Republican delegation denied access to DEA facility during border visit: 'What do they have to have to hide?'

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Congressional delegation denied access into migrant holding center

Sara Carter joins 'Hannity' with an exclusive report from the southern border

A Republican congressional delegation was denied access to a DEA migrant facility in El Paso, Texas during a visit to the U.S. southern border on Tuesday.

12 congressional members were physically restricted from entering the El Paso Intelligence Center after trying to obtain access for weeks, Fox News has learned.

Investigative reporter Sara Carter told "Hannity" Tuesday that she spoke with the lawmakers not far from the El Paso facility where they blamed the Biden administration for limiting their ability to fulfill their "constitutional duty to have oversight over these facilities that are paid for by taxpayer dollars."

EL PASO DEA SAYS INFLUX OF DRUGS COMING IN FROM MEXICO

"All I can say is, I don’t know what they have to hide," Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas told Carter. "For some reason, we were not allowed in. I can only imagine what is it that they want to hide and not show the very representatives of the American people that have oversight over this facility that fund it and that authorize it. What don’t they want us to see?"

"This is not something we surprised them with," Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., argued. "We’ve been trying to get in there for a couple of weeks and it’s coming from the top. It's Coming from the White House. They don’t want us to see what it is. You can make a conjecture about why they won’t let us in there. In my opinion, they have data they are gathering at this intelligence center which clearly indicates that our open borders are actually a more serious than the average American understands right now."

Rep. Vicky Hartzler R-MO said the El Paso center serves as the "intelligence operation for this region.

" I would have liked to have the opportunity to visit with the FBI and the agents there to learn more about what the drug cartels are doing and what strategy we’re employing to stop them," she said, "but we were denied that opportunity."

The DEA stationed in El Paso reported an influx of drug smugglers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in March.  Both agents and nearby residents said at the time that they were concerned it could get worse. 

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 "In the first five months we've seized more than the entire year for those for 2019 and 2020, so that's concerning for us and that's all drugs across the board, that is methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin and cocaine. The only drug is marijuana, we haven't seized quite that much," Kyle Williamson, DEA special agent in charge for the El Paso Division, told Fox News.

The DEA at the time said it was working closely with other agencies to combat the issue.