New legislation set to be introduced in Congress would set a deadline for the Department of Homeland Security to release monthly border encounter statistics, and slash the salary of the agency’s secretary if it’s not met, The Daily Wire has learned.
While border encounters have spiked to all-time highs, DHS under the recently impeached Alejandro Mayorkas has routinely failed to release border encounter statistics in a timely manner — in the past six months, encounter figures have been kept secret up to three weeks after the end of last month, and are almost always dumped on Fridays or Saturdays, when the unflattering figures are less likely to be widely reported in the media.
The new legislation from Congresswoman Stephanie Bice (R-OK), however, would require the agency to release monthly border encounter numbers within seven days of the end of each month. Failure to release the figures on time would result in a 25% decrease in the salary of the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security the following month.
“In an attempt to hide the monthly illegal crossings, they consistently withhold information until late on Fridays or even the weekends to attempt to hide the truth from Americans,” Bice told The Daily Wire on Thursday. “Our border is out of control and the lack of accountability is fostering chaos. My legislation, the Timely Reporting Act, restores transparency and forces the Biden Administration to report illegal migration data in a timely fashion.”
“If they fail to do their job, they will be held accountable and face cuts to their salaries,” Bice said.
Mayorkas, who currently makes a salary of $203,500 a year, could theoretically see his annual salary decline by over $50,000 if he missed the deadline for 12 consecutive months.
The embattled DHS Secretary has been accused of intentionally delaying border encounter figure releases to hide the true extent of the border crisis. “By strategically holding the release of these numbers until the Friday before Christmas, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is unabashedly showing the full measure of his duplicity,” Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Mark Green (R-TN) charged after the November 2023 figures were released just days before Christmas.
Mayorkas’ delayed release of the figures was not unique to November. In 2023, the figures for August weren’t released until Friday, September 22nd; the September figures were released Saturday, October 21st; and the December 2023 figures weren’t released until Friday, January 26th. All the releases showed near record-breaking immigration levels and caused a wave of negative headlines for the administration.
Bice’s office says the Timely Reporting Act already has 22 Republican co-sponsors.
Congresswoman Bice’s Timely Reporting Act comes as the United States has faced an unprecedented crisis, with over 10 million crossing the border since Joe Biden took office including an estimated 1.7 million illegal immigrant gotaways. The increased figures include a record-breaking number of Chinese nationals and a 1,000% increase in illegal immigration from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and the Dominican Republic, among other countries.