Republican lawmakers are calling out the Biden administration for failing to respond to requests about the crisis at the the U.S.-Mexico border.
The 19 Republican members of the House Oversight Committee penned a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas expressing their frustration with the administration’s “failed border policies.”
The letter explains, “Fiscal Year 2022 was an abject failure for border security and national sovereignty. In fact, it was the worst on record in American history. This past fiscal year set records for encounters of illegal immigrants, migrant deaths, apprehensions of suspected terrorists, and seizures of fentanyl at the southern border.”
It continues, “We cannot endure another year of the Biden Administration’s failed border policies. We have written DHS fifteen times this Congress to conduct oversight over the border crisis. Again, we request documents and information to understand the Biden Administration’s plans, if any, to secure the border.”
The letter noted U.S. Customs and Border Protection made more than two million “apprehensions of illegal aliens in Fiscal Year 2022.”
The Republicans argued under “the prior administration, Fiscal Year 2019 was a year in which both Democrats and Republicans declared a crisis at the southern border, U.S. Border Patrol encountered less than 860,000 people.”
However, according to the letter, the Biden administration “refuses to acknowledge this current, unprecedented and deadly crisis.”
Taking aim at Vice President Kamala Harris, the letter says she even claims “the border is ‘secure’ and insists that ‘[w]e have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration.’ This is simply not true.”
Additionally, the letter accused the Biden administration of creating the crisis.
“It rolled back or eliminated deterrent focused policies that were working to manage the flow of illegal border crossers. It shirked its duty to enforce the laws of this country to provide a safe and secure border to the American people. These failures cannot be repeated,” the Republicans wrote.
They called on Mayorkas to follow a list of actions to provide them assistance with the oversight, including preserving all documents and communications “regarding any plan within DHS to secure operational control of the southern border.”
Earlier last month, Fox News noted the outlet requested an interview with Mayorkas, but was ignored.
He also would not answer questions outside his home.
Rep. Ayana Pressley (D-Mass), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Benny Thompson (D-Miss.), and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) would also not speak with the outlet about the border crisis.