Congressman Guest Visits Southwest Border with Fellow Committee Members

Washington, D.C. – Over the weekend, Congressman Michael Guest (R-MS) joined Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security (CHS) John Katko (R-NY) and other CHS Members on a trip to the southwest border to visit an immigrant processing facility, a port of entry, and other immigration-related infrastructure, personnel, and law enforcement.

"The situation on our border is far worse than I initially expected. On the very first night, we encountered a group of about a dozen walking down an old dirt path looking for the processing facility. One of those men was carrying a little girl that he claimed to be his daughter. After border patrol officers indicated they would perform a DNA check, he admitted he had no relation to the little girl. She is here now, in an unknown land with no family.

We learned that cartels have been active as well, with border agents seeing a 131 percent increase in guns, a 187 percent increase in cocaine, a 63 percent increase in heroin, and a staggering 2,067 percent increase in fentanyl seized by agents in fiscal year 2021.

This is no coincidence. This is not a typical occurrence, as President Biden has claimed. This surge is directly tied to his administration's executive orders and rhetoric. I encourage him and Vice-President Harris to do what so many Republicans have done in the last few days — come to the border and see for themselves what is happening."