Musk visits US-Mexico border with Republican lawmaker to observe immigrant influx

By Ayse Irem Tiryaki

ANKARA (AA) – Tesla and SpaceX's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk, accompanied by Republican House of Representatives Member Tony Gonzales, visited the US-Mexico border on Thursday to observe the influx of immigrants.

Musk announced in a video post on his social media platform X that he visited Eagle Pass, one of the border crossing points in Texas where most irregular immigrants enter illegally.

Saying that he is also an immigrant from South Africa and therefore "extremely pro-immigrant," Musk added: “I believe that we need a greatly expanded legal immigration system and that we should let anyone in the country who is hardworking and honest and will be a contributor to the United States.”

Warning against "allowing people in the country if they’re … breaking the law," Musk also drew attention to the irregular immigrant crisis in 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 gonna have like, a collapse in social services as we’re already seeing in New York,” Musk said.

For his part, Gonzales stated that the number of immigrants coming to the Mexican border has increased and that this situation is "the fault of the Biden administration."

“We have a government that’s about to shut down, and it’s going to shut down. I think there’s an opportunity, if we can reopen the government and there’ll be real solutions attached with some border security measures that are nonpartisan,” Gonzales said.