House Republican Oversight Chairman James Comer Announces Hearing on ‘Worst Border Crisis in American History’; DHS To Block Border Patrol Chiefs from Testifying to Congress

House Republican Oversight Chairman James Comer Announces Hearing on ‘Worst Border Crisis in American History’:

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced Thursday the committee will hold a hearing on the policies that have “ignited” the Biden border crisis.

Comer said in a written statement:

President Biden’s radical open borders agenda has ignited the worst border crisis in American history. The Biden Administration’s deliberate actions are fueling human smuggling, stimulating drug cartel operations, enabling deadly drugs such as fentanyl to flow into American communities, and encouraging illegal immigrants to flout U.S. immigration laws. Republicans will hold the Biden Administration accountable for this ongoing humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis that has turned every town into a border town. [Emphasis added]

The hearing, which will commence the week of February 6, could include border patrol agents, including:

• Jason Owens, chief border patrol agent, U.S. Border Patrol 
• Gregory, chief border patrol agent, U.S. Border Patrol
• Gloria Chavez, chief patrol agent, U.S. Border Patrol
• Patricia McGurk-Daniel, acting chief patrol agent, U.S. Border Patrol

Chairman Comer also requested Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to provide documents, communications, and information about DHS’s role in “undermining efforts to secure the southern border.” —>READ MORE HERE

DHS blocks Border Patrol chiefs from testifying to Congress:

The Department of Homeland Security has told Congress it will not allow four senior Border Patrol officials to testify next month about the chaos at the border.

Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House’s oversight committee, had invited the chief patrol agents in four sectors of the southern border to testify about what they are seeing right now. Mr. Comer said Friday that Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas vetoed letting them testify.

“DHS is obstructing congressional oversight,” Mr. Comer wrote in a letter challenging the move.

He said he may be forced to use “compulsory” measures — likely a subpoena — to force the testimony.

The dispute is the first of what is likely to be a series of clashes between the new House Republican majority and the Biden administration, which for two years benefited from a compliant Congress reluctant to probe the Democratic president’s actions and struggles.

In asking the career Border Patrol officials to testify, Mr. Comer was seeking to blow through the political smokescreen that the Biden team has erected around the chaos at the southern border. —>READ MORE HERE

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