Republicans are holding a field hearing to examine the growing border issue, but Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee will not go because they believe the GOP is solely interested in gaining political advantage. A comparable field hearing along the southern border was boycotted by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee about a month before to this boycott.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., issued a statement to the Washington Examiner saying, “After careful thought, Committee Democrats have chosen not to participate in the Republicans’ field hearing this week. “Unfortunately, it is now evident that Republicans had this event’s politicization as a strategic goal from the outset, going against the committee’s long tradition of bipartisanship. Republicans are traveling to the border, despite having voted against the funding border personnel require, not on a fact-finding expedition to improve border security and immigration regulations, but rather to trash the administration and try to score political points with their extreme language.
Mark Green, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, revealed last week that the hearing, scheduled for this Wednesday in McAllen, Texas, would focus on the “reckless” border policies of Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, as well as the “unprecedented crisis at our Southwest border.”
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz and a witness from Homeland Security who was summoned by Democrats will both testify at the session.
Recent months have seen unprecedented levels of migrant encounters at the southern border. There have reportedly been at least 4.7 million encounters with migrants trying to enter the country illegally since President Joseph Biden entered office, according to estimates.
Green told The Examiner that the only message that is conveyed by their absence is that they are unwilling to engage in a discussion about the devastating effects that the border issue is having on People and their communities nationwide. “We will keep urging our Democratic colleagues to leave the D.C. echo chamber and meet with Americans where they are to discuss the most pressing problems they are facing.
