Any federal department head with a $60.4 billion annual spending request is going to see fiscal hawks on Congressional panels flash their budget-cutting knives in appropriations hearings.
But when it comes to embattled United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas—literally, the face of President Joe Biden’s much-maligned border and immigration policies—House Republicans don’t want to trim his budget, they want his head on a platter.
According to DHS, there have been 4.7 million “encounters” with illegal immigrants reported at the nation’s southern border since the Biden administration assumed office in January 2021.
An estimated 1.3 million “got-aways” have eluded border agents and escaped into the country—a figure many say is underestimated by up to 20 percent.
As a result critics, which include the entire Republican Congressional contingent as well as some Democrats, say there were more than 1,100 attacks on U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents while the flow of fentanyl remains unabated across the southern border, contributing to more than 75,000 poisoning deaths attributed to the drug in 2022.
“Mr. Secretary, you are failing at doing your job. These numbers speak for themselves,” Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) said.
“The policies of this administration have directly contributed to this failure. In my mind, it is very clear this has been a complete failure in you doing your job and we need new leadership.
“What will it take for you to resign and step down from this … because I see this as a complete failure. What will it take?” Hinson asked.
Mayorkas didn’t directly respond to Hinson’s query during his two-and-a-half-hour March 29 hearing before the House Appropriation Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee.
Nor did the DHS chief answer pointed questions about allegedly shifting funding away from already allocated money for border wall construction, or respond to queries about whether Mexican cartels should be declared foreign terrorist organizations or his claim in April 2022 that DHS had “operational control” of the border. That statement was later refuted by U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.
By John Haughey
