House Republicans are considering holding Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in contempt of Congress and could further ignite efforts to impeach the Biden Cabinet official, the Washington Examiner has learned.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced Monday afternoon that Mayorkas had failed to thoroughly answer questions from three House committees on the number of illegal immigrants arrested at the border who were on the FBI’s terror watch list.
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A spokeswoman for Scalise said Mayorkas had opened himself up to serious consequences by withholding national security information, including being held in contempt of Congress and impeachment.
“All options are on the table,” said Scalise spokeswoman Lauren Fine in an email to the Washington Examiner.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), House Oversight and Government Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY), and House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) had asked Mayorkas in a May 19 letter to provide documents and other information about the increasing number of illegal immigrants with terrorism ties who were apprehended at the southern border.
“Secretary Mayorkas failed to substantively respond to this important national security request,” Scalise said in a press release.
Border Patrol agents in southeastern Arizona arrested a Pakistani national on the FBI’s terrorism watch list who attempted to illegally enter the United States from Mexico in May. The apprehension followed another terror watch list bust of an Afghan national in California the previous week.
Since the start of the government’s 2023 fiscal year last October through April, Border Patrol agents on the southern border have prevented 96 illegal immigrants on the FBI terror watch list from entering the country. In that same period, Border Patrol made more than 1.1 million apprehensions, meaning the percentage of known or suspected terrorists is very low.
However, Border Patrol has seen an additional 1.5 million people illegally enter the country since President Joe Biden took office, but agents were unable to respond to the sightings.
CBP officers who inspect noncitizens seeking admission at airports, sea ports, and land ports of entry nationwide have encountered 250 people on the list.
The FBI database includes known and suspected terrorists and can include family members or affiliates of such people.
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Up until early 2021, when Biden took office, CBP published press releases on its website when its Border Patrol agents apprehended a terror watch list individual. That practice and transparency have ceased over the past two years. CBP has not disclosed what prompted it to stop disclosing these types of arrests.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate in August 2022 that although there was no “imminent threat from a foreign terrorist organization on the border at the moment,” terrorists were looking for any vulnerability to “exploit.”
