Credit: Fox News
Republicans serving on the House Homeland Security Committee are celebrating the completion of 100 days in charge of the high-profile committee. They said they have made a running start on “well overdue” oversight of the Department of Homeland Security DHS on issues like the border crisis, counterterrorism, and the always-present threat from China.
“Last Congress, Democrats largely ignored many significant homeland security issues that impact Americans across the country,” Chairman Mark Green said in a statement.
“Over the first 100 days of a Republican Majority, the House Committee on Homeland Security carried out well overdue oversight actions to hold the Biden administration accountable for two years’ worth of damage to our homeland security,” he said.
Fox News shared:
Republicans had eyed issues like the ongoing migrant crisis as some of their top priorities ahead of taking control of the House in January. The crisis has exploded under the Biden administration with over 1.7 million migrant encounters in FY 2021 and more than 2.3 million in FY 2022.
While the administration has outlined a hemisphere-wide crisis that it says it is dealing with by opening legal asylum pathways that were decimated under the prior administration, while highlighting a decrease in numbers in the last few months, Republicans have pointed to the policies implemented by the Biden administration and the leadership of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – arguing that the policies have fueled the historic surge.
Having spent much of 2022 promising to take the administration to task on the crisis, Republicans have so far made the crisis a key area of focus in 2023. Republicans say that under their leadership, the committee has conducted over 340 oversight activities related to Homeland Security issues — including 230 briefings and meetings, 23 oversight and document requests letters, over a dozen site visits, and seven hearings.
The committee has also opened 19 investigations into issues like the border wall construction contracts, DHS’ approach to handling alleged misinformation and disinformation, the Chinese threat to homeland security, and the use of alternatives to dentition (ATD) and parole to allow migrants into the United States.
There was a bombshell hearing back in March, in which Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told the lawmakers that the agency did not have operational control of the border. He indicated that many sectors were at crisis levels of migrant traffic. He stood by his agents who were falsely accused of whipping migrants in 2021.
In regards to national security threats, Republicans have found over 80 moves to strengthen cyber defenses, which include meetings with the executive branch and stakeholders in the private sector, as well as over a dozen briefings and site visits related to counterterrorism.
The work of this high-profile committee is likely to increase in the future months from growing tensions between China and Taiwan and the looming end of the Title 42 public health order on May 11. Officials have feared will lead to a large spike in migrants at the southern border over the summer months.
