DALLAS, Texas—The high number of illegal immigrants streaming into the United States threatens to destroy America, Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.) believes.
“I think we’re ruining our nation. I think this is a national security issue. I think we’re diluting the people that are coming here for the right reasons,” Herrell told The Epoch Times at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“We have a policy, we have policies in place. I’m all for people migrating to America through the right process but now we’re infiltrating our neighborhoods, our schools with criminal aliens,” she added.
Since President Joe Biden took office, illegal immigrant apprehensions at the border have skyrocketed. The number of apprehensions was over 180,000 in May, the last month for which data are available. That was the highest monthly total in over 20 years.
Herrell has visited the border five times in recent months. She recounted seeing one of the Health and Human Services-run facilities for unaccompanied minors, or illegal immigrant children, at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
The Biden administration stopped utilizing Title 42 powers, which were imposed because of concern that immigrants could be carrying the virus that causes COVID-19 amid the pandemic, on such minors, claiming it was not humane.
But Herrell said the administration is not doing background checks and officials thus cannot know if the kids are being sent to legitimate sponsors, usually relatives.
“We don’t know if these kids are going to people here legally, if these are real sponsors, if these are cartel, I mean, we don’t even know where they’re going. But all of this is at the expense of the taxpayer,” she said.
The United States is spending about $60 million a week just to shelter illegal immigrant children.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in an emailed statement this week that the Biden administration “is committed to implementing an immigration system that is humane, orderly, and lawful” and “is monitoring the border and marshalling all corners of the government to find compassionate and fair solutions.”
BY ZACHARY STIEBER AND ROMAN BALMAKOV
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