/Georgia GOP Governor Visits U.S.-Mexico Border, Says Drug Cartels ‘Have A Strategic Plan’

Georgia GOP Governor Visits U.S.-Mexico Border, Says Drug Cartels ‘Have A Strategic Plan’

Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp visited the U.S. southern border in Texas on Friday to check in on his state’s 300 National Guard troops stationed there and “witness the crisis we’re facing,” he said.

Kemp described the scene as “drastically different” than his last trip to the area in December. He chided Vice President Kamala Harris for not yet traveling there after President Joe Biden named her to lead efforts to slow the flow of foreigners. Harris has said her role emphasizes “addressing the root causes of migration and to focus on the Northern Triangle countries,” which include Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

The governor took a boat tour of the Rio Grande river that separates the U.S. from Mexico, where hundreds of asylum seekers reportedly cross nightly. Kemp said many of the migrants are guided by smugglers and drug cartels.

“It’s unbelievable what is happening there,” Gov. Kemp said during an appearance on FOX News on Saturday. “The cartels are making a lot of money shipping people across the border. They really have a strategic plan. They’ll start throwing kids and people in the river that can’t swim to divert Border Patrol agents from getting these cartel members. They’ll also send people across to be a decoy, then float Ford Rangers full of drugs across the river and get them into the interior of the country.”

Just finished a boat tour of the Rio Grande to survey the border. pic.twitter.com/pJKjcYSJp3

— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) April 30, 2021

Gov. Kemp also met with Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and George National Guard Adjunct Gen. Tom Carden. Abbott thanked the National Guardsmen from Georgia for helping address the influx of migrants, which he described as a “very challenging issue.”

Teamwork.

Thank you @GovKemp and @GeorgiaGuard for helping Texas address this crisis and secure our border. pic.twitter.com/gcQuQjmtgo

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 30, 2021

During his Saturday interview with FOX News, Kemp said the Biden administration has “moved these children that were in the cages that they cried about months ago, and they’re just moving them to different parts of the country.”

Partial transcript as follows:

FOX NEWS HOST GRIFF JENKINS: I’ve got a source in the RGB (Rio Grande-Bravo Basin) where you were, 2,246 apprehensions in the last 24 hours. If you could give just one piece of advice to the vice president, who is spearheading this, and President Biden about what needs to be done based on what you saw, what would that be?

GOVERNOR KEMP: The first thing I think they should do is get on the ground there and talk to the Border Patrol agents that are doing this every day, talk to the Texas troopers that I talked to, talk to the Georgia National Guardsmen that are there…. They are being overwhelmed. They need some more people. They need more resources.

The conversation shifted to a rally Biden held in Georgia this week, marking his first 100 days in office. As The Daily Wire reported, Biden responded to leftist hecklers who attended that event that chanted, “Close private detention centers!” “Abolish ICE!” by saying, “I agree with you. I’m working on it, man. Give me another five days.”

“Obviously, he doesn’t understand what is happening on the border,” Kemp told FOX. “Instead of coming to Georgia, he really should be going to McAllen, Texas, or Arizona, or some of these other places and really get a handle on what’s going on in our country.”

The Democratic Party of Georgia dismissed Kemp’s visit as “nothing more than an embarrassing political stunt,” noting he is up for reelection next year.

Thanks to our heroic Georgia National Guard who have answered the call to help protect our nation’s southern border. pic.twitter.com/6lWspzpgMf

— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) April 30, 2021

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kemp’s office said Friday’s daylong, unannounced trip “was arranged through a Department of Defense program that pairs up officials with pilots in need of more training hours.”

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