On Thursday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) said the “humanitarian crisis on steroids” in Del Rio, TX was caused by DHS canceling “flights that were supposed to expel migrants back to their country of origin,” and that people are being recruited to come to Del Rio due to a perception that “Del Rio is wide open.”
Gonzales said, “It’s gut-wrenching. It’s a humanitarian crisis on steroids. Over 8,000 migrants under this bridge, it is hot outside. There are only a handful of port-a-potties out there. You have children. You have a lot of single males as well. Border Patrol agents are doing everything they possibly can and they deserve our thanks for that, but this is beyond a breaking point. This is something that needs to be taken seriously now. Time is running out. Everyone is tired. In south Texas, in Texas in general, we feel abandoned by the administration. Put the politics aside, come together and let’s solve this.”
He added, “The bulk of these migrants are Haitians as well. And what has happened is they’ve encouraged other Haitians to make this trek to Del Rio. Because, in their minds, Del Rio is wide open.” And that the cartel that operates across from Del Rio is “going to Haiti and they’re recruiting Haitians in particular.”
Gonzales further stated, “[W]hen I visited today, I was very pointed, hey, what caused this? What caused this is DHS canceled flights that were supposed to expel migrants back to their country of origin, around six of these flights. And that was about a thousand migrants that then had to be reprocessed, and that caused this backlog.”
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