Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday that President Biden’s “catch-and-release” policies are a giant magnet for death, destruction, and human traffickers who abuse children.
The Texas Republican blasted the White House for its departure from former President Trump’s immigration policies and framed it as a craven political move despite the resulting chaos.
“During the Trump presidency, the news media couldn’t stop covering ’kids in cages,’” Mr. Cruz told Maria Bartiromo of Fox News Business. “You know, Heidi and I and our daughters at an airport, an L.A. airport, had a bunch of left-wing activists surround us screaming, ’Kids in cages! Kids in cages! You hate kids!’ And I pointed out, I said ’well, those cages were built by Barack Obama.’ ’We don’t care! They’re terrible.’ Well, Joe Biden is expanding the cages because their policies are resulting in a whole lot more little boys and little girls being brought in by violent human traffickers who physically abuse these kids, who sexually abuse these kids.”
Joe Biden, there is a crisis on the border. pic.twitter.com/hfPxmJnELh
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 3, 2021
Mr. Cruz then pointed to a deadly car crash outside Holtville, California, on Tuesday as an example of the unintended consequences of Mr. Biden’s policies.
“Twenty-five people crammed into an SUV,” Mr. Cruz said of the wreck, which killed 13 people, 10 of whom were identified as Mexican citizens. “This is horrific. It’s not compassionate. What Joe Biden is doing — amnesty, catch and release, and encouraging illegal immigration — is not compassionate. It kills people. The people who are dead from that car wreck, it is the result of the Biden administration and Democrat’s policies saying the more illegal immigration, the better.”
The senator boiled Mr. Biden’s decisions down to political calculus.
“They look at illegal immigrants and they see potential votes for Democrats,” Mr. Cruz said. “It’s all politics, and it seems to me that we ought to focus on doing our jobs, keeping people safe. Keeping kids out of cages! And the way you do that is ending the policies that encourage kids to be given over to human traffickers. That’s not what the Biden administration is doing.”
Border Patrol agents noted that they were not pursuing the 1997 Ford Expedition before its crash.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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