Washington (Nexstar) – House Republicans held a hearing in Texas, which was boycotted by some Democrats, as lawmakers asked border officials about the drugs and people flowing across the border.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), who chairs the House homeland security committee, noted the “drug cartels who just captured and killed a couple of Americans and are making billions, bringing people into the United States.”
Green asked the border patrol chief why more migrants are arriving at the border during the Biden administration. Republicans say economic and health factors in the United States aren’t new and blame the crisis on the homeland security secretary and the administration.
“Those policies came from the promises the president made during his campaign,” Rep. Green said.
The border patrol chief agreed some changes in policies are contributing to the surges in migrants and said that’s happening along both borders, adding there’s “an awful lot of influx of migrants from Canada.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) said his focus is on the U.S.-Mexico border saying, “I’m not worried about the northern border. Let’s talk strictly about the southern border.”
In a statement, the White House called the hearing a partisan stunt.
“Chief Ortiz, who’s actually in Washington D.C., was the main Republican witness and they flew him to the border,” Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) said.
Rep. Correa and other Democrats skipped the hearing and say Republicans have not helped deliver solutions.
Rep. Correa furthered, “we did have some funding for additional officers at the border and a lot of my colleagues on the Republican side voted against this measure.”