Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding answers on the latest surge of border migration, citing a Breitbart News report.
The letter comes days after Johnson and around 60 Republican Congressmen traveled to Eagle Pass “to engage in Congressional oversight and to see firsthand the economic, national security, and humanitarian crisis that has unfolded along the southwest border as a result of the deliberately destructive policies of the Biden Administration.”
Johnson cited reporting from Breitbart News that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took steps to hide the severity of the crisis from the Congressional delegation.
The letter reads:
According to one news report, a concerned CBP [Customs and Border Protection] official disclosed that in the days leading up to our CODEL’s [Congressional Member Delegation] arrival, DHS intentionally released nearly 1,500 illegal aliens every day from custody in Eagle Pass until the illegal alien detained population there was approximately five percent of what it had been on December 20, equal to nearly half of the facility’s holding capacity.
Johnson also raised questions about DHS granting access to CBS cameras while denying the Congressional delegation from taking photographs:
Even as CBP refused to allow Members of Congress to take photographs, House Republicans learned that CBP later gave CBS’s Face the Nation access to the same Eagle Pass facility. Face the Nation was also permitted to take photographs and record video while on the premises. This is a clear double standard designed to hide the truth of the crisis you have created at the southern border.
The Face the Nation report deflected responsibility for the border crisis from the Biden administration, instead placing the blame on Congress.
The House Committee on Homeland Security held its first hearing Tuesday regarding the impeachment of Mayorkas, expected to occur in the coming weeks.
RELATED — MTG ERUPTS on Mayorkas: We Are Impeaching “SOON”
Homeland Security Committee Events / YouTube
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
