Sen. John Barrasso
"This is both a humanitarian crisis and a national security crisis," Barrasso told Fox News's Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. "You may have seen the numbers today are the highest in history of unaccompanied minors currently in captivity. They are crammed in like sardines. And this is what the Biden administration is trying to hide from the American public."
Barrasso was among the group of Republican senators who visited the border at the end of March and recalled how he and other lawmakers were told to delete photos they took of the facilities.
"We were told to delete the pictures. No one did. You've seen the video coming out of all of these kids crammed together under the foil blankets, huddling together."
He also told Bartiromo that children migrants are tested for the coronavirus when they leave a facility, not when they arrive.
"They do the instant test. And then those that have been tested positive are just kind of moved to one side of the courtyard, those negative to the other of this courtyard," he said. "They've all been exposed, and then they're sent all across the country. You know, that is the real tragedy of this. And we're not sure what variant of the coronavirus they're carrying. They are carrying it, though, all around America."
Barrasso's comments come after Sen. Ted Cruz shared video footage of a reported Biden staffer blocking him from recording in a migrant facility in his home state of Texas last week on Bartiromo's Fox News show.
"Please give dignity to the people. Please give dignity to the people. ... Please respect the people, the rules," the staffer told Cruz while standing directly in front of his camera.
"So you work for the commissioner, you're a senior adviser, you were hired two weeks ago, and you're instructed to ask us to not have any pictures taken here because the political leadership at DHS does not want the American people to know it," Cruz said to her.
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