Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told Newsmax Thursday that the southern border crisis is what the Biden administration has planned for and "what they want."
"The administration is calling for humane and orderly treatment of migrants," Gonzales said during an appearance on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "It's the furthest thing from it right now. It's near freezing temperature in El Paso, and you have hundreds of migrants out in the streets due to overcapacity."
"This is what they want," he continued. "We are seeing exactly the policies that they implemented and what they want. You know here you had Democrats in El Paso about a year ago say, Welcome to the new Ellis Island.
"This is very structured. They've been wanting to do away with Title 42 ever since they started this administration."
A Trump-era pandemic health policy, Title 42 has been used to expel migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border nearly 2.5 million times in less than three years, according to Customs and Border Protection data. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled last month that the government must end the use of Title 42 in immigration enforcement by Dec. 21.
"I represent 60% of El Paso County, 823 miles of the border, and I've seen this exact play happen over a year ago," Gonzales said. "It started in Del Rio, where there were thousands of Haitians under a bridge.
"That exact same thing is happening a year later in El Paso — they're just not Haitians. Now they're Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans. But it is pure chaos."
When asked how concerned he is about the Biden administration's plan to bolster Border Patrol with reassigned federal air marshals, Gonzales said he was "very concerned."
"Here we are, in the height of the holiday travel, and you're going to take away air marshals," he said. "I mean, this is exactly what an America last agenda looks like, and it's dangerous and it punishes Americans. Whether you're in Texas or New York or Florida — doesn't matter where you are. All of us are getting punished for this border crisis."
The Texas Republican added that the current White House is not the only one that has ever been faced with a southern border crisis.
"The Biden administration isn't the only administration that that has had to deal with the border crisis, but others have listened to those that live along the border," he said. "The Biden administration chooses not to."
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