The Biden administration denied a group of 12 Republican lawmakers access to a DEA migrant facility in El Paso, Texas Tuesday.
The GOP members were restricted from entering the El Paso Intelligence Center, Fox News reported, despite making multiple attempts. The Republican delegation said that by blocking access the Biden administration was preventing them from fulfilling their “constitutional duty to have oversight over these facilities that are paid for by taxpayer dollars.”
“All I can say is, I don’t know what they have to hide,” Representative Brian Babin remarked. “For some reason, we were not allowed in. I can only imagine what is it that they want to hide and not show the very representatives of the American people that have oversight over this facility that fund it and that authorize it. What don’t they want us to see?”
One legislator claimed the administration was trying to obstruct data regarding the severity of the border crisis created by the massive influx of migrants entering the country over the last few months.
“This is not something we surprised them with,” Representative Mike Garcia commented. “We’ve been trying to get in there for a couple of weeks and it’s coming from the top. It’s coming from the White House. They don’t want us to see what it is. You can make a conjecture about why they won’t let us in there. In my opinion, they have data they are gathering at this intelligence center which clearly indicates that our open borders are actually a more serious than the average American understands right now.”
Another congresswoman said that Biden is barring the group entry to obscure information about the government’s initiatives to combat drug cartels.
“I would have liked to have the opportunity to visit with the FBI and the agents there to learn more about what the drug cartels are doing and what strategy we’re employing to stop them,” Representative Vicky Hartzler said, “but we were denied the opportunity.”
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent stationed at the El Paso location told Fox News that U.S.-Mexico border experienced a surge in drug smuggler crossings in March and suggested that border officials are worried the situation could worsen.
“In the first five months we’ve seized more than the entire year for those for 2019 and 2020, so that’s concerning for us and that’s all drugs across the board, that is methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin and cocaine. The only drug is marijuana, we haven’t seized quite that much,” said DEA special agent Kyle Williamson, who heads the El Paso Division.
The report of denied access comes as the border facilities straddling Mexico still await, after over 60 days, an official visit from Vice President Kamala Harris, who was charged with managing and mitigating the border situation back in March. Some border agents have expressed frustration with Biden’s relaxed border policies to the point of planning to resign early from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.