WASHINGTON—Today, House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) and Oversight Committee Republican lawmakers are calling on U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to provide the Biden Administration’s plans, if any, to secure the border. In a letter to Secretary Mayorkas, the Republican lawmakers are calling for all documents and communications to address the worst border crisis on record in American history.

“Fiscal Year 2022 was an abject failure for border security and national sovereignty. In fact, it was the worst on record in American history. This past fiscal year set records for encounters of illegal immigrants, migrant deaths, apprehensions of suspected terrorists, and seizures of fentanyl at the southern border. We cannot endure another year of the Biden Administration’s failed border policies. We have written DHS fifteen times this Congress to conduct oversight over the border crisis. Again, we request documents and information to understand the Biden Administration’s plans, if any, to secure the border,” wrote the Republican lawmakers.

President Biden’s border crisis continues to break records. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there were over 2.2 million apprehensions of illegal immigrants in Fiscal Year 2022, which does not include the estimated half a million “gotaways,” and the Border Patrol made 98 apprehensions of suspected terrorists at the southern border. There were also nearly 900 migrant deaths at the border in FY 2022. Seizures of the deadly, China-sourced-opioid, fentanyl, which is responsible for killing thousands of Americans, have spiked at the southern border. Cartels also leverage chaos at the border to overwhelm Border Patrol agents to smuggle in fentanyl undetected between ports of entry. 

“The Biden Administration refuses to acknowledge this current, unprecedented and deadly crisis. Vice President Harris even claims that the border is ‘secure’ and insists that ‘[w]e have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration.’ This is simply not true,” continued the Republican lawmakers. “The Biden Administration created this crisis. It rolled back or eliminated deterrent-focused policies that were working to manage the flow of illegal border crossers. It shirked its duty to enforce the laws of this country to provide a safe and secure border to the American people. These failures cannot be repeated.”

The letter to Secretary Mayorkas can be found here.