Ted Cruz Says ‘Let Media In’ So America Can See Admins ‘Failures’

By • March 29, 2021 1:58 pm

Senator Mike Braun (Indiana) told media outlets that an alleged official of President Joe Biden asked GOP senators to delete photos they took at the border facilities when they paid a visit to check on the situation there last Friday after it recorded a 700% capacity due to the unprecedented surge in migrants the past weeks.

“There was one of [Joe] Biden’s representatives. I felt sorry for the lady because she actually talked to me about deleting a picture, but by the time she got to me, all those other pictures were taken, and that shows you the hypocrisy,” Braun said of a migrant facility that they visited in Donna, Texas. 

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“None of us would have gone down there if we were going to be muzzled,” Braun said, noting that Border Patrol officers also told Republican lawmakers that no photos were to be taken, but that “they were telling us that because they had to.”

Senator Braun along with 18 of his other GOP colleagues, including Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) inspected the migrant processing and holding center last week.

Cruz urge Biden to allow media in border facilities

Senator Cruz shared a video of the Biden official repeatedly trying to block him from taking pictures and documenting the situation at the facility they visited.

“When I took pictures to show the American people the conditions at the Donna facility (after blurring all faces to protect the privacy of the individuals held there), a political appointee sent by your administration jumped in front of my camera to try to stop me from doing my job. She threatened another senator that if he did not delete his pictures, the entire delegation would be kicked out and prevented from conducting our constitutional oversight role,” Cruz said.

Nonetheless, he was able to share some photos where migrants were being crammed together in overcrowded facilities at a time when the coronavirus pandemic continues to post risks across the country.

“These are the pictures the Biden administration doesn’t want the American people to see. This is why they won’t allow the press,” the senator wrote. “This is the CBP facility in Donna, Texas. This is a humanitarian and a public health crisis.”

In a letter to Biden, Cruz also slammed Biden for preventing the media from getting access into border facilities —  as he claimed that the Democratic president could be doing it “intentionally” to block Americans from seeing the unfolding crisis at the border which was proof of the administration’s “failures.”

“This past Thursday and Friday, eighteen of my Senate colleagues and I visited the border and witnessed firsthand the staggering public health and humanitarian crisis caused by your policies,” the Texas senator wrote on March 22.

“We understand the heartbreaking tragedy unfolding at the border because we were there. We saw it. But the American people are unable to see it because you remain intent on keeping the media from shining a light on your administration’s failures,” he added.

Cruz added: “They could not show the American people what it looks like when a tent city built to house 250 children under COVID restrictions instead houses 4,200.”

“They could not show the American people cages after cages of little boys lying side-by-side, of little girls lying side-by-side, covered with reflective emergency blankets with virtually no space between them. They could not see the playpen of infants and toddlers brought here by human traffickers and then left alone. They could not see the row of children who, having just been crammed into the crowded cages, were now testing positive for COVID-19.”

Cruz: Biden ‘actively worked’ to block access into facilities

“The reporters and the cameras could not see any of this because you, President Biden, prevented it. I sent you a letter last week urging you to allow us to bring the media with us,” the GOP senator said. “Not only did you refuse, you actively worked to prevent the American public from seeing what we saw.”

“This is outrageous. The Trump administration allowed media into DHS facilities. So did the Obama administration, the Bush administration, and the Clinton administration. But you want to hide what is going on,” he added, noting that Biden should “confront the consequences of your policies.” 

Cruz is also set to visit Dallas on Monday to tour the facility where thousands of undocumented minors are also being held.​

Meanwhile, Senator James Lankford (Oklahoma) noted that there’s an “open border” situation there after also touring the facility.

“I know why President Biden doesn’t want the media to be here — because we do have an open border,” he said.

“If you were an unaccompanied minor, you were sent over to the Donna facility, which we went over and visited. That facility is designed for 80 people in a pod, and they had 709 people.”

Braun also wrote to Biden after Friday’s inspection of the Donna, Texas facility and he urged the Democratic president to visit the area and see the situation for himself as he attached images of  border crossers jammed into pods at the facility with children sleeping on mats just laid on the cold floor.

Both Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris have yet to take a trip to the US-Mexico border where a historic number of both individual and child migrant crossers have been recorded the past weeks. 

Braun slams Biden for reversing border policies that worked

“The crisis surrounding this surge makes it a moral imperative for you to see firsthand what is happening — and not the sanitized version of the border tour taken by some of my congressional colleagues,” Braun wrote to the Democratic president. “Having personally gone this week, I can testify to this being an inhumane, unsustainable and dangerous situation.”

Separately, in a Fox News interview, the Indiana senator blamed Biden’s “open border” policies for the influx of migrants saying the President “put up a welcome sign” on the southern border  — by “shutting down the policies that were working before.” 

“President Biden put up a welcome sign on our southern border by shutting down the policies that were working before. This migrant surge is only going to get worse.”

“President Biden, for the sake of politics, dismantled a system that was working to at least not encourage people to journey to our border. Now, our system is overwhelmed,” he added, referring to the reversal of Trump-era policies at the border.

Steeve Strange

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