Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and said that the border was “not” open even as the Biden administration has struggled to stem a surge of illegal crossings.
Mayorkas defended the administration’s policies during the hearing as he was grilled by Republicans about the state of the border. Since President Joe Biden took office, illegal immigrants have crossed into the U.S. in record numbers, and crossings are estimated to exceed at least 5 million.
“Our approach to managing the border securely and humanely, even within our fundamentally broken immigration system is working,” he said. “Unlawful entries between ports of entry along the southwest border have consistently decreased by more than half compared to the peak before the end of Title 42.”
After Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) asked him if the border was open, Mayorkas said “It is not,” a statement that was disputed by House Republicans.
“The MILLIONS of illegal aliens who have crossed our southern border would disagree! So would Border Patrol agents, border states, border towns,” the House Judiciary GOP Twitter account said.
"Is the border open, Mr. Secretary?" –@RepJerryNadler
"No, it is not." -Secretary Mayorkas
The MILLIONS of illegal aliens who have crossed our southern border would disagree!
So would Border Patrol agents, border states, border towns.. pic.twitter.com/M44vbjVH4w
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 26, 2023
Mayorkas faced questions from lawmakers about how many illegal immigrants had been released into the U.S. and if there would be a limit on how many illegal immigrants would be released into the country.
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) noted that the number of people who had been released into the U.S. was equivalent to the population of Nebraska.
“You’ve already released more than 2.1 million illegal immigrants into this country since you took office. That’s the population the size of the state of Nebraska,” he said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) hammered Mayorkas over what he called the “Mayorkas doctrine,” as deportations have plummeted under Biden.
“The Mayorkas doctrine is this: if you show up at the border and get released into the country, if you don’t commit a specific aggravated felony, which by the way doesn’t include a lot of assault and battery, doesn’t include a lot of domestic violence, but if you’re not one of the people who commit those crimes, you get to stay forever,” he said.
According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there have been 1,789,605 southwest land border encounters so far in the fiscal year 2023, which began in October.
“I know that today Secretary Mayorkas is going to try to paint a rosy picture of this disastrous mismanagement of our border,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) said. “But the numbers don’t lie.”