Homeland Security Committee Investigates Mayorkas

Members of the House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday launched an oversight investigation into Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, citing an "unprecedented crisis" and the U.S. southern, northern and maritime borders. 

The investigation began with the release of a preliminary report, announced by committee chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and members of the committee, with Green saying the probe will examine Mayorkas' "dereliction of duty."

"In just over two years of Secretary Mayorkas' leadership, the number of encounters at our Southwest border has doubled compared to the previous administration," Green said. "More than 1.5 million known got-aways have entered our country. The drug cartels control our Southwest border and are flooding our communities with fentanyl."

These matters are "not a coincidence — this is a dereliction of duty," said Green.

"As the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas swore an oath to the Constitution and to faithfully discharge the duties of his office," Green said. "But as the Committee has learned time and time again through witness testimony and firsthand insight from the frontlines of this crisis, the American people have been forced to face the devastating costs of his failure."

Green said there's "no question" Mayorkas is the "chief architect of the open borders policies that got us here," making it crucial that the committee fulfills its oversight duties. 

The report released Wednesday, Green added, "is just the first step to get to the bottom of this crisis" and to "shine a light on the intentionally reckless policy decisions that have created the worst border crisis in American history."

The 55-page report begins by noting that the "flood of illegal aliens" has been unprecedented under President Joe Biden's administration, with Customs and Border Protection reporting more than 5.2 million apprehensions at the Southwest border, and more than 6.1 million when including the Northern and maritime borders. 

The numbers have pulled Border Patrol agents away from their mission of securing the border, and criminal organizations and cartels have been "enriched and empowered" by the record profits from drug trafficking and human smuggling.

That has allowed them to expand military-grade arsenals that allow them to intimidate the Mexican government, the report says. 

"The truth is simple — the border crisis has turned every state into a border state, every town into a border town," the report says. "It does not spare those of a particular political ideology … it affects us all."

Meanwhile, Biden, Mayorkas, and other open-borders advocates have rolled back effective border security policies, the report said, despite repeated warnings, ending Remain in Mexico, border wall construction, Title 42, and more. 

The report concluded that the "costs and consequences" for the border crisis are "unacceptable," and "those responsible for the policies that have brought us here must be investigated.

The committee will report its findings to the American people and deliver its recommendations to Congress.

"The American people must understand that this is not about politics," the report said. "It is not about disagreements over policy. It is about law and order, and the safety of the American people.

"This is about right and wrong, and whether a cabinet secretary has followed the law, upheld his oath, and been faithful to the public trust. These are questions we have a duty and responsibility to answer."

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