Elon Musk intends to get a first-hand look at the crisis at the border.
The billionaire announced that he’s going to visit Eagle Pass, Texas “later this week to see what’s going on for myself” after speaking to a state congressman who called the humanitarian crisis at the border “a serious issue.”
“I spoke with Rep Tony Gonzales tonight — he confirmed that it is a serious issue. They are being overwhelmed by unprecedented numbers — just hit an all-time high and still growing!” Musk tweeted Tuesday in response to a tweet of drone footage showing hundreds of migrants loaded on packed trains headed from Mexico to the southern Texas city.
About 11,000 migrants reportedly crossed into the US from Mexico from Sunday to Monday alone making it the “single highest day in recent memory,” according to Fox News.
Roughly 4,000 crossed at Eagle Pass, crawling through razor wire while howling in pain and wading through the dangerous Rio Grande.
Musk, the CEO of X, Tesla and SpaceX, has been sounding the alarm over the border crisis, recently blasting “media NPCs” who are “instructed not to cover it.”
The world’s richest man also called the flood of migrants surging into New York City a “severe crisis.
The Big Apple reached its capacity last week, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she supports nixing New York City’s “right to shelter” law amid the escalating migrant crisis.
“The original premise behind the right to shelter was, for starters, for homeless men on the streets, people experiencing aids that was [then] extended to families,” Hochul said of rescinding the court-ordered mandate that requires the city to provide a bed for anyone who requests one.
“But never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation on the city, to house literally the entire world.”
Musk has blamed the Biden administration over its handling of the migrant crisis.
“Strange that there is almost no legacy media coverage of this. About 2 million people – from every country on Earth – are entering through the US southern border every year,” Musk said on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, last week.
“The number is rising rapidly, yet no preventive action is taken by the current administration.”
Gonzales, who represents the hundreds of miles of Texas along the southern border, has been issuing warnings that the migrant crisis could reach this point since last year.
In December, the Republican lawmaker said processing centers were already dealing with a number of asylum seekers he’d “never seen before,” with more than 500 migrants in one “pod” that typically holds about 100 people.
Meanwhile, another 1,000 migrants were waiting outside, Gonzales told CBS at the time. “It’s a very dire situation.”
“What I saw shocked me and I wanted to share that with the world. It’s not about politics,” Gonzales said. “It’s not about you know, trying to create this image that isn’t there. This is the reality. This is the facts. We’re not even at the worst of it yet.”
Eagle Pass and El Paso have become increasingly overwhelmed since the COVID-era Title 42 expired on May 11, 2023.
Former President Donald Trump instituted Title 42 in the early months of the pandemic to restrict immigrants who may have been infected with the coronavirus from coming into the US.
Under the legislation, law enforcement federal officials had apprehended 2.5 million migrants at the border, according to government statistics.
Texas was one of the states asking the courts to keep the policy in place, though their pleas didn’t prove successful.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott since added multiple layers of enforcement meant to deter migrants from illegally entering the state at non-designated border crossings like riverbeds and remote stretches of scrubland.
Texas National Guard members also patrol the river on weekend in boats. And at Eagle Pass, a controversial floating barrier was constructed in the middle of the river in an effort to block migrants.
Illegal migrants who are successfully able to evade each barrier and make it into the US are detained and evaluated, at which point officers decide if they have a strong enough case to stay in America.
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