During a press conference on Monday Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) called for Congressional action to solve the ongoing crisis at America’s southern border.

“This is a crisis. And unfortunately this is a man-made crisis. The responsibility for this crisis lies directly on the United States Congress, on loopholes that Congress has put into law that are encouraging far too many people to make this arduous journey,” the Senator declared.

He noted that the number of single men arriving with children has skyrocketed since 2014. The current system rewards those who bring children, so people exploit that loophole—and Sen. Cruz blames Congress:

Earlier today I visited the Central Processing Center here in the valley, visited the McAllen headquarters. One of the more disturbing figures that I heard from the chief is in 2014, not too many years ago, of the adult men crossing illegally into this country roughly one percent had a child with them. Today roughly fifty percent of the adult men crossing into the Rio Grande sector have a child with them. The reason for that, the fault of that is the U.S. Congress because we have told the traffickers, the human traffickers, we’ve told the drug traffickers, if you bring a child, that child is essentially a get outta jail free card. It is an incentive from the United States Congress: Go and find a small child and take that arduous journey, risk that child’s life.

And in addition to the perilous journey, the children may experience abuse he explained, noting that “far too many of those children face physical abuse, they face sexual abuse, they face neglect. And a growing problem we’re seeing is fraudulent family units.”

The Senator emphatically declared, “nobody who is compassionate, nobody who is virtuous, nobody who gives a damn about human beings would want even a single day to perpetuate these loopholes and put more children in harm’s way. We oughta be angry. We oughta be angry at politicians that wash their hands of this problem.”

Stunning. In the past year, CBP has apprehended over 264,000 people here illegally just in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. That’s MORE THAN DOUBLE the entire population of McAllen. In ONE YEAR. This is a crisis & Congress needs to close the loopholes NOW. #EndDemObstruction pic.twitter.com/mtss7z6KgM — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 1, 2019

Watch the full press conference below: