Exclusive: “We know that the border is open,” illegal immigrants tell Washington Reporter
Illegal immigrants “know” that the southern border is open, some told the Washington Reporter last week, as House Republicans conducted a field hearing near the U.S.-Mexico border by San Diego. This group was looking for work, not seeking asylum, its members said; their destinations ranged from Milpitas, California to Phoenix, Arizona.
“We know that the border is open,” an illegal immigrant from Colombia told the Reporter. All interviews were conducted in Spanish. The group, which crossed midday in the sweltering heat, included people from India, Guatemala, and Colombia. Most said they paid cartels to facilitate their transfer. “We are looking for whatever work we can find,” one Guatemalan said. “Construction, whatever.”
“Some Colombians know the border is open, others don’t,” a woman who crossed with a young child told the Reporter. “We know this from the news, from what we see on television.” One Guatemalan pair walked for ten days on foot and spent five days in a truck, they told the Reporter. It was over 100 degrees during the interviews.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) led Republicans’ latest trip to the border, which included a stop at a so-called fentanyl locker, outposts where Customs and Border Patrol house fentanyl that they have seized, that would kill every American. The border tour also included a field hearing, where Californians spoke about the “Biden-Harris administration’s failed border policies on California communities.” Witnesses at the hearing included Nicole Cardinale, a California mother whose 8-year-old son was sitting on a school bus when it was overrun by over a dozen illegal immigrants last month.
Issa introduced the Sanctuary City Accountability Act that “gives victims and families the right to seek injunctive relief or monetary damages from cities who flout clear law and derail the duty of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” he said last week.
Issa was also joined by fellow Judiciary Committee Republicans Andy Biggs (Ariz.) and Scott Fitzgerald (Wis.). Although every Democrat on the Judiciary Committee was invited on the border trip, none attended. Previous stops have included Grand Forks, North Dakota and Tucson, Arizona.
