Republicans criticized Democrats for flying all the way to McAllen, Texas, to discuss infrastructure without touring border operations

‘We’re here at the behest of the Democrats, they chose a select hearing in the field at the border, but they don’t want to talk about the border. They want to talk about green energy and infrastructure,’ Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., told DailyMail.com.

During the field hearing, Democrats and Republicans took time to hear from local residents of colonias in Texas Democratic Rep.

Vicente Gonzalez’s district who spoke about flooding issues in South Texas, where residents said their own homes would frequently take on water and the streets outside would be flooded for three days even during mild storms due to insufficient drainage structures.

Local people face health risks as a result of the concerns; one man stated during a committee roundtable that his wife takes at least one of their three children to the doctor every week for a sinus infection.

Community groups said that resolving drainage concerns would require $600 million in additional infrastructure financing.

Republicans were hesitant to sign on to funding beyond last year’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. ‘If we’re going to go through infrastructure funding again we have a redo to go through hard work to target red-level projects,’ Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., said.

The State of Texas, meanwhile, has spent $2 billion of its own funds under Operation Lonestar on border security. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., argued that Texas could use that money for infrastructure if it did not have to use it for border protection.

‘If the federal government was stepping up and securing the border, there’ll be additional funds to address a lot of the needs we heard about they are real needs about internet connectivity, about flood control. we need to be far more thoughtful on how we’re spending our money.’

Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Lonestar, which has been criticized for wasting resources by deploying the National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to areas where they have no authority because border protection is handled by the federal government.

Meanwhile, following a record 239,000 apprehensions at the southern border last month, Republicans chastised Democrats for prioritizing infrastructure over border security.

‘To our colleagues on the left, if you care about the kids the way that you claim that you care about the kids, and the suppose it kids in cages, you would be here,’ Cammack said after a boat tour of the Rio Grande, where migrants cross in rafts from Mexico into the U.S. ‘There are real people getting hurt.’

Cammack did not mince words on her thoughts about Biden: ‘That is why I cannot call Biden commander-in-chief, he’s the trafficker-in-chief. He is doing the job for the cartels, and it has to stop.’

Smugglers have become more daring, according to one border official, who has recently seen improvised ferries used to ferry cars across the river.

Smugglers are estimated to make $100 million every week transporting migrants to the border, often robbing and rapping them along the route, according to Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Lt. Chris Olivarez. According to him, the cost per person varies, with individuals from Latin America paying $3-4,000 to be led to the border. Chinese nationals hauled in between $30,000 and $40,000 per person on occasion.

As she was being detained by agents, Amy, a 14-year-old girl, informed DailyMail.com, border officials, and GOP members of the House Economic Subcommittee that her parents had sent her to travel for two months from El Salvador to come to the border. She was fluent in English, having spent five years in the United States until her family was forced to return home owing to ‘visa problems.’

Seemingly unfazed by her treacherous journey, Amy said she’d been traveling with her cousin but the pair got separated along the way. No worry to her – they’d be reunited at her aunt’s house in Tennessee after they were processed, she said.

Clutching her birth certificate, a phone and charger, Amy said she had not come along with a trafficker, but had found other migrants to walk with on the journey, showing up to agents in a group of about 12, mostly unaccompanied children and about 3 adults. ‘Babies got lost along the way,’ she said.

Donalds tore into Biden after the tour for having never visited the border. ‘I know he likes to go around the country and around the world saying that our border is secure. But that is a lie and everybody knows it. And the people that know it the best are the drug cartels.’

‘[Rep. Cammack] this is her fifth trip, this is my fourth trip. We’re freshman we just got here. The president’s been in office longer than I’ve been alive he’s never been here. that speaks for itself.’

Biden said in a town hall meeting in October 2021 that he had visited the southern border, although there is no record of this.

Republicans claimed Biden needed to tighten the asylum process, keep building the border wall, and increase funds for the Department of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, thousands of migrants are camped out on the Mexican side of the border, waiting for their chance to enter, for Title 42 to be lifted, or for their asylum claim to be processed via the 400,000-case backlog.

On May 23, the Biden administration planned to suspend Title 42, the CDC’s public health order that allowed for immediate deportation, but that decision was overturned the day before in a court dispute.

Unaccompanied minors are permitted to enter the nation. Families are frequently processed under Title 8 and granted asylum, after which they are released into the United States and directed to their local jurisdiction for a court date, or advised to wait in Mexico.

Pastor Joshua Muse, who built and manages the Kaleo family shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, after observing a desperate need for migrants there earlier this year, told DailyMail.com that the most important thing he needs from the US and Mexican governments is clarity.

‘I think the people are just waiting for some kind of a clear answer, one way or the other,’ he said. ‘That’s the most important thing that I would encourage anyone on either the Mexican side or the American side, just to be clear with the messaging. I think that’s what people need.’