Illegal Border Crossings Today:

House Homeland Security Committee Highlights Mayorkas’ Dereliction of Duty

Mark Green charing Homeland Security Hearing June 14, 2023

Yesterday, the House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing titled “Open Borders, Closed Case: Secretary Mayorkas’ Dereliction of Duty on the Border Crisis.”  The hearing is intended to be the start of an expansive investigation into Department of Homeland (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ dereliction of duty.

Witnesses for the hearing included:

  • Chad Wolf, former Acting Secretary, DHS
  • Rodney Scott, former Border Patrol Chief, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
  • Joseph Edlow, former Acting Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
  • Eleanor Acer, Director, Refugee Protection Human Rights First

In his opening statement for the hearing, Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) emphasized how more illegal aliens have entered the U.S. during the two years under Secretary Mayorkas than in the twelve years of both the Obama and Trump Administrations combined.  He laid the blame squarely at Mayorkas’ feet.  “Since his first day in office,” the Chairman said, “Secretary Mayorkas has intentionally undermined America’s immigration laws and ended meaningful border security enforcement, and in its place implemented an extreme agenda of open borders. The vast majority of those crossing our borders illegally are coming not because of COVID-19, ‘climate change,’ or because CBP doesn’t have enough funding. They’re coming for economic reasons, and they’re coming in record numbers because Mayorkas has left the doors of our country unlocked and wide open. These individuals typically possess no legitimate claim to asylum and under prior administrations—both Democrat and Republican — most would have been quickly deported. The difference now? Mayorkas and his policies. Yet, not once has he taken responsibility for this mess.”

Former Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf echoed those sentiments in his testimony.  “The process that has been created over the last two years can be … described as dangerous, corrupt, and inhumane,” he said. “After 9/11, DHS was created to secure the homeland and protect our Nation’s citizens. I was there to help get DHS up and running. Yet the actions of the Biden Administration have done the opposite of adhering to the DHS mission by eroding our institutions and diminishing the Rule of Law. This is a crisis by design.”

FAIR continues to support the House Homeland Security Committee in its efforts to conduct oversight of DHS and Secretary Mayorkas. Two and a half years after Secretary Mayorkas took an oath to protect the homeland, it is clear that he has ignored the law, instituted open-border policies, and is not fulfilling his duties as Secretary. Mayorkas’ steadfast refusal to secure the border has resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian and national security crisis. Moreover, he has openly defied numerous court rulings ordering him and his department to enforce our immigration laws.

The failure of Secretary Mayorkas has also empowered and enriched international criminal cartels that engage in the smuggling and trafficking of human beings and lethal narcotics, which are responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 Americans each year. His open-border policies are also creating unsustainable burdens on communities all across the United States, costing American taxpayers billions of dollars.

If the Committee concludes, as FAIR has, that Secretary Mayorkas has been derelict in his duty to the American people, the next step must be to begin impeachment proceedings against him.

To watch the full hearing, click here.