After traveling to southern border, lawmakers hope to replace politics with a plan

MISSION, Texas (SBG) – The challenges the U.S. is facing along the southern border has, for several weeks now, drawn groups of Washington lawmakers to the region to speak with local law enforcement and residents.

On Monday, the group was different, in that it was a bipartisan Congressional delegation with hopes of getting a closer look at the problems. This included a tour of the Rio Grande River, where they saw firsthand the tale of two worlds.

Once back on land, the group that calls itself the "Problem Solvers Caucus" acknowledged that the challenges facing the U.S. immigration system run deep.

“The federal government, who we all work for, has failed to address the problem for 30 years," said Tom Suozzi, D-New York, during a news conference at Anzalduas Park in Mission, Texas.

The trip was organized by Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, who said the people in his district are compassionate but also getting stretched thin.

“For our community, this puts a lot of pressure on the resources. Obviously the city of McAllen, the city of Mission, the cities along the river banks have done so much for picking up the government's slack, the federal government's slack," Gonzalez said.

Others in the group say the more than 400% increase in encounters at the border from March 2020, which saw 34,460 apprehended, to March 2021, when that number reached 172,331, is impacting the entire country.

“I have in my district the highest level of drug overdoses ever. We spend money, we set up rehab centers; my chiefs of police in my cities tell me this is where it’s coming from," said Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pennsylvania.

Stopping the drugs from getting in has been made more difficult because of the influx of accompanied children and family units which, in some cases, leave parts of the border less guarded, according to border patrol agents on the ground.

“When we have groups of 100+ of family units and unaccompanied children and single adults, it is a daunting task for agents to process them, take their information and then have to get them into the system," said Jesse Moreno, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, in an interview Monday at CBP Sector Headquarters in Edinburg, Texas.

Moreno has served 13 years as a border patrol agent, and said another concern is how much the smugglers, or "coyotes," are benefitting.

“On different occasions we come across illegal aliens in stash houses with 50/80 bodies or illegals in it without light, without water, without means to communicate with their family. They took their cell phones and they’re exploiting them the whole time," Moreno said.

It's a dangerous reality for Border Patrol agents every day, one now being confronted by lawmakers who say they hope to replace politics with a plan.