Texas rancher: 'The federal government needs to act' amid migrant surge
Texas rancher Stephanie Crisp-Canales says the situation at the border is 'out of control,' calling it an 'invasion.'
Texas rancher Stephanie Crisp-Canales described on "America’s Newsroom" what it’s like to live near the border amid the migrant "invasion" and said she "most definitely" feels abandoned by the federal government.
"The federal government needs to act, whether it’s building the wall or putting back into place the laws that were there in the last administration because what is happening now is out of control," Crisp-Canales told host Dana Perino on Wednesday.
"It is an invasion at this point."
MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS ROSE AGAIN IN APRIL, BUT NUMBER OF UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANTS DECREASED: CBP DATA
Crisp-Canales said she has trained her two teenage daughters, who are homeschooled, to use firearms in case they have to protect themselves from intruders on the property.
"They’re well trained in gun safety and they know what to do if somebody breaks in," she told Perino. "It is a scary talk to have to have to have with your kids, but we’re really faced with no choice down here right now."
President Biden has scrapped a number of former President Trump’s immigration policies, which included construction of the border wall and having asylum seekers remain in Mexico instead of staying in the U.S. while they wait for their cases to be heard. The moves have led to a record surge in migrants, including unaccompanied minors, which had recently strained capacity at immigration facilities.
Crisp-Canales made the comments the morning after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that it encountered more than 178,000 migrants in April, a slight increase to the high numbers of March -- but a more than 900% increase over April of last year, putting into context how dramatically the numbers have spiked in recent months.
CBP encountered 178,622 migrants in April trying to enter the U.S., a 3% increase over the 172,000 encountered in March, which had been the highest number in 20 years.
Crisp-Canales told "America’s Newsroom" that migrants are constantly crossing through her property and sometimes carry drugs.
"We are seeing people crossing through our property on foot. We’ve also had multiple bail-out vehicles coming through our property as well," she said.
Crisp-Canales explained that "bail-out vehicles" are vehicles that a U.S. citizen secures, then drives south to "pick up as many illegals in that vehicle as they can because that person, which is known as the ‘coyote,’ they are being paid per person."
She then noted that the "coyote" then packs in "as many people as they can."
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"And when they come north, our law enforcement will inevitably try to pull them over and they will do everything they can to evade being captured so they will go off roads through ranch land and they go through our fences, our gates [and] destroy property," Crisp-Canales said.
"They crash and when they come to a stop everybody in the vehicle bails and that’s why it’s called a ‘bail-out.’"
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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