'If you can't stop lying, resign': Rep. Ted Lieu fact checks Brooke Collins's screwworm claims

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday offered an implausible explanation for the outbreak of the flesh-eating parasite, New World screwworms, among cattle in Texas. In an address, Rollins blamed the Biden-era immigration policies for the resurgence of the pest, claiming the northward movement of people and their animals caused the outbreak. Reacting to her statement, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu fact-checked Rollins, noting that Biden had been out of office for the past 17 months, and in that time, the Trump administration has cut several screwworm programs and failed to control the spread. 

Speaking at an address, Rollins laid the blame for the screwworm outbreak on the Biden administration, claiming the Open Border Policy allowed millions of people and their animals to move northward across the border, bringing the pest. She further claimed that the biological barriers that kept the pest from advancing in the Darién Gap in Central America were breached in 2022, and the pest reached Mexico by the end of the previous administration. Responding to her comments, Lieu took to X, claiming that she keeps getting fact-checked for her lies. "It's your Administration that cut the Screwworm programs. Also, the life cycle of a Screwworm is 14 to 54 days. The trump Administration has been in office for over 500 days," he wrote in his post. "If you can’t stop lying, you need to resign."

The comments come after the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed three more cases of the New World screwworm, including one outside the main cluster in Texas. Since the re-emergence of the deadly pest that threatens the nation's livestock industry, Democrats and Republicans have been clashing over who is to blame. The flesh-eating fly larvae were eradicated from the U.S. in the 1960s until earlier this month, when the USDA confirmed the first case.

Rollins and her members of the Trump administration have repeatedly claimed that the parasite's movement from Central America into Mexico and eventually the United States occurred during Biden's presidency. However, as per Newsweek, there is no evidence of the outbreak being linked to human migration, as experts have attributed the spread to the movement of infested animals as cases gradually advanced from north to Central America before reaching Mexico. 

On the other hand, Democrats have blamed the outbreak on the series of cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made under Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. A March 2025 report from Agri-Pulse claimed that funding was cut for a program focused on monitoring and containing the spread of New World screwworm in Central America. Furthermore, Forbes reported that the cuts occurred shortly before the U.S. lifted restrictions on Mexican cattle imports that were placed following the detection of the parasite in November 2024. Reportedly, the funding supported over 180 outbreak investigations and responses in 22 countries. However, it remains unclear if those cuts directly contributed to the outbreak. Rollins has asserted that her department is already in "full combat mode" and has expanded surveillance and response efforts, including the release of millions of sterile flies each week to disrupt screwworm reproduction and prevent the parasite from becoming established in the U.S.