Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party this week over the renewed explosion of illegal immigration on the U.S. southern border, saying that they “empower the cartels” to make billions of dollars through their illicit activities while ignoring the suffering of the American people.
Cruz made the remarks during an episode of his “Verdict” podcast this week with co-host Ben Ferguson while discussing his recent appearance at the 2023 Texas Tribune Festival.
Cruz noted that there has been a roughly 400% increase in illegal immigration from August 2020 under the previous administration to more than 200,000 illegal alien counters in 2021 and now closer to a quarter of a million encounters this year.
“That same ratio is there every single month, October, November, December, January, February, all the way through, you see numbers that are about a quarter of what they are now, a 4x increase,” Cruz said. “And that’s what happens when you have open border Democrats who empower the cartels and among other things make billions of dollars for the cartels in human trafficking and drug trafficking not concerning themselves with the death and suffering and misery that results from it.”
Cruz then blasted New York City Mayor Eric Adams for claiming that thousands of illegal aliens sent to his city are ruining the city, noting that small towns in Texas receive more migrants and have significantly less resources than America’s largest city.
“Eagle Pass is a small town on the southern border on the Rio Grande River. It has a population of about 28,000 people so it’s a little town. On one single day, last week, more than 4,000 illegal immigrants came into Eagle Pass – on one day. Now 4,000 people in a town of 28,000 people is about 14% of the population. About 14% of the population of the city came illegally into Eagle Pass on one day,” Cruz said.
He continued, “What would that be in New York City? New York City has a population of about 9 million people. If 14% of New York City came into New York on one day, that would be 1,260,000 people invading New York on a single day. Mayor Adams says 110,000 people over two and a half years is a crisis destroying the city. Well, how would he feel about 1,260,000 people entering the city on a single day? That’s what Eagle Pass saw on one day last week. And you know what? They saw thousands more the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day. And these Democrats do not give a damn.”