Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is set to testify under oath before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning and Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has already made clear what information he and his colleagues want to know — but does Biden's DHS secretary have the information necessary to respond and will he provide the answers if he does?
In a letter to Mayorkas on Tuesday, Jordan reminded the Biden administration official that he failed to prepare adequately for his previous appearance before the Judiciary Committee in April of 2022. "We wrote to ask that you come prepared to address in detail specific aspects of the Administration's immigration policies and programs," Jordan writes. "Unfortunately, during your testimony last year, you were unable to provide specific data or information and, to this date, you still have not provided substantive responses to some Members' questions from that hearing."
This time around, Jordan says his committee hopes that Mayorkas will come "prepared with specific data and information" for Wednesday's hearing. Essentially: "do better."
To try helping Mayorkas seem like less of a know-nothing in front of lawmakers, the Judiciary Committee even sent a letter to the secretary on July 11 "requesting that you be ready to discuss in detail several aspects of the Administration's immigration policies" such as "all policies and data related to Customs and Border Protection encounters, gotaways, paroles, and releases at the southwest border since January 20, 2021," as well as "all policies and data regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, removals, releases, and detentions since January 20, 2021," and "all policies and data regarding the Department's adjudication of immigration benefits since January 20, 2021."
Already, though, it seems like Mayorkas is set on continuing to be as unhelpful as possible. Jordan's letter also notes that, as part of the committee's preparation for Wednesday's hearing, Jordan and the Judiciary team "requested that the Department provide data pertaining to border encounters and releases and asked that the data be provided to the Committee by yesterday [Monday] morning." But, yet again, DHS told the Judiciary Committee that "it was unable to meet the deadline but would provide the data 'as soon as we are able.'"
Well, if DHS can't get its ducks and data in a row before the hearing, Jordan offered a compromise: Mayorkas can just "come to the hearing prepared with this data."
Hinting at the purpose for Wednesday's hearing titled "Oversight of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security," Jordan reiterates in his letter that "the American people have a right to know how many illegal aliens this Administration has allowed to enter and remain in the United States" before listing — again — the questions Mayorkas should be prepared to answer when he sits before the Judiciary Committee:
1. Since January 20, 2021, the total number of inadmissible aliens who have been encountered by CBP along the southwest border and (a) who were released into the United States, and (b) who have remained in DHS detention and have not been released.
2. The number and percentage of those aliens in request 1 who claimed a fear of persecution for purposes of asylum and received a fear determination.
3. The number and percentage of those aliens in request 2 who received a negative fear determination.
4. The number and percentage of those aliens in request 3 who have been removed from the U.S.
5. The number and percentage of those aliens in request 2 who received a positive fear determination.
6. The number and percentage of those aliens in request 5 who have been placed in removal proceedings.
7. The number and percentage of those aliens in request 6 whose claims have been adjudicated on the merits.
8. The number and percentage of those aliens in request 7 who have received a final order of removal.
9. The number and percentage of those aliens in request 8 who have been removed from the U.S.
Given the Biden administration's "there is no crisis" head-in-the-sand handling of the border crisis spurred by the president's immigration policies, it's unlikely that Mayorkas will suddenly decide to begin offering honest evaluations or data about the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Still, he has no excuse for continuing to hide the full scope of the border crisis or the data that shows how DHS is dealing with the record-setting number of illegal immigrants who have been encountered — or labeled "gotaways" — after unlawfully entering the United States. He knows the questions that are coming and any inability to answer them will show that he is woefully unaware and therefore unqualified to be in charge of DHS or is willfully obfuscating the reality of how overwhelmed DHS is at the border and therefore also unqualified to lead the agency.
The House Judiciary Committee's hearing with Secretary Mayorkas will be live on Wednesday at 10:00am ET here.