Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., told Newsmax on Thursday that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is lying when he claims the U.S. southern border with Mexico is secure, which Mayorkas said Wednesday during testimony in front of the House Homeland Security Committee.
"Secretary Mayorkas is lying to the American public when he again said in the Homeland Security Committee hearing that the border is secure," Lesko told "American Agenda." "That is a total joke. Everyone knows it's a joke. Everyone knows he is lying."
Raul Ortiz, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, tweeted Wednesday that there have been more than 1 million apprehensions along the southern border in the 2023 fiscal year, which began in October. That figure includes 5,193 criminals, 377 criminals with warrants, and 330 gang members.
"I've traveled to the border several times," Lesko said. "I've talked to local officials at cities on the border, and I've talked to Border Patrol officers. They said they have never in history seen it as bad as it is now. It's an absolute crisis. It's a humanitarian crisis. It's a drug trafficking crisis, a human trafficking crisis, a sex trafficking crisis.
"This is bad for national security. It's bad for Americans, and quite frankly, it's bad for the illegal immigrants themselves."
Lesko said the fault lies squarely with the Biden administration's immigration policies because under the Trump administration, the number of crossings at the southern border was much lower.
"If you just look back under the Trump administration, the number of apprehensions was low, and that's because of Trump's policies. The 'Remain in Mexico' policy and other policies like Title 42, just naturally, the illegal immigrants weren't flooding across the border.
"As soon as [Joe] Biden became president, he kind of put out the red carpet for everybody and anybody from all over the world — [people from] 165 different countries coming across the southern border in Arizona — and they're flooding the border because they believe, rightfully so, that President Biden and the Democrats in Congress want an open border."
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