Republican senator Ted Cruz claimed the Mexican government is “aiding” drug cartels to “traffic” migrants by offering buses to non-citizens with CBP appointments.
His remarks come after the Mexican government announced that it would provide escorted bus rides from southern Mexico to the U.S. border for non-Mexican citizens who have been granted U.S. asylum.
In a recent episode of his podcast, Verdict, Cruz accused Vice President Kamala Harris of working with Mexico’s president to facilitate illegal immigration into the United States. Cruz claimed that this move was coordinated between the U.S. and Mexico to increase the number of migrants entering the country.
Ted Cruz on the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. He claimed the Mexican government is “aiding” drug cartels to “traffic” migrants by offering buses to non-citizens with CBP appointments.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
“Kamala Harris wants more illegal immigrants in America,” Cruz said during his podcast. “The government of Mexico is actively aiding and assisting human traffickers by providing bus rides throughout Mexico, along with armed escorts from police and soldiers, to bring illegal immigrants to the border.”
The incumbent Texas senator didn’t provide any evidence for his allegations.
Mexico’s government announced in August that the country would offer a safe corridor for non-Mexican migrants who have received a United States asylum appointment on the CBP One app.
The app has been criticized by human rights groups over technical glitches and violating international human rights and refugee law.
A migrant shows the CBP One App to use to apply for an appointment in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on May 10, 2023. The app has been criticized by human rights groups.
GILLES CLARENNE/AFP via Getty Images
The buses are set to depart from the southern cities of Villahermosa and Tapachula, according to Mexico’s National Institute of Migration.
It appeared to be an attempt to make applying for asylum appointments from southern Mexico more appealing to migrants who otherwise would push north to Mexico City or the border.
Newsweek contacted the Mexican government, the Texas Democrats and CBP for comment outside of normal office hours.
Harris campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz hit out at GOP immigration policies in a previous statement: “Trump would go as far as using the military to tear children from their mother’s arms and round up migrants into mass detention camps, all after blocking the bipartisan border plan that would have been the strongest investment to secure our border in years.
“Vice President Harris believes we need to get that plan done and go even further by bringing Republicans and Democrats together to create an earned pathway to citizenship and strengthen our broken immigration system.”
An Eagle Pass Border Patrol officer looking over the Rio Grande. Immigration is a key issue in the presidential election.
Photo by Shaul Schwarz/Getty
Cruz’s opponent, Democratic Representative Colin Allred, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “Texans cannot afford six more years of Ted Cruz.”
It comes after Liz Cheney endorsed Allred in the race for the Texas Senate.
New polling shows Allred is narrowly trailing the GOP incumbent senator.
A poll published on Friday by Emerson College/The Hill shows a relatively tight race, with Allred down against Cruz within the survey’s margin of error. According to the poll, Cruz is ahead by 4 points, garnering the support of 48 percent of those surveyed, while Allred is backed by 44 percent. An additional 8 percent are undecided.
In the broader political debate on immigration, Rep. Mark Green slammed the federal government over the rollout of CBP One appointments, which migrants can book using an app, and hit out at Mexico for offering bus rides.
He told Newsweek in September that “the decision to double down and expand access to its unlawful CBP one mass-parole scheme is the opposite of sound immigration enforcement.”
Texas Republicans have taken an aggressive approach to handling the U.S.-Mexico border crisis and deployed razor wire and buoy barriers, and sent buses full of migrants to six sanctuary cities in blue states.
Governor Greg Abbott‘s migrant busing program has reportedly cost taxpayers $221 million to transport over 120,000 asylum seekers to Democrat-run states north of the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the Washington Examiner.
However, Republicans declared victory recently when buses stopped transporting migrants out of Texas.
The buses have essentially stopped running due to a lack of available migrants to send across the country after President Joe Biden‘s sweeping executive action.
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