Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Wednesday that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is deliberately inflaming the crisis at the southern border.
Joining "The Record with Greta Van Susteren," Cruz walked through his impressions of the Biden administration official while he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee he sits on.
"I got to say, yesterday's hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee was infuriating," Cruz explained. "Number one, because he won't answer a question. He stands there defiantly and insists nothing's wrong, and he has presided over the worst crisis at our southern border in the history of our country."
Cruz had grilled Mayorkas during the Tuesday hearing, challenging him on record border crossings and his inability to identify wrist bracelets associated with human trafficking victims.
"We have seen over 5.5 million illegal immigrants cross under [President] Joe Biden, under Alejandro Mayorkas," Cruz stated. "And what is so infuriating is that that's not an accident. That's not incompetence. That is the outcome they want."
But it was Mayorkas' insufficient identification of the bracelets that was, according to Cruz, the "one moment of the testimony that genuinely surprised me."
"I said at the time — I said, 'You just confessed to the American people you are utterly incompetent at your job,'" the senator declared.
"Just about every illegal immigrant arrives wearing a colored wristband. The colors correspond to how many thousands of dollars they owe the Mexican drug cartels," he continued, noting that "the grass is littered with these bracelets" near the Rio Grande.
Cruz claimed the confrontation proved that he has "no idea what the border patrol agents do every day" and that "he does not care about the victims of his lawless policies."
He also noted that border crossings were far lower under former President Donald Trump. A Newsweek analysis agreed – finding that Biden has averaged roughly 189,000 encounters per month, compared to just about 51,000 per month under his predecessor.
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