by Bethany Blankley
The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security has released additional findings from its ongoing oversight investigation into the consequences of border policies implemented by President Joe Biden and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
In its third interim report, it addresses the impact of these policies on American citizens, communities, and law enforcement officers, citing numerous reports and investigations laid out in 82 pages with nearly 500 footnotes.
If follows the first report that alleges Mayorkas is derelict in his duties to protect the homeland, and the second that points to how Biden administration policies have emboldened Mexican cartels.
All three reports cite original reporting by The Center Square.
The third report highlights the impact of fentanyl poisoning, which is the leading cause of death among American adults between the ages of 18-45, with children under 14 dying at a faster rate than any other age group. Fentanyl is pouring into the U.S. through the southern border, border agents say, after primarily being manufactured in Mexico by cartel operatives, as The Center Square has previously reported.
The report also addresses the toll of Biden administration policies on Border Patrol agents, including increased suicides and deaths, plummeting morale, and difficulty with recruiting, also previously reported by The Center Square. It also addresses the result of increased crime, decreasing public safety and unsustainable burdens imposed on first responders and local law enforcement resources.
It says there are at least 120,000 missing minors the Biden administration can’t account for and a record number of unaccompanied children being released to unvetted individuals “… who have trapped them in lives of forced labor and sexual servitude,” citing the findings of a grand jury report from Florida.
Committee members conclude that the “last several years of Mayorkas’ leadership have proven what those who believe in the rule of law and secure borders have known all along – open borders are a humanitarian, public safety, and public health disaster. Mayorkas’ embrace of open-borders policies has not only enriched the cartels that increasingly control the Southwest border … but has come at the cost of human lives and livelihoods, those of American citizens and migrants alike.”
The report continues: “Every single human cost and tragedy documented in this report finds its foundation in Mayorkas’ decision to open the borders, remove the disincentives to enter illegally, and embolden those who would seek to take advantage of the ensuing chaos. These devastating human costs fall squarely on Mayorkas’ shoulders, and no amount of excuse making, blame-shifting, or political prevaricating can change that fact.”
The latest report maintains that Mayorkas “could immediately stop many of the horrors his policies have unleashed. He could prevent further suffering by advocating a return to the border security policies that eliminated incentives to make the journey to the Southwest border and attempt to enter illegally. If nothing else, he could have resigned in protest at President Biden’s failure to do so.”
The reports are establishing the basis for the House to take action to remove Mayorkas from office, a call led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, as well as Republican U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, among others.
Moody has repeatedly called for Mayorkas to resign or be impeached.
Mayorkas says the southern border is closed and that immigration policies put in place by the administration are a more humanitarian way of dealing with the migrant crisis that he blames opn Congress.
Earlier this year, Mayorkas testified, “I have unflinching confidence in the integrity of my conduct.”
In response, Cornyn said he should be fired.
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Bethany Blankley is a contributor to The Center Square.
Background Photo “Illegal Immigrants” by John Modlin.
