House Republicans confronted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for setting millions of illegal immigrants free in the United States instead of requiring that they be detained while awaiting their day in immigration court.
During a Tuesday appropriations hearing on Capitol Hill, GOP lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee challenged Mayorkas’ claim that his department would like to see more foreign nationals detained but lacks the financial resources to do so.
“There are thousands of beds available per day, roughly 9,000 on average in FY 2022, 3,000 a day in FY 2023,” Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., said, according to the Washington Examiner. “Yet the arguments before the Supreme Court and in your testimony before here to Congress had been that the resources are overwhelmed and therefore we have to just catch and release these people into the country."
He continued: “In your opening statement, you said we need more resources. That claim for more resources so that we can adhere to the laws — you’re actually in this budget decreasing the requested ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention beds. That seems to me to be illogical if the reason we can’t enforce the laws as they’re written on the books is because we don’t have enough resources.
"There are thousands of empty beds. And we’re going to ask for less beds in this budget.”
Of the 9 million migrants encountered at the southern border since February 2021, the Biden administration has not revealed how many were released into the U.S. pending an immigration hearing. The Examiner reported that estimates have exceeded 2 million.
According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, federal law enforcement “shall detain” illegal aliens through court proceedings; the Biden administration has reportedly been selective in whom it decides to detain, however, releasing millions into the country, with some being monitored through electronic tracking devices.
In an emailed statement, the Department of Homeland Security told the Examiner that no administration “has ever been able to detain every individual who crosses illegally.”
“When the relevant provisions of the INA were passed in 1996, there were fewer than 10,000 beds while apprehensions were routinely over 1 million,” the department said. “Congress has never provided the funding for detaining every individual who crosses illegally.”
The hearing coincided with the House’s delivery on Tuesday of two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to the Senate. House Republicans impeached the DHS secretary in February over his handling of the border crisis, but the Democrat-controlled Senate is expected to prevent a trial from taking place.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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