Senators say Biden officials blocked them from taking photos of migrant facilities; Ted Cruz posts video of confrontation

Two Republican senators claimed that "Biden's representatives" attempted to prohibit the lawmakers from taking photos and videos from inside an overpopulated migrant facility in Donna, Texas.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) alleged that a "Biden aide" instructed him to delete photos of the severely cramped migrant processing facility, and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) shared a video of his confrontation with an alleged government official. Braun and Cruz were two of 18 Republican senators who visited the migrant facility in Texas to see the conditions for themselves.

"There was one of Biden's representatives. I felt sorry for the lady because she actually talked to me about deleting a picture, but by the time she got to me, all those other pictures were taken, and that shows you the hypocrisy," Braun told the Washington Examiner. "None of us would have gone down there if we were going to be muzzled."

Regarding banning photos being taken at the migrant facility, Braun said officials "were telling us that because they had to."

Braun said children as young as 3 years old crossed the U.S. southern border alone, and are now being held in cramped quarters at the facility.

Cruz released a video on Sunday recorded at the Donna Border Patrol facility last week, which shows a woman attempting to stop him from documenting the worrying conditions inside.

"Please give dignity to the people," the woman told Cruz.

Cruz reacted by saying, "You've been instructed to ask us not to take pictures here because the political leadership at DHS does not want the American people to know it."

"You keep standing in front of the pictures so you don't want the pictures taken," Cruz continued.

The woman told Cruz, "Please give dignity and respect to the people," to which he responded, "There is a pandemic, is this respecting the rights of these kids? Are you respecting the rights of these kids?"

"Please respect the rules," the woman repeatedly told the GOP senator.

Cruz said the facility is a "dangerous place," and replied, "The rules are arbitrary and they're designed to keep the American people in the dark."

"Please give the people dignity and respect," the woman again told Cruz, and he responded, "I respect them and I want to fix this situation, and the administration you're working for is responsible for these conditions."

Cruz shared the video from inside the migrant facility, which is at 729% capacity, and asked, "How far is Joe Biden going to stop the American people from seeing inside the Donna CBP facility?"

Cruz did share photos and video from inside the migrant facility on Friday, which showed children sleeping on a packed floor with mylar blankets. The senator from Texas called the situation a "humanitarian and a public health crisis."

"These are the pictures the Biden administration doesn't want the American people to see," Cruz said. "This is why they won't allow the press. This is the CBP facility in Donna, Texas."

"These are the Biden cages. (Faces blurred.) Thousands of kids, in the midst of a pandemic, crammed in at 1500% capacity," Cruz wrote on Twitter. "This is just one of the 'pods' at Donna. There are SEVEN more, equally full."

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who also visited the southern border, said, "I know why President Biden doesn't want the media to be here — because we do have an open border."

"If you were an unaccompanied minor, you were sent over to the Donna facility, which we went over and visited," Lankford stated. "That facility is designed for 80 people in a pod, and they had 709 people... literally wall to wall in every one of the little plexiglass cells that they have, and people flooding out into the hallway."

The group of Republican senators took a tour with Border Patrol agents to understand the scope of the current border crisis. Braun shared a video of illegal immigrants, who are being housed under a bridge.

"When they had the 'Stay in Mexico' policy, it was at a 45-year record-low," Braun said, referencing the "Remain in Mexico" policy former President Donald Trump implemented in January 2019.

"The Border Patrol said the No. 1 thing that's worked to help us would be the wall," Braun said. "Complete it. Of course, can you imagine the egg on his face if Biden said we're going to complete the wall, fill in the holes, make the gates work? I don't think they'll do any of that, so I think they're going to die on this hill."

Braun added that Border Patrol agents told him that the morale of the agents was at its "highest level" while under Trump administration policies.

"Smugglers are getting $4,000 bucks per immigrant that they bring over," Braun said of the coyotes.

During a tour near the Rio Grande River, Braun said coyotes heckled American officials.

"All of a sudden to hear from the other side of the river taunting from the smugglers and coyotes, most of it in Spanish, telling the border guards that whatever you do, we're coming," Braun said. "That kind of hit home in such an anecdotal way because it is one story that kind of is a metaphor for what's happening all up and down the border."

After his tour of the immigration crisis, Braun wrote a letter to President Joe Biden calling for him to visit the border.

"The crisis surrounding this surge makes it a moral imperative for you to see firsthand what is happening—and not the sanitized version of the border tour taken by some of my congressional colleagues," Braun wrote, according to Fox News. "Having personally gone this week, I can testify to this being an inhumane, unsustainable and dangerous situation."

Senator Braun updates Hoosiers on his visit to the borderwww.youtube.com

Cruz said cartel members and human traffickers were "yelling and taunting the Border Patrol because they know that under the current policy of the Biden administration they can flood over here."

"When they smuggle them in, the Biden administration releases them," Cruz said, noting that 100,000 illegal immigrants came across the U.S. border last month.