Sen. Cruz: "This is a Crisis of the President's Own Making"

“Amnesty is unfolding before our very eyes,” Sen. Cruz said. “And I would suggest the only response that will stop this humanitarian disaster is for President Obama to start enforcing the law, to stop promising amnesty, to stop refusing to enforce federal immigration law and finally to secure the borders. Indeed, I would call upon our colleagues in this body in both parties to come together and secure the border once and for all and to stop holding border security hostage for amnesty.”

Sen. Ted Cruz and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott toured Lackland Air Force Base, where more than 1,000 children are being held after crossing the border illegally.

Drug dealers force children ‘to cut off the fingers or cut off the ears of other little boys and little girls, in order to extort money from their families. And these children are told, "If you don’t cut off the fingers or ears of another child, you’ll be shot."’

Cruz and Abbott blame Obama for suggesting to Central American parents that their children can receive amnesty if they make it to the United States.

Obama announced a policy in 2012 that ‘deferred’ the deportation of 800,000 people brought into the US illegally as children through June 2007. See Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Cruz said Obama, not Central American violence, is at the root of a flood of children streaming into border states.

"’You would expect to see more families coming to flee violence," he said, but "the shift here in particular focuses on unaccompanied minors."

See Illegal Immigrant Children Forced to cut off fingers, ears of other kids by ‘Coyote’ Gangs.