This week, I had the opportunity to visit the U.S. southern border at Eagle Pass, Texas. I was invited to join a small group of Illinois legislators, a Texas state representative, Congresswoman Mary Miller, and a couple of others. Jaco Booyens led the tour. Jaco is well-known for his work to prevent human trafficking. His organization isJaco Booyens Ministries, and his team works on public policies related to detecting and preventing human trafficking.
Our one-day tour included a visit to the Eagle Pass Border Patrol Station, where we were not invited in to ask questions, Mission Border Hope migrant processing facility, Bridge 2 in Eagle Pass, and a farm that has been run over by illegals and is now a border crossing controlled by the federal government.
In addition, I was also fortunate to have dinner with Don McLaughlin, the former Mayor of Uvalde the night before our border tour. We spoke about both the border crisis and the school shooting. He will be on my Sunday radio show tonight, so tune in to hear more.
Seeing the border operation firsthand and hearing from people directly affected by the open border brought the situation into focus. More than one person who has been living by the border for years said the U.S. government is the biggest human trafficker in the world right now.
That’s a very strong statement, but not inaccurate.
Our government is doing nothing to stop the migrants from coming in. Instead, they are enticing, facilitating, and funding the massive movement of illegals in direct violation of our laws.
Here are pictures of the staging area for migrants at Bridge 2 in El Paso, Texas. The top photo was taken around mid-December 2023. The bottom picture is from January 4, 2024. Same place, just a different angle.
The reason the staging area is empty in January is because on January 3rd a Republican Congressional delegation was there getting briefings and taking a tour. The government ensured migrants were not around – at least not en masse. They cleared them out to processing centers, held them back on the Mexican side, and some likely crossed further away from the Eagle Pass area. A border patrol officer we spoke with said they expect 10,000 to show up next week. They also cleaned up lots of trash. Sounds like a San Francisco-style clean-up ahead of the dog and pony show.
Here’s what is revealed – if they can stop the flow of migrants for a few days, then they can stop the flow of migrants completely.
That’s not what’s happening, though.
Instead, our border patrol agents and other public safety officers are actively aiding the movement of illegals into our country.
Some of us walked past the staging area towards the line of containers to get a closer look at what was happening. While we were there, a couple of migrants actually scaled the container, crossed over the concertina wire, and then were helped down by law enforcement with the ladder, you see in the picture above. This is a screenshot from a video State Rep. Chris Miller took explaining what just happened. If you use Facebook, here is a link: (20+) Facebook
If you can cross the shallow river, lay down blankets and clothes to climb across the wire, get on top of the container, and then cross another set of wire – good job! We’ll let you climb down to freedom and lots of government assistance. That’s what’s happening!
The migrants were shown to prepositioned buses ready to take them to a processing center.
Side note – we heard it costs Texas $5,000 per passenger to send the migrants to Chicago or elsewhere. Someone is making LOTS of money off the crisis.
Another side note – Hotel costs at the border are outrageous. Holiday Inn Express is nearly $250/night. With other states sending public safety officers on temporary assignment to the border, this is another enormous cost to taxpayers.
Be sure to check back this week for part 2 of my visit to the border.