House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green will begin the second phase of his investigation into Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas next week to focus on the role of cartels in the border crisis ensuing under his leadership, a committee spokesperson exclusively told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Green will hold a full committee hearing July 12, as well as subcommittee hearings, on the cartels’ smuggling of people, drugs and weapons across the southern border and its effects on the American people, the committee spokesperson told the DCNF. The first phase of Green’s probe focused on Mayorkas’ alleged “dereliction” of his duty as secretary of DHS.
“For over two years, President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas’ refusal to enforce our nation’s laws and their cancellation of effective border security policies have become an integral part of the drug cartels’ business model,” Green said in a statement to the DCNF.
The committee spokesperson also pointed to previous statements Mayorkas has made, including his apparent ignorance to the fact that Mexican cartels use wristbands to track their illegal migrant smuggling enterprises.
Mayorkas also testified to Congress that DHS has “operational control” of the southern border, which his then-Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz subsequently contradicted.
Between October 2022 and May, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended 20,923 foreigners with criminal histories and 442 gang members, according to nationwide federal data. Of additional concern to the committee, illicit fentanyl that’s largely smuggled across the southern border is part of the reason for the spike in drug overdose deaths in the U.S., including the more than 100,000 that occurred in 2021.
“Consequently, a record number of families across this country have had to mourn the loss of sons and daughters, fathers and mothers to fentanyl poisonings. Also devastating is the horrendous violence and intimidation those making the journey to the border and law enforcement personnel responding to the crisis face at the hands of cartels,” Green said.
Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Pat Fallon of Texas and Andy Biggs of Arizona have already filed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. There is, however, a faction of House Republicans who are going to wait for the conclusion of Green’s investigation before backing impeachment, according to congressional staffers who recently spoke with the DCNF.
“Homeland Republicans will not stop in our investigation of Mayorkas’ failure to uphold the duties of his office and our efforts to ensure this administration is held accountable for ceding operational control of our border to these violent organizations,” Green said in his statement to the DCNF.
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