Texas AG Paxton says officials can't keep track of illegal migrants once in other parts of the U.S.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says local government officials in Texas "aren't able to keep track" of illegal immigrants flooding across the U.S. southern border, as another migrant caravan heads for the U.S.

Paxton, who has long overseen the chaos as his state has struggled to control the record wave of illegal border crossers, said Sunday of the current surge, "This is going to affect the entire nation because these people are moved around secretly overnight on planes and busses. Some of them have COVID. Some of them are drug runners. They are potentially criminals. They could be terrorists."

He also said state officials understand the migrants are being flown and bussed all over the country at which point "we aren't able to keep track of them."

Last week, President Biden met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but did not press him on the ongoing issue of the border crisis. The caravan that is now approaching the border is made up primarily of 2,000 Central American and Haitian migrants. 

Over the past year, the U.S. has seen historic numbers of border crossings and arrests along the southern border. During the 2021 fiscal year, border patrol agents recorded a record 1.7 million arrests of illegal immigrants, a figure which does not take into consideration the many hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants who were not apprehended when entering the country. 

Republican lawmakers have grown increasingly frustrated at the Biden administration's border policy.

Led by House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, New York, and Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas, a group of Republicans recently wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking the administration to take meaningful action at the border.

"If the administration does not begin to appropriately respond to these caravans and the ongoing border crisis, these surges will surely continue," wrote the lawmakers.

In a statement about the issue, Stefanik more harshly condemned the administration's failure to act.

"Joe Biden’s failed border policies have created the worst crisis at our southern border in 30 years," she wrote. "These policies are now incentivizing mass caravans of illegals to head to our southern border. Instead of addressing the root cause of our border crisis, the Biden Administration is doubling down on their failed policies. It is past time for the Biden Administration to take action to secure our southern border and our nation."