On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for documents and communications relating to the illegal immigration crisis along the southwest border, including information relating to the mass illegal alien influx event in Eagle Pass, Texas, where Border Patrol agents reportedly cut and removed concertina wire installed by the state of Texas.
In September 2023, a mass influx of illegal aliens so overwhelmed Border Patrol agents in Eagle Pass that DHS closed two of the city’s three international bridges, shutting down lawful commerce. While thousands of illegal aliens flooded into Eagle Pass, the Biden Administration’s DHS cut and removed concertina wire and fencing installed as a deterrent by the state of Texas, helping the aliens cross illegally. The Committee then wrote to DHS to request information about this event, which serves as a microcosm for the border disaster broadly, and made other related requests regarding the Biden Administration’s policies which reward, rather than deter, illegal immigration. The Committee followed up on its requests, but received no response.
On January 2, 2024, one day before the Speaker’s Congressional Delegation, DHS finally responded to offer the Committee an in-person, operational briefing set to occur the following week. The Committee attempted multiple times to schedule the briefing, but days later DHS retracted its offer, stating that DHS “trusts the Committee has the latest operational updates … following the recent CODEL.” DHS did not clarify why it offered an operational briefing in the first place if it believed, as it purports, that briefing Members of Congress attending the Speaker’s Congressional Delegation served as a substitute for complying with the Committee’s oversight.
DHS has also refused to provide any materials “subject to pending litigation,” although this litigation has no bearing on the Committee’s oversight and the Committee is not a party to the referenced litigation.
For months, the Committee has in good faith attempted to work with DHS to prioritize its requests. However, in the more than three months since the Committee’s initial request, DHS has produced nothing in response. The information the Committee has requested is necessary to inform such potential reforms and to understand DHS’s current application of the immigration laws.
Read the full letter subpoena cover letter to Secretary Mayorkas here.
