Sen. Katie Britt joining GOP contingent to visit southern border

Sen. Katie Britt joining GOP contingent to visit southern border

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, in her second week on the job, will visit the U.S.-Mexican border on a fact-finding trip on border security, according to a statement Thursday.

Britt will be part of a Republican contingent led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and also include Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi that will visit the border on Monday and Tuesday. In a joint statement from the three senators, the trip will be to “examine the disastrous effects of Biden’s border crisis firsthand.”

Blackburn campaigned with Britt at an event in Madison in October.

Related: Katie Britt sworn in as Alabama’s newest U.S. Senator, with ‘day one’ plans, priorities

“President Biden created a humanitarian and national security crisis at our southern border. He ended Remain in Mexico, terminated the safe third country agreements, and pushed to end Title 42. All the while, deportations have dropped to the lowest levels in ICE history,” the senators said in a joint statement.

“Under the Biden Administration, drug cartels have been emboldened to take advantage of innocent women and children for sexual and monetary gain. Human trafficking has skyrocketed from a $500 million business in 2018, to a $13 billion complex industry. President Biden’s failure to secure the border is resulting in countless innocent victims being sexually abused and killed. Over the last two years, drug overdose deaths – largely driven by fentanyl – have become the leading cause of death for adults 18 – 45-years-old. It’s time to enforce the rule of law and secure our border.”

President Joe Biden, in outlining new immigration restrictions Thursday, said he will visit El Paso, Texas, on the southern border on Sunday ahead of a trip to Mexico City next week for a regional summit. It will be his first trip to the border as president.