Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Tuesday that the Biden administration is "hell bent" on opening the southern border to thousands of illegal migrants once the pandemic health policy known as Title 42 expires on Dec. 21.
"We have been saying this all along, the threat of pulling Title 42," the Texas Republican said during an appearance on Newsmax's "Spicer & Co." "We went to court. The Biden administration fought us in court, and now they're getting rid of one of the last tools in the toolbox that can help us actually secure our border."
"This administration is hell bent on opening the border and taking everything off the table," she continued. "I mean, we've already seen, since Oct. 1, we have already seen over 500,000 encounters. We've seen 75,000 just this month in getaways. Getaways include people like drug smugglers, sex traffickers, members of drug cartels, and people on the terrorist watch list."
When asked to describe the situation in Texas with the Trump-era health edict in place, Van Duyne said there's 7,000 people streaming over the border each day.
"We say that all the cities are border cities at this point in time but, let's face it, Texas is taking an unnecessary load of some of the negative consequences," she said.
Documents from Border Patrol revealed nearly 4,500 immigrants were in custody Saturday at the crossing in the El Paso sector, the Washington Examiner reported. Another 750 who crossed as one group were waiting outdoors because facilities were above capacity.
Van Duyne also said Texas congressional members were trying to work with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on a plan to secure the border.
"You saw almost every single member of the Texas delegation last week come out with a plan on dealing with the border," she said. "It includes re-classifying how we're dealing with the folks who are coming over, how we're dealing with the drug cartels and identifying them as basically terrorist groups so that we have more tools in the toolbox to be able to deal with it."
"It is looking at putting more resources down at the border," the Lone Star State congresswoman continued. "Texas has a plan. We're not just pointing and saying, 'You fix it.' The question is, is the Biden administration going to take it seriously? Are they going to look at this as a serious threat? Are they willing to protect our country?"