Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas blasted Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas Wednesday, asking if past testimony he made about the border was false.
Mayorkas testified at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on “Oversight of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” during which Republicans pressed him on his handling of border security. “Secretary Mayorkas, on April 28th, 2022, I asked you quote, ‘Will you testify under oath right now, do we have operational control, yes or no?’ You responded with, ‘Yes we do.’ I then asked, ‘We have operational control of the borders?’ You responded, ‘Yes we do.’ Followed up, I said, ‘I read to you the definition of operational control,’ I actually held up this chart, operational control is defined under the Secure Fence Act,” Roy told Mayorkas.
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“I put up for plain reading, plain as day. I put up the second part of the same statute which defines operational control, which means the prevention of all unlawful entry into the United States including entries by unlawful aliens, incidents of terrorism, and other contraband. I said to you, ‘Do you stand by in your testimony that we have operational control in light of the step position?’ You responded with, quote, ‘I do.’”
Roy then pointed to instances where Mayorkas said that under the definition of “operational control” in the Secure Fence Act, the United States did not have operational control of the border.
Over 1.78 million illegal immigrants have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border during fiscal year 2023, according to data released by CBP, following 2,378,944 encounters in fiscal year 2022 and 1,734,686 in fiscal year 2021, while Fox News reported another 600,000 migrants evaded CBP in fiscal year 2022.
“This is a pattern. Did you lie another time when you said on September 24th, 2021, in a press conference quote, ‘We know that those images came painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation’s ongoing battle against systemic racism’ when responding to the alleged whipping incident of the border agents who report to you when in fact on October 22nd, 2022, it was reported that two and half hours before that press conference, Marsha Espinosa, assistant secretary of DHS public affairs emailed you and cc’d other DHS leadership, alerting you all that the photographer took the images did not see any whipping occur, invalidating the initial claim,” Roy continued. “It wasn’t until May of this year that you corrected the record and said, ‘Well let me just correct you out there because actually the investigation concluded we things did not occur.’ Don Rosenberg in this very room testified a few weeks ago that you lied. It is a perpetual pattern.”
Lying to Congress can result in up to five years in federal prison if convicted, according to Findlaw.
Mayorkas has claimed that the border is not open on multiple occasions, including during a press conference where he ignored questions from Daily Caller News Foundation investigative reporter Jennie Taer.
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