U.S. Sen. Katie Britt says the violence and heartbreak she saw on a recent trip to Israel was “beyond comprehension.”
At a Montgomery Chamber of Commerce event Friday, Britt also spoke about the “humanitarian and national security crisis” on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Britt’s visit to Israel was part of a bipartisan group of senators. Britt said that during her meetings with the families of the hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 8 attack, it seemed like their “heart had been ripped out” in the face of the “uncertainty that they were all facing.”
Last week, Britt called on the Biden Administration to put economic pressures on Iran in an effort to end the Israeli-Hamas conflict now entering its second month. Iran has provided training and weapons to Hamas militants in the past.
On Friday, Britt recounted seeing Israeli government videos of Hamas’ attacks.
“When you watch the barbaric atrocities that these disgusting, despicable terrorists put on the innocent people of Israel, it just reaffirms your resolve in standing with Israel, ensuring that we eradicate Hamas. Nothing else is acceptable. There is no way that if these things happened in our community that we would tuck our kids in at night without having that resolved.”
She said eliminating Hamas would also bring peace for the innocent people of Gaza.
In her remarks about the southern border she repeated her calls to tighten border security, noting that 18 people on the U.S.’s terrorist watch list had been caught at the border in September.
She called the situation at the border an “open season” for terrorists and drug traffickers.
“Right here, in this community, we have drug cartels coming around every other week to collect what they’re owed,” Britt said. “So these people aren’t living an American Dream – truly y’all, they’re living an American nightmare.”
Britt said she’s talked to women and men at the border fleeing violence in their home countries and spoken with border agents who have pulled from the Rio Grande River the bodies of those trying to get to the U.S.
One marker of the unrest in Central America and its impact on Alabama is the number of unaccompanied minors detained at the border and then sent to guardians here. More than 1,800 minors, most of them teens, arrived in Alabama between October 2022 and August of this year to await immigration proceedings, according to federal statistics.