Arizona congressman: Democrats trying to 'gaslight' Homeland Security committee about border crisis

Arizona GOP Rep. Eli Crane says Democrats are trying to "gaslight" the House Committee on Homeland Security about record migration at the southern U.S. border. 

"I think they're absolutely on the defensive on the border," Crane said on the John Solomon Reports podcast Friday. "I think that's why you see these bold-faced lies coming from the White House, saying that immigration is down more than 90%. I sit on the committee, and so I'll listen to my Democratic colleagues try to gaslight these committees all the time."

The Biden administration approved the temporary deployment of 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border earlier this week to assist the U.S. Border Patrol before the expiration of Title 42, a public health authority that allowed the U.S. to quickly deport asylum-seekers to contain the spread of COVID.

Crane also the border patrol agents are overworked and don't have enough resources. 

"If you talk to border patrol agents who work that job, you know a lot of the human trafficking comes through," he said. "There are folks on the terrorist watch list. A lot of the drugs come not through the ports of entry, but through the gaps, and where there are no walls or barriers where they don't have enough Border Patrol agents."

Title 42 is to be lifted Thursday, and Crane said he thinks a lot of Americans' eyes will be opened to the problem when more people flood across the border. 

 There are now roughly 2,000 apprehensions daily just at at border's Rio Grande Valley sector, in southeast Texas, according to Customs and Border Protection officials, and the numbers are expected to be lifted next week.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has repeatedly said the entire Western Hemisphere, not the the U.S. is struggling with mass migration issues.