Louisiana representatives were in Texas at the southern border following former President Trump who is expected to visit the border this week.
Congressman Mike Johnson spoke late Tuesday night in a video posted to Facebook. Johnson stood just beyond the border wall near McAllen, TX where construction on the project ended. He says that border patrol has reported that the location where the border wall is unfinished is an entry point for migrants to cross.
President Joe Biden halted construction of the wall on his first day in office, returning $2 billion to the U.S. Defense Department from monies that had been allocated for the wall.
Video shared to his social media page shows possible migrants being escorted by border patrol agents.
"We had a long night on the border and we're heading back shortly with President Trump and Governor Abbott. We are gathering facts to help expose the truth of this extraordinary crisis. We recorded groups of migrants crossing into our country illegally all night!"
Rep. Johnson showed a wrist band which he says is given to migrants by the "cartel" to indicate that they paid to be brought to the border. "We have a human trafficking crisis here," he said.
In March, the Associated Press reported that the wristbands are apparently a mechanism for smugglers to keep track of migrants they are ferrying across the river that separates Texas and Mexico.
Johnson puts the blame on the Biden Administration saying that his undoing of Trump administration policies is what has caused these increased crossings and trafficking problems.
According to KRIS-TV in Corpus Christi, from October 2019 to September 2020, the U.S. Border Patrol had 405,036 encounters. Conversely, from October to May the Border Patrol had 898,949 encounters, according to the agency.
Along the Southwest border in May, there were 180,034 attempted border crossings. Of these, unaccompanied children and single minors from the Northern Triangle accounted for 10,765 and family units 22,630, according to statistics provided by the Border Patrol.
The Northern Triangle includes the South American countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
"If we don't get on top of this soon, we will have a situation which is very difficult to solve," Johnson said.
Trump is expected to visit the border wall on Wednesday morning.
Congressman Clay Higgins was also live at around midnight at the border wall in Texas.
In videos on Facebook, Higgins said that there are "a lot of illegal immigrants crossing this area." Earlier on Tuesday Higgins said that the crossings are a serious threat.
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