After being repeatedly stiff-armed on his demand that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testify on the border crisis, the top House border watchdog chairman is moving to use a subpoena or even contempt of Congress vote to force the matter.
Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, told Secrets that Mayorkas has been using “stall tactics” to duck testifying in a border hearing, preferring to speak instead at an upcoming broader hearing on threats to the nation.
Green said the border requires its own attention and investigation because, under Mayorkas and President Joe Biden, it has turned into a turnstile disaster.
“It’s the No. 1 threat to the country,” the Tennessee Republican said.
His committee has sent two letters requesting Mayorkas testify at an October border and a November national threat assessment hearing, but the department’s top congressional lobbyist has ruled that out.
In one letter back, Zephranie Buetow said the department believed that one hearing on threats was the best forum. In a second, she said Mayorkas has already testified enough and that the department is too busy with other congressional demands to prepare the secretary.
“Balancing these requests alongside the routine work that goes into the day-to-day responsibilities of securing the homeland leaves DHS with limited capacity,” Buetow argued.
Green brushed that aside as a stall tactic and said the separate border hearing eyed for the week of Oct. 23 is especially critical now that the administration has flip-flopped on plans to continue building the border wall begun under former President Donald Trump.
Citing that change, Green said it is clear the White House is controlling DHS border problems, another reason that Mayorkas must appear before his panel.
“That tells me there’s probably more guidance coming from the White House than we thought,” Green said.
What’s more, he suggested that politics were behind the president’s open-border policies that have let in more illegal immigrants than ever.
“They know what’s happening. This is intentional. It can’t be anything else,” Green said. “The outcome is millions of people coming into the country, having babies, becoming American citizens, and then vote Democrat. That’s the only possible intention here.”
Green said if Mayorkas continues to reject appearing at a border-specific hearing, he will subpoena his testimony. And if Mayorkas refuses again, he will seek a contempt of Congress vote.
Mayorkas knows a border hearing will not be friendly ground in the Republican-controlled committee. Green recently released a scathing report card on Mayorkas’s handling of the border.
It was titled “DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ Dereliction of Duty.” It was called a “Phase 1 Interim Report.”
Green said his panel would continue to press forward in its investigation of the crisis.
“My side is saying, ‘Hey, this is going too slow.’ You know, my argument is that we have to educate people in America. We have to educate people in Congress about the real effects of what this is having on our nation. And so we’re taking this methodical approach — dereliction of duty, facilitating cartel crime, human costs, financial costs. Now, we’re getting into those phases where informants have told us about potential fraud. So, we’re digging into all that,” he said.