Just like that, according to Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the Department of Homeland Security has erased the parole requests of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants seeking to burrow into the U.S. immigration system.
In a new letter challenging Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and his management of the border, which is under fire from several corners, Biggs has charged that the department is not fully complying with congressional demands for accurate border information.
FRUSTRATED BORDER AGENTS CONFRONT DHS SECRETARY MAYORKAS
Biggs, who is a border hawk from Arizona, said that DHS has not fulfilled demands for information on illegal immigrants granted parole into the United States.
Mayorkas recently testified before Congress that parole is granted on an individual basis, but Biggs said the numbers are far too big to do that. What’s more, he wrote in a new letter shared with Secrets that the Border Patrol’s enormous numbers have not been included in a recent report.
“The report was required to include the number of parole requests received and granted. The report did include some data for parole requests received and granted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but it did not include any data for parole requests received and granted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) despite the fact that based on court filings and data on CBP’s website I know that between March 2022 and September 2022 CBP granted parole to more than 300,000 aliens,” wrote Biggs.
“The lack of CBP data is either a mistake or a blatant attempt by your department to hide the extent of your use of parole,” said the Arizona Republican, who is challenging Rep. Kevin McCarthy as the new Republican House speaker.
Biggs has asked for an updated report.
He also told Secrets that DHS “is failing to provide Congress with accurate and timely information regarding its abuse of parole. The department’s failure to provide a report that satisfies the statutory requirement is proof that the department is either willfully abusing its parole authority or is incompetent and does not have these records.”
FOLLOW WASHINGTON SECRETS FOR BUZZ AND POLITICS
He said: “Secretary Mayorkas testified under oath that parole is ‘judged on an individualized case-by-case basis’ but I have seen no evidence to support this claim. In its initial report to Congress, the department conveniently omitted U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s grant of parole to hundreds of thousands of aliens. To me, that signifies that the department is abusing parole to allow mass releases of illegal aliens into the country.”
Mayorkas is facing criticism from House and Senate Republicans for running President Joe Biden’s open-border policy. Several conservatives are already eyeing impeaching him when they take control of the House in January.
