Two Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed with TheBlaze that Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske are attending a briefing at the McAllen Border Patrol Station in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.
The McAllen Station, where tens of thousands of illegal immigrants — mainly children — have passed through since the beginning of the year, has the capacity to house 270 people. However, because of the surge of unaccompanied minors and family units over the past year the facility's main building and its Sally Port garage became home to five times that amount.
Just minutes after TheBlaze posted the story, Cornyn tweeted that he was in fact, at the border facility for an update on the crisis.
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn visits McAllen Border Patrol station in the Rio Grande Valley sector on Aug. 1, 2014.
"Cornyn and the CBP commissioner are here," said a DHS source with direct knowledge. "They're in a meeting now."
DHS officials and local Texas supervisors with the Border Patrol have complained that they did not have the resources to house the children.
Miriam and her son Daniel, 1, took seven days by bus and car to reach the United States/ Mexico border from Honduras. They paid a trafficker more than $1000 to make the river crossing. Miriam turned herself in to Border Patrol officials along the Rio Grande Valley sector. They were being processed on one of the public access roads that is now closed off by federal law enforcement to journalists attempting to report in the region. Photo Sara A. Carter/TheBlaze.
The increase in human trafficking has strained law enforcement resources and it's not expected to let up. An estimated 60,000 illegal immigrant children are expected to enter the United States by the end of this year and that number will increase to more than 130,000 by 2015, according to Border Patrol agents who spoke with TheBlaze and to administration estimates.
The story will be updated on TheBlaze as more information becomes available.
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