Texas border mayor says border crisis could become 'catastrophic': 'There is no vetting'

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Texas border town mayor: 'There is no vetting on the border'

Mayor of Uvalde, Texas, Don McLaughlin Jr. torches the Biden administration for not taking accountability for rising southern border crossings.

Don McLaughlin Jr. is one of the mayors overwhelmed by the ongoing border crisis in his south Texas town of Uvalde. McLaughlin joined "America's Newsroom" Friday to bring attention to the crisis and call out the Biden administration's refusal to secure the border.

"It's going to get catastrophic, it's going to get worse immediately. I mean, the government's own estimates are 500,000 people as soon as Title 42 goes away," he told host Sandra Smith. 

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The current fiscal year began in October and according to Chief Raul Ortiz, the southern border is expecting to hit one-million encounters. He also said that agents have encountered migrants from 157 different countries – an indication of the global character of the U.S. border crisis. 

There were 164,973 migrant encounters in February, up dramatically from 101,099 in Feb. 21 -- a month that preceded a massive surge in the spring and summer months. The February numbers mean that there were 838, 685 encounters since the fiscal year began in October. 

Mayor McLaughlin was asked how he feels the administration has handled this crisis. 

"I have never seen an administration that doesn't care like this one," McLaughlin answered, caution there is "no vetting on the border" and migrants are coming from all over the world.

"That's one of my biggest arguments. This administration is creating a public health and humanitarian crisis," he said, adding "we don't know who these people are."

"It's crazy that we would allow this."

Drone footage from Abram-Perezville, Texas on March, 29, 2021.

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The mayor said the Biden administration's goal of addressing the root cause of migration by sending money to Central American countries does not fix the problem for the United States:

"Every one of those politicians in those countries take their bite of that money before it gets anywhere," he said. 

McLaughlin believes the solution is to "close our borders" and encourage law and order.

"We need to close this border down, and we need to come through the right way, which is the rule of law … on the books that we are circumventing and breaking that law every day."

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report