On the recordApril 21, 2021
I thank my friend for yielding and hosting tonight's Special Order. Quite a few of us have gone down to the border in the last several weeks, and, Madam Speaker, we do have a crisis at the border. When I say, a crisis, I mean an unmitigated crisis at the border. We were at McAllen and going in to see the border crossing that night and the people streaming across, the Border Patrol was probably going to process over a thousand people that night. A thousand people. The next morning, we were able to go to the Donna facility. And the Donna facility, the best way to describe it, it is a canvas building, you might say, a very nice building. It has air conditioning and all, but it was only built to hold 250 people. The day we were there, there were 3,500 people being housed there, the vast majority being kids. We went into the pods they have. These pods are only supposed to hold 33 children. One held 412. Another had 450. And the week before there were over 600 in one. There is a problem; it is a crisis. But it is not being seen as a crisis down at the White House. I implore the President and the Vice President to go down there and see what is happening. It is absolutely essential, because these children that are being held there, according to what they say, they are supposed to only be there for 72 hours. Some are being held for 3 weeks. One little girl was there for over 28 days. So we do have a crisis at the border.…
