Swalwell Visits Texas Border and Questions Texas Governor Rick Perry about Surge in Unaccompanied Minors Crossing Border (VIDEO)
McAllen, TX – U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell (CA-15) today toured a Texas detention facility where hundreds of unaccompanied minors crossing the border daily from Central America are detained and processed. He then participated in a Homeland Security Committee field hearing on the surge of children crossing the border and surrendering to border control agents where Texas Governor Rick Perry served as a witness.
"Visiting the border patrol station and seeing firsthand 500 scared and defenseless children at the intake center in Texas confirmed that this is indeed a humanitarian crisis, in addition to a security challenge," said Swalwell. "These children are not just looking for economic opportunity in the U.S., they are fleeing extremely violent conditions. As I have said before and communicated to Governor Perry, politicizing the crisis by blaming President Obama is unhelpful. Rather, we should ensure the Department of Homeland Security has the resources to address this crisis and pass comprehensive immigration reform to fix our broken system and give certainty regarding our country's immigration policies."
In addition to the panel with Governor Rick Perry, Swalwell participated in a hearing with local officials and leaders responsible for apprehending and caring for the children including: Kevin Oaks, Chief Patrol Agent, Rio Valley Sector, U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Steven McCraw, Director, Texas Department of Public Safety ; J.E. "Eddie" Guerra, Interim Sheriff, Hidalgo County, Texas; Ramon Garcia, Hidalgo County Judge; and Reverend Mark Seitz, Bishop, Catholic Diocese of El Paso, TX.
"Today's visit to South Texas puts faces to this emergency and shows that it's not as easy as sending all of the children back to where they came from. It's a complicated problem and we must work together in a bipartisan fashion to find a fair, sensible solution," Swalwell added. As of mid-June, 52,193 unaccompanied children had been apprehended along the southern border for this fiscal year. This figure already far exceeds the 38,759 unaccompanied children apprehended along the southern border all of last fiscal year. Three quarters of the children are from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
Video of Rep. Swalwell questioning Texas Governor Rick Perry can be found here
Video of Rep. Swalwell questioning CBP Chief Patrol Agent Kevin Oaks can be found here