Mike Cloud: “This last week, I once again got the opportunity to visit the Texas-Mexico border for an updated look at the situation…”

“This last week, I once again got the opportunity to visit the Texas-Mexico border for an updated look at the situation, and I can confirm that this is certainly not a manufactured crisis. Our border resources are completely overwhelmed. For those of us from Texas, we have understood the situation for quite some time, and what we saw was an overworked, vastly underfunded Border Patrol trying to deal with an overwhelming flood of migrants and dangerous criminal cartels. Cartels smuggler fees for illicit activity in the Rio Grande Valley Sector are estimated to be about $80 million each week. Our Border Patrol's budget in that sector is around $30 million per year. There is no way for our good men and women in the border services to compete with this kind of mismatch. The situation is unsustainable. The phrase we heard repeatedly from Border Patrol agents is: ``There is no end in sight.'' And, indeed, the numbers that we expect to be released soon will probably show over 130,000 migrants have crossed just in May. What is already a crisis will only get worse unless we act. This is, indeed, a very real crisis, a humanitarian crisis, a criminal crisis, and a national security crisis. This needs our attention now. ____________________”