Billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk paid a visit to the U.S. southern border on Thursday to get an on-the-ground understanding of the ongoing migration crisis. He was received by Representative Tony Gonzalez, a Republican for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, as well as law enforcement officers in the border town of Eagle Pass.
Musk went on Twitter, now known as X, which he purchased for $44 billion in 2022, to livestream his conversation with Gonzalez and the officers about what they have been experiencing. “We’re going to hear it directly from them and see exactly what is going on,” Musk said as the camera started rolling.
Learn the benefits of becoming a Valuetainment Member and subscribe today!
Rep. Gonzalez oversees the large swath of land that bears the brunt of the migrant crisis, a district which shares more than 800 miles of Mexican border and includes parts of El Paso, Del Rio, and Uvalde. “A lot of my sheriffs and local elected officials are being forgotten, their stories are not getting out,” Gonzalez said.
He turned to a local official, Sheriff Randy Brown, to ask him questions. “What is happening in your county?” Musk chimed in: “Just imagine: you’re talking to America right here, and people want to understand just what exactly is going on.”
“Well, you’ve got to back some time to whenever the open border policies from the White House kinda got thrown out there—we’ve been overrun.” He attributed it to the decisions made by the Biden administration, labeling it “an invitation,” and saying he did not think the Biden White House “had a clue” about what is happening. Gonzalez claimed that they have been experiencing around 11,000 crossings per day, saying it was absolutely historic and that it “terrifies” him. Many are traveling by train, Brown said, as well as in stolen cars which are driven over the border and often ruin farmers’ irrigation systems in their recklessness.
“It’s not getting better, it’s getting worse,” Gonzalez affirmed. Musk replied, “Basically we’re seeing all time highs, and its increasing.” “And it’s spreading,” Gonzalez nodded, adding that 700,000 migrants were crossing the border a year just in Eagle Pass alone. Musk noted that that is higher than the population of Wyoming.
Musk also seized on the notion that the total yearly border crossings is much higher than the official number of two million, as well as the fact that the migrants are coming from all over the world—Africa and the Middle East, Asia and South America—and not just Central America.
“The reality is that this is an open border for all of earth,” Musk marveled. “There’s roughly 350 million people in the U.S., but there’s 8 billion people on earth. This is an open border to 8 billion people. A small percentage is from Mexico.” Another sheriff stepped forward to say that he sees migrants from all over the world come through and that it is in fact rare to see migrants from Mexico. The sheriff said his patrol staff is 16 people, and only two law enforcement officers are ever on duty to handle the deluge. “They’re completely overwhelmed,” Gonzalez said.
Went to the Eagle Pass border crossing to see what’s really going on pic.twitter.com/ADYY2XvAKT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 29, 2023
“As an immigrant to the United States I’m extremely pro immigrant,” Elon said, who was born in South Africa. “By the same token, we should not be allowing people into the country if they are breaking the law.”
Elon was surrounded by about two dozen officials as he went live under a freeway bridge in the desert.
Musk and the officials went on to discuss how there have been essentially no repatriations (the sending of migrants back to their home countries), how the Biden administration is breaking precedent by not forcing people to qualify for asylum, and how local hospitals are completely overwhelmed by wounded migrants. Additionally, Gonzalez said they often see people come through the border who have tear drop tattoos, a symbol that they are gang affiliated and have killed people.
Add comment