House Committee Launches Second Phase of Mayorkas Investigation

On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security border subcommittee held a hearing titled “Protecting the U.S. Homeland: Fighting the Flow of Fentanyl from the Southwest Border.”  The hearing marked the start of the second phase of the Committee’s investigation into Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Launched in June, the Committee’s investigation is examining Mayorkas’ failure to enforce our immigration laws, and the consequences of that failure, in five phases. The second phase of the investigation examines how Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden Administration are empowering drug cartels with their open border policies.

Members called out how Secretary Mayorkas’ inaction and failure to acknowledge the border crisis is leading to record increases in the seizure of narcotics like fentanyl.  In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chair Clay Higgins (R-La.) was highly critical of Mayorkas.  Congressman Higgins said, “Secretary Mayorkas has been derelict in his duties and has failed this country, and has continuously refused to enforce immigration law, refused to prosecute illegal entries, and refused to utilize previous immigration tools that have been proven effective. These actions have increased the flow of illegal aliens into this country, enriched Mexican cartels, and overwhelmed our front-line agents and officers, which has led to more and more drugs flowing into the United States.”

Witnesses for the hearing included:

• Kemp Chester, Senior Advisor to the Director of National Drug Control Policy, Office of National Drug Control Policy
• Steven Cagen, Assistant Director of the Countering Transnational Organized Crime Division, Homeland Security Investigations
• James Mandryck, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Office of Intelligence, Customs and Border Protection
• George Papadopoulos, Principal Deputy Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration
• Tyrone Durham, Director, Nation State Threats Center, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Homeland Security

Throughout their testimony, witnesses laid out the many challenges facing the country due to fentanyl trafficking.  Assistant Director Steven Cagen asserted that, “the illicit collaboration between Chinese TCOs [transnational criminal organizations] and Mexican cartels has created a complex criminal ecosystem that is fueling money laundering and narcotics trafficking operations, specifically illicit fentanyl, into and within the United States.”  Per Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Mandryck, “CBP estimates it interdicted 1.1 billion potential doses of illicit fentanyl in FY 2022…For reference, Earth’s population is approximately 8 billion people.”

According to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), nearly 20,000 pounds of fentanyl has already been seized coming across the border so far in fiscal year 2023.  For reference, under 15,000 pounds was seized all of last fiscal year and less than 5,000 pounds was seized in fiscal year 2020.

To watch the full hearing, click here.