Republicans are pressuring Democrats to hold oversight hearings about the Biden administration’s handling of the thousands of unaccompanied migrant children and families arriving at the border each week, the first attempt to force Democrats to deal with the situation to the same extent that they were concerned during the Trump administration.
Two separate groups of House Republicans submitted letters to House Democratic committee chairwomen requesting hearings Thursday morning. House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio and House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration ranking member Tom McClintock of California asked Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the Democratic chairwoman of the subcommittee, to schedule a time to question the top homeland security and health officials about the situation on the southern border and how the Biden White House is overseeing the response.
“Last Congress, the Committee and Subcommittee held several hearings ‘to hold the Administration accountable for its failure to effectively manage the humanitarian crisis at the border and its continued mistreatment of children,’” Jordan and McClintock wrote. “Your silence on this issue in the last five weeks unfortunately suggests that you do not plan to hold the Biden Administration to the same standard to which you held the Trump Administration.”
Simultaneously, House Oversight and Reform Committee ranking member James Comer of Kentucky and Republican members sent a letter to Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney asking that she immediately hold a hearing on how the Biden administration will stop the flow of families and children to the United States as well as how it will house and release people who are taken into federal custody.
“Members of your own party have raised concerns about the Biden Administration perpetuating a policy of housing children in containers—something Democrats renounced during the prior administration,” Comer’s letter states. “This Committee must schedule a hearing to conduct oversight of the welfare of migrant children being held in these container facilities.”
Most Republicans defended the Trump administration’s use of the same holding facilities during the 2019 humanitarian crisis when liberal Democrats accused the federal government of holding children in custody in cramped spaces for durations longer than were acceptable.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sparked a debate this week when he said that the situation on the southern border is not a crisis but a “challenge.” The comment triggered raucous rebuttals from Republicans, and even one Democrat, who said the releases of untested migrants into Texas border communities during a pandemic is reason for major concern.
Axios reported Thursday that an average of 321 children were being transferred from Border Patrol custody to the Department of Health and Human Services each day during the final week of February, a rate that is six times higher than the first week of January.
