Elon Musk goes to the border and leaves stunned: ‘Complete madness’
Anna Giaritelli
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AUSTIN, Texas — Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk stepped away from running Tesla, SpaceX, and X to see for himself the declining situation at the U.S-Mexico border, leaving visibly stunned by the “madness” that has engulfed not just border towns but cities nationwide.
At the invitation of Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), Musk traveled down to Eagle Pass, a town of 28,000 residents in south-central Texas that has seen as many as 2,000 people arrested daily for coming into the U.S. illegally over the past few weeks.
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The visit was a first for Musk, who is not a politician but has drawn attention to the border crisis and other issues since purchasing Twitter, now rebranded as X, and using his account to share his personal views.
President Joe Biden also visited a border state Wednesday and Thursday but did not visit the border following his attendance at a pricey Democratic fundraiser in Phoenix, Arizona, and tribute to the late Republican Sen. John McCain.
Musk, an immigrant himself, used the tour as an opportunity to livestream the experience on X. He prefaced conversations with city and law enforcement officials by saying that he viewed himself as “extremely pro-immigrant” and supported expanding the U.S. legal immigration system.
But Musk also sympathized with illegal immigrants already in the country who are “hardworking and honest and will be a contributor to the United States” and said they ought to be given a quick way to legalize their status.
“But then, by the same token, we should also not be allowing people in the country if they look at the regular law, that doesn’t make sense. The law is there for a reason,” said Musk.
On the ground in Eagle Pass
Gonzales showed Musk an unfenced holding area under one of three bridges that connect Eagle Pass to the Mexican city of Piedras Negras. Between two of the bridges on the U.S. side, golfers putted through a city-run course while no more than a few dozen feet away, immigrants who had made it ashore after attempting to walk or swim across the Rio Grande were being walked to the bridge for intake.
Border Patrol has staged an area under the second bridge for holding people immediately after they cross the river and are brought to this initial intake space before being transported to a tent outside town for further intake and a chance to shower and eat.
“You’re seeing hundreds of people getting processed, and this is every single day. … You see how orderly it is? It’s like an orderly, chaotic, unruly event that’s happened,” said Gonzales. “They will go to another soft-sided facility that has thousands of people — over 5,000 people.”
Musk learned that illegal immigrants who have crossed the border into Eagle Pass this summer were not returned to the country that they traveled from, according to Gonzales.
More than 2 million of the 7 million encountered at the border since Biden took office in 2021 have been released into the U.S.
“Here in Del Rio, Del Rio Sector is part of nine sectors — we’re getting over 2,500 people coming over illegally a day, and we are, we are repatriating or sending back 0,” Gonzales said.
“Zero?” Musk stated in disbelief. “It’s exceeding the population of the town on a regular basis.”
Impact on Americans
The two discussed an incident where an illegal immigrant was taken into custody and agents noticed tattoos on his face, including drawings of teardrops. The man was released into the U.S. rather than turned away, according to the congressman.
“When someone tattoos a tear, it means that they have murdered someone. And they are so proud of having murdered someone that they tattoo one tear on their face for every person that they kill,” Musk said he had learned from his conversations. “Most likely, if they were murdering people somewhere else and proud of it, they will continue in that tradition.”
Gonzales said that those types of instances are what concerns his constituents, who do not feel safe because they do not know who is being released into their community. Immigrants can only be screened against the FBI’s terrorist database and U.S. criminal records. Arrests and convictions in all other countries are not accessible to Border Patrol.
Cities up north have felt the impacts of the mass releases, too, Musk said.
“Even America’s largest city, New York, is buckling under the pressure of just how many illegal immigrants are going to New York. If New York can’t handle it, well, pretty much no part of the country can, so if we don’t do something soon, we’re just going to have like a collapse in social services, as we’re already seeing in New York,” Musk said.
‘This is about solutions’
Gonzales listed “common sense” actions that the Biden administration can take and said that they would “make a difference today,” not just in the future.
“Simple things like raising the level of credible fear. Many people are seeking asylum [and] are not going to qualify for asylum,” said Gonzales. “Most of the people that are seeking asylum are not going to qualify for asylum. Nine out of 10 actually are not.”
Musk said figuring out the key phrases to convince border agents upon arrest to place you into asylum proceedings and then be released was as simple as going on to Google and searching.
“And then you’re automatically in this asylum… sort of queue, which takes several years before you actually see [a judge], and then even if you do see one, even if you are denied, you’re not deported,” said Musk.
Gonzales recommended increasing the number of repatriation flights and moving immigration judges from cities across the country to the border. This would allow them to hear cases immediately so that immigrants whose claims are denied can be repatriated back to their country of origin rather than released into the U.S. and told to wait several years before appearing in court.
Illegal immigrants must face consequences but also due process to ensure people who meet the initial asylum threshold can have their final day in court, the congressman said.
“There has to be repercussions. And once you do that, Elon, this goes away. It went away for Trump. It went away for Obama. It went away for Bush. It went away for Clinton. And [the Biden administration is] not willing to do that,” said Gonzales. “They think it’s just, you know, ‘the Republicans are blaming the Democrats. Democrats are blaming the Republicans, and it’s not real.'”
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Musk has increasingly drawn significant international attention to the situation at the southern border through his posts on social media.
Last week, Musk reacted to a Washington Examiner report that concluded immigrant encounters by Customs and Border Protection peaked in August at the highest monthly number in history: 304,162.