The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for information regarding the Biden administration’s partial removal of razor wire along the southern border over the last few months.
The committee subpoenaed the top border official on Thursday, requesting access to all documents and communications related to the surge of illegal immigration, specifically in Eagle Pass, Texas, which has become one of the busiest locations to enter the United States. The request falls on the same day Mayorkas and President Joe Biden are set to visit the southern border amid record-high crossings.
“The effect of the border crisis has been readily apparent in Eagle Pass, Texas, which serves as a microcosm of the broader border disaster,” Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) wrote in his request. “Since the Committee’s initial request, multiple sectors along the southwest border have similarly experienced mass influxes of illegal aliens on a sustained basis … Despite the urgency of
the Committee’s requests and the escalating crisis at the southwest border, the Department of
Homeland Security’s (DHS) response absent compulsory process has been wholly inadequate.”
The subpoena specifically requests information related to how the DHS responded to an influx of illegal immigrants on Sept. 20, 2023, mostly Venezuelan immigrants into Eagle Pass, resulting in the closure of two of the city’s international bridges.
“While thousands of illegal aliens flooded into Eagle Pass, shutting down lawful commerce across the
bridges, the Biden Administration’s DHS cut and removed concertina wire and fencing installed
as a deterrent by the state of Texas, helping the aliens cross illegally,” Jordan wrote.
The letter is the latest of several requests for information related to that crossing, which Jordan said have not been fulfilled — accusing the department of impeding the committee’s work.
DHS officials pushed back against the request, noting the department cannot “provide material that is subject to ongoing litigation.”
“This subpoena is a ploy for media attention,” a spokesperson told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “DHS has provided information to the Committee and made clear that additional materials will be provided as they become available. DHS will continue cooperating with Congressional oversight requests, all while faithfully working to protect our nation from terrorism and targeted violence, secure our borders, respond to natural disasters, defend against cyberattacks, and more.”
DHS officials instead offered an “operational briefing” with lawmakers in January but later rescinded the meeting after a group of House Republicans went to visit the southern border that month.
“If DHS believed, as it purports, that briefing Members of Congress attending the Speaker’s CODEL served as a substitute for providing the Committee with the offered operational briefing, it is curious why DHS would make such an offer to the Committee just one day before the CODEL,” Jordan wrote.
The subpoena is the latest development in the dispute over the handling of the southern border as both state officials in Texas and the federal government wrestle over who has operational control.
In recent weeks, Democratic lawmakers have called on Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard after troops seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass last month despite rejections from federal law enforcement. Shelby Park is one of the busiest locations for illegal immigrants entering the U.S.
That decision by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) came after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Biden administration to remove razor wire installed along the Rio Grande, which the administration argued made it difficult for federal border officials to perform their duties. Abbott responded by telling the state national guard to hold the line, creating a standoff with the federal government over who has the authority to implement border security policies in the state.
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Republican governors in other states have also vowed to send members of their national guards to bolster Abbott’s efforts, including Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who recently announced he would re-establish the Florida State Guard to send as many as 1,000 Florida National Guard soldiers to the southern border.
House Republicans have also responded by introducing legislation that would prohibit federal officials from removing barbed wire or other barriers implemented by state governments within 25 miles of the southern border.
