The powerful House Oversight Committee’s inaugural hearing on the state of the Biden administration’s border crisis descended into a competition between Democrats and Republicans as lawmakers from each side pushed the Border Patrol witnesses to testify in support of their views.
In a lengthy hearing that stretched four hours Tuesday, more than 40 members on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability questioned and at times lectured the federal agents, as well as members of the opposing party, about the state of the southern border.
Two senior Border Patrol agents who oversee operations in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Tucson, Arizona, briefed members about the burgeoning number of illegal immigrant crossings and rising fentanyl seizures from transnational organizations.
The hearing erupted with a fiery start after the committee’s Democrats posted a message on their Twitter account wishing “good luck to everyone except @GOPOversight members who are using today’s hearing to amplify white nationalist conspiracy theories instead of a comprehensive solution to protect our borders and strengthen our immigration system.”
House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) asked both witnesses if they had traveled to Washington to “promote white nationalism.” Both replied that they had not.
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“Clearly we don’t have a white supremacy history in this country. Clearly, it’s an illegal immigration one,” said first-term Freedom Caucus member Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL).
As lawmakers questioned the panel, five issues repeatedly came up.
1. President Joe Biden’s role in the border crisis
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), a House Freedom Caucus member, asked Tucson Chief John Modlin if policy changes that the Biden administration made in its first few weeks in the White House had led to an increase in illegal immigration at the southern border.
“In the Tucson sector, interviewing people post-arrest, what — what became the most common response was that they believed that when the administration changed that the law changed and policy changed and that there was an open border,” Modlin said.
Donalds said the chief’s statement confirmed that the laws and policies on the books had not changed but that “Biden decided not to follow the law.”
“Would you agree the policy did change from Trump to Biden?” Boebert asked Modlin, who did not give a direct response.
“What we’re being told by people that have crossed … they absolutely, unequivocally said they crossed because they felt law and policy had changed,” Modlin said.
2. Former President Donald Trump’s treatment of immigrants
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) asked Modlin about the conditions that children were detained in under the previous administration, referencing “cages” that Democrats described for the chain-link fences used as room dividers in a McAllen, Texas, warehouse that the Obama administration erected to house various populations of people in custody.
“There was an issue of jailing migrants and separating families under the Trump administration. Are you aware of that — that children were in cages?” Crockett asked. Modlin said he did not know that children were caged.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), who noted that he was the son of a Cuban refugee, accused Republicans of “stoking the fears of immigrants and those seeking asylum.”
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) pushed Chavez to divulge her role in separating immigrant families in the Rio Grande Valley in 2017. Chavez said she could not discuss the matter due to pending litigation. Chavez also had not worked in that region until last year and had no involvement in decisions made in that part of the border six years ago.
3. Whether immigrants or Americans smuggle fentanyl into the US
Two Democrats pointed to U.S. citizens as being the culprits behind the smuggling of fentanyl into the country from Mexico. Reps. Greg Casar of Texas and Robert Garcia of California criticized Republicans for how they said the GOP had tried to link immigrants to the fentanyl crisis.
Garcia did not ask witnesses questions but spoke at length about the reasons that immigrants were traveling to the United States.
4. The victims of human trafficking and abuse by smugglers
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was the only lawmaker to bring attention to the recent rape and murder of an autistic Maryland woman that police have alleged was carried out by an MS-13 gang member who came across the southern border last year and claimed to be an unaccompanied minor.
“Many of the MS-13 gang members are being brought in the country as unaccompanied minors. They’re very young. They’re under 18,” Greene told the Border Patrol agents.
Greene pushed for answers about how Border Patrol agents screen minors in its criminal database systems, which are only able to show a person’s criminal history for offenses in the U.S., not for those outside the country.
Chavez and Modlin could not speak to the circumstances surrounding the MS-13 gang member’s entrance into the Rio Grande Valley prior to Chavez’s transfer there.
5. How to secure the border
Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) asked the two witnesses for the best ways to impede and deny illegal crossing attempts.
Chavez said her South Texas region “requires” physical barrier like a wall because of its heavy brush and winding river, but the region was “unprotected” because the massive border security projects funded by Trump had been canceled by Biden. Portions of the border with new wall were missing gates to secure the openings between them, allowing immigrants to walk on through.
The Tucson region saw 120 miles of border wall installed before Biden took office, Modlin said, but the Biden administration’s decision to stop all remaining wall-related projects prevented the technology, cameras, lighting, paved roads, and sensors that were also supposed to go in. Modlin said his wall also had numerous spots that had openings where gates should have been placed.
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Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose district runs along the 800 miles of the 2,000-mile southern border, asked if manpower and technology, not a barrier, would help to secure each area.
“Yes, absolutely,” Chavez said.
