House Gives Subpoena Ultimatum to Mayorkas, Demands Data on Terrorism Suspects Jumping the Border; Comer, Green, & Jordan Threaten to Subpoena DHS for Information on Aliens with Terrorist Ties Crossing the Border

House gives subpoena ultimatum to Mayorkas, demands data on terrorism suspects jumping the border:

Three House committee chairmen delivered a final warning Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, telling him to turn over details about terrorism suspects who’ve sneaked across the southern border or else they’ll seek to issue a subpoena to force him to comply.

They said they’ve been seeking the data for more than four months and “to date, you have failed to comply satisfactorily with our requests.”

“If the Department continues to fail to produce the requested documents by October 13, 2023, we will consider other measures, including use of the compulsory process, to gain compliance and obtain this material,” wrote Rep. James Comer, chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee; Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee; and Rep. Mark Green, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.

That compulsory process is a subpoena.

Republicans have been troubled by the surging number of terrorism suspects detected at the southern border since President Biden took office.

According to public data from Customs and Border Protection, 151 people whose identities matched the government’s terrorism screening data set have been nabbed by Border Patrol agents along the southern border this fiscal year. That is in addition to 98 last year and 15 in fiscal year 2021.

By contrast, just 11 were detected during the Trump administration from 2017 to 2020.

Security experts worry about who isn’t being detected amid the record flow of illegal immigrants now breaching the border or so-called “gotaways.”

CBP used to refuse to report the TSDS numbers, calling them sensitive law enforcement information. The agency reversed course in the spring of 2022 under pressure from House Republicans.

Homeland Security said releasing the data is part of its commitment to transparency.

The department told The Washington Times it would reply to the chairmen “via official channels.” —>READ MORE HERE

Comer, Green, & Jordan Threaten to Subpoena DHS for Information on Aliens with Terrorist Ties Crossing the Border:

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.), and House Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are renewing their request for information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on how the Department is tackling heightened national security risks posed by a skyrocketing number of aliens with terrorist ties illegally crossing the United States’ Southwest border. In the letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas, the Chairmen renewed their request for documents and information and threaten the compulsory process if DHS continues to stonewall oversight of the crisis along the Southwest border.

“As we explained in our initial letter, since President Biden began reversing policies deterring illegal border crossings, the United States has faced historic levels of illegal immigration. The number of individuals with derogatory information in terrorist screening databases illegally crossing the southwest border has also skyrocketed during the Biden Administration,” said the Chairmen. “Instead of turning over the requested information, [t]he Department ignored these inquiries or responded with vague, unhelpful excuses—citing, among other things, ‘interagency equities’ and the ‘sensitive’ nature of the information. Finally, on September 11, nearly four months after our request, the Department responded with a two-page letter. Instead of producing the requested documents and information, the Department directed the Committees to publicly available information and offered a classified briefing, ‘based on past precedent’ to ‘address these questions.’” —>READ MORE HERE

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