Lawmaker Says Illegal Immigrants Getting ‘Pallets’ of Baby Formula Amid Shortage

Lawmaker Says Illegal Immigrants Getting ‘Pallets’ of Baby Formula Amid Shortage
A photo purports to show baby formula products at a Texas illegal immigrant processing facility in Hidalgo, Texas, on May 11, 2022. (Rep. Kat Cammack's office)
Jack Phillips
5/12/2022
Updated:
5/13/2022
0:00

A House Republican lawmaker alleged that baby formula is being shipped to illegal immigrant holding centers near the Mexico border amid a nationwide shortage of the products.

According to videos and photos posted by Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), the White House has allowed shipments of formula to the holding facilities.

“They are sending pallets, pallets of baby formula to the border,” Cammack wrote in two online postings Wednesday. “Meanwhile, in our own district at home, we cannot find baby formula,” she added, holding a photo of empty shelves where the formula would be.

Cammack said in two videos that a Border Patrol agent sent her photographs of baby formula deliveries at the holding centers.

“We literally are struggling to find baby formula around the country. Moms are struggling, going from store to store to store and then the stores are actually capping the amount of baby formula that they will sell them, but, and this got sent to me by a Border Patrol agent this morning [who] said, ‘This is disgusting. You will not believe this. They’re receiving pallets, and more pallets of baby formula at the border,'” Cammack said.

“Meanwhile, in our own district ... we cannot find baby formula,” Cammack added in the clip.  She posted photos on social media of store shelves that were empty in Florida next to a photo that allegedly shows pallets of formula being sent to the border.

The second photo, she claimed, was taken on May 11 at the “Ursula processing facility” in Hidalgo, Texas, where thousands of people are being held. The individual who sent her the photo “has been a border patrol agent for 30 years and he has never seen anything quite like this. He is a grandfather and he is saying that his own children can’t get baby formula,” the Texas lawmaker said.

The Epoch Times has contacted the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment. The Epoch Times also could not immediately verify Cammack’s claims.

The White House has expressed concern about the shortage, while a leading manufacturer of formula, Abbott Laboratories, said that it is working to restart its manufacturing plant in Sturgis, Michigan, after it was shut down amid a Food and Drug Administration investigation.

“Ensuring that infant formula is safe and available for families across the country is a top priority to the White House,” White House spokeswoman Karinne Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday in response to the crisis.

On Wednesday, Abbott said in a statement that it could take two weeks for its plant in Sturgis to come back online, but it stressed that it may take around eight weeks for formula products to reach shelves.
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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