President Joe Biden saw a "cleaned-up version" of El Paso, Texas, during his southern border visit — and did not speak to people with a first-hand knowledge of the migrant crisis, including Border Patrol agents, newly installed Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, said Monday on Newsmax.
In an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," De La Cruz said the Texas House delegation had been urging the president to "see the border for himself."
"Two weeks ago, my colleagues and I actually wrote a letter and said, 'You must come down here and see what is happening on the border. It has been two years,'" she said.
"But sadly, it's a cleaned-up version of what is actually happening," she lamented about Biden's view of El Paso. "He's not talking to the people that he should, which are the Border Patrol agents, the people who are really being affected — the small business owners, the single moms, and families."
The lawmaker added "the jury is out on whether this was just simply a photo op."
"I tend to think that that's exactly what it's going to turn out to be," she said.
"In the Rio Grande Valley — my community where they cleaned up, migrants cleaned up, the children … shipped everybody out so that when the president saw pictures.
"It wasn't the true reality of what is happening," she added.
"The Biden administration just continues to look the other way and does not want to see what is happening in our communities."
De La Cruz also said she hoped Title 42, a COVID-era order first enforced by former President Donald Trump, would remain in place to help stem the migrant surge.
"I'm working on a bill right now" to keep Title 42 in place," she said, adding: "We also need to give Border Patrol the resources that they need. … as simple as night vision goggles, working vehicles, blimps so they can see what is happening on our border."
The lawmaker said she will vote "yes" on a House rules package as lawmaker proceed after a "long week" to install Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as House speaker.
"I welcome the debate because this is not a dictatorship, and we should be able to openly discuss," she said. "But now as a congresswoman with my fellow colleagues it's time to get to work and this [House] Rules package will be discussed and quite heavily on the floor," she asserted. "I'm voting yes … and I hope that we get to come to consensus so that we can move forward and actually pass some legislation that will positively affect Americans."
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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