[House Hearing, 119 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
PART 1: CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE: HOW
BIDEN'S POLICIES FUELED THE BORDER CRISIS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
BORDER SECURITY
AND ENFORCEMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MARCH 25, 2025
__________
Serial No. 119-9
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
61-301 PDF WASHINGTON : 2025
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
Mark E. Green, MD, Tennessee, Chairman
Michael T. McCaul, Texas, Vice Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi,
Chair Ranking Member
Clay Higgins, Louisiana Eric Swalwell, California
Michael Guest, Mississippi J. Luis Correa, California
Carlos A. Gimenez, Florida Shri Thanedar, Michigan
August Pfluger, Texas Seth Magaziner, Rhode Island
Andrew R. Garbarino, New York Daniel S. Goldman, New York
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Delia C. Ramirez, Illinois
Tony Gonzales, Texas Timothy M. Kennedy, New York
Morgan Luttrell, Texas LaMonica McIver, New Jersey
Dale W. Strong, Alabama Julie Johnson, Texas, Vice Ranking
Josh Brecheen, Oklahoma Member
Elijah Crane, Arizona Pablo Jose Hernandez, Puerto Rico
Andrew Ogles, Tennessee Nellie Pou, New Jersey
Sheri Biggs, South Carolina Troy A. Carter, Louisiana
Gabe Evans, Colorado Robert Garcia, California
Ryan Mackenzie, Pennsylvania Al Green, Texas
Brad Knott, North Carolina
Eric Heighberger, Staff Director
Hope Goins, Minority Staff Director
Sean Corcoran, Chief Clerk
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON BORDER SECURITY AND ENFORCEMENT
Michael Guest, Mississippi, Chairman
Tony Gonzales, Texas J. Luis Correa, California,
Elijah Crane, Arizona Ranking Member
Andrew Ogles, Tennessee Delia C. Ramirez, Illinois
Sheri Biggs, South Carolina Julie Johnson, Texas
Brad Knott, North Carolina Vacant
Mark E. Green, MD, Tennessee (ex Vacant
officio) Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi
(ex officio)
Natasha Eby, Subcommittee Staff Director
Brieana Marticorena, Minority Subcommittee Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Statements
The Honorable Michael Guest, a Representative in Congress From
the State of Mississippi, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Border
Security and Enforcement:
Oral Statement................................................. 1
Prepared Statement............................................. 2
The Honorable J. Luis Correa, a Representative in Congress From
the State of California, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Border Security and Enforcement:
Oral Statement................................................. 3
Prepared Statement............................................. 5
The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, a Representative in Congress
From the State of Mississippi, and Ranking Member, Committee on
Homeland Security:
Oral Statement................................................. 6
Prepared Statement............................................. 7
Witnesses
Ms. Lora Ries, Director, Border Security and Immigration Center,
The Heritage Foundation:
Oral Statement................................................. 9
Prepared Statement............................................. 11
Mr. Ammon S. Blair, Senior Fellow, Secure and Sovereign Texas
Initiative, Texas Public Policy Foundation:
Oral Statement................................................. 16
Prepared Statement............................................. 18
Mr. Jon Anfinsen, Executive Vice President, National Border
Patrol Council:
Oral Statement................................................. 23
Prepared Statement............................................. 25
Mr. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Senior Fellow, American Immigration
Council:
Oral Statement................................................. 28
Prepared Statement............................................. 30
For the Record
The Honorable J. Luis Correa, a Representative in Congress From
the State of California, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Border Security and Enforcement:
Article, March 22, 2025........................................ 43
The Honorable Elijah Crane, a Representative in Congress From the
State of Arizona:
Article, January 26, 2024...................................... 51
Article, January 30, 2024...................................... 52
Article, February 18, 2025..................................... 53
Article, February 8, 2024...................................... 54
Article, January 8, 2024....................................... 56
The Honorable Sheri Biggs, a Representative in Congress From the
State of South Carolina:
Article, February 12, 2025..................................... 58
PART 1: CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE: HOW BIDEN'S POLICIES FUELED THE BORDER
CRISIS
----------
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Homeland Security,
Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:07 p.m., at
Room 310, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Michael Guest
[Chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Guest, Gonzales, Crane, Ogles,
Biggs, Knott, Correa, Ramirez, and Johnson.
Also present: Representative Thompson.
Mr. Guest. The Committee on Homeland Security's
Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement will come to
order. Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare
the committee in recess at any point.
The purpose of this hearing is to examine the actions that
gave rise to the historic border crisis we witnessed over the
last 4 years. More importantly, this hearing will enable
Congress to explore potential legislative solutions to ensure
that the United States does not endure another such crisis.
I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
Good morning and welcome to the Subcommittee on Border
Security and Enforcement hearing on how the Biden-Harris
administration's failed border policies fueled a historic
crisis at our Southwest Border, which the Trump administration
is now addressing with bold, long-awaited action. First, I want
to say it is an honor to serve as Chairman of this
subcommittee, and I look forward to working with my colleagues
on both sides of the aisle, especially with the Ranking Member,
the gentleman from the great State of California,
Representative Correa, as we seek to address the critical
challenges facing our Nation's border security.
Just over 4 years ago, on January 20, 2021, President Biden
was sworn into office. On that very same day, with the stroke
of a pen, he issued Executive Orders dismantling years of
robust border security measures implemented by the first Trump
administration. The results can only be described as a colossal
failure. We have often heard the phrase, those who don't know
history are doomed to repeat it. So to be clear, this hearing
is not about looking back just for the sake of looking back,
but instead is about learning from past failures so that
Congress can work together to pass meaningful and lasting
solutions to secure our border. The policies we put in place
today will shape the future and ensure the failures of the past
will never be repeated.
Over the course of 4 years, the Biden-Harris administration
introduced sweeping policy changes that prioritized rapid
processing and release over enforcement, thereby dismantling
border security policies meant to deter illegal immigrants--
excuse me, meant to deter illegal immigration and protect
Americans from foreign threats abroad. The consequences were
devastating as we saw record levels of illegal immigration, a
surge in crime committed by transnational criminal
organizations, and a weakening of national security.
The administration also ended key deterrent measures, such
as Remain in Mexico and safe third country asylum agreements.
It expanded the CBP One app and created mass parole programs to
facilitate the illegal entry of inadmissible aliens into the
United States. As a result, every State in America has now
become a border State. Violent criminal gangs infiltrated
American communities and carried out heinous crimes, crimes
such as murder, assault, robbery, and rape, these crimes which
jeopardize the safety of all American citizens.
When President Trump took office in January, he and his
administration wasted no time in reversing the failed policies
of the Biden-Harris administration. His administration
immediately declared a national emergency at the Southwest
Border and took aggressive actions such as deploying troops to
assist and support DHS to regain operational control. The
President also resumed border wall construction, ended Biden-
era mass parole programs, and terminated the failed catch-and-
release policy.
The results were seen almost immediately. By the end of
February, Customs and Border Protection data revealed record
low numbers of apprehension at the Southwest Border. Illegal
entries between ports of entry plummeted 94 percent compared to
February 2024. Meanwhile, at the same time, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement ramped up its enforcement efforts and
increased arrest of public safety threats by 627 percent.
I would like to close with a quote from one of our
witnesses. ``The bottom line is this did not have to happen and
we need to prevent it from happening again. We must do all we
can to learn from the past, to protect the safety and security
of all American people, and to ensure that the failures of the
past will not be repeated.''
[The statement of Chairman Guest follows:]
Statement of Chairman Michael Guest
March 25, 2025
Good morning, and welcome to the Subcommittee on Border Security
and Enforcement hearing on how the Biden-Harris administration's failed
border policies fueled a historic crisis at our Southwest Border, which
the Trump administration is now addressing with bold, long-awaited
action.
It is an honor to serve as Chairman of this subcommittee, and I
look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle--
especially with the Ranking Member, the gentleman from California,
Representative Lou Correa--to address the critical challenges facing
our Nation's border security.
On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden, was sworn into office and
on that very same day, with a stroke of a pen, he issued Executive
Orders dismantling years of robust border security measures implemented
by the first Trump administration. The results were catastrophic.
We have often heard the phase, ``those who don't know history are
doomed to repeated it.''
To be clear, this hearing is not about looking backwards but
instead it is about learning from past failures so that Congress can
work together to pass meaningful and lasting solutions to secure our
border. The policies we put in place today will shape the future and
ensure that the failures over the past 4 years will never be repeated.
Although the Biden-Harris administration is no longer in the White
House, its legacy left our Nation's border in tatters. It is the
responsibility of this subcommittee to uncover what happened, identify
why it happened, and determine how Congress can work together to
implement solutions to prevent a future border crisis.
Over the course of 4 years, the Biden-Harris administration
introduced sweeping policy changes that prioritized rapid processing
and release over enforcement, thereby dismantling border security
policies meant to deter illegal immigration and protect Americans from
foreign threats abroad. The consequences were devastating--as we saw
record levels of illegal immigration, a surge in crimes committed by
transnational criminal organizations, and a weakening of national
security.
The administration also ended key deterrence measures, such as
``Remain in Mexico'' and safe-third country asylum agreements. At the
same time, the previous administration expanded the CBP One app and
created mass parole programs to facilitate the illegal entry of
inadmissible aliens into the United States.
As a result, every State in America has now become a border State.
Violent criminal gangs infiltrated American communities and carried
out heinous criminal acts, such as murder, rape, assault, and robbery--
which jeopardized the safety of all American citizens.
When President Trump took office this January, he and his
administration wasted no time in reversing the failed policies of the
Biden-Harris administration.
His administration immediately declared a national emergency at the
Southwest Border and took aggressive actions, such as deploying troops
to assist and support DHS operations to regain operational control. The
President also resumed border wall construction, ended Biden-era mass
parole programs, and terminated the failed catch-and-release policy.
The results were seen almost immediately. By the end of February,
Customs and Border Protection data revealed record-low apprehensions at
the Southwest Border, thanks to the change in policy. Illegal entries
between ports of entry plummeted 94 percent compared to February 2024.
Meanwhile, at the same time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement ramped
up its enforcement efforts and increased arrests of public safety
threats by 627 percent.
I will close with a quote from one of our witnesses, ``the bottom
line is this did not have to happen, and we need to prevent it from
happening again.
We must do all we can to learn from the past to protect the safety
and security of the American people and to ensure that failures of the
past will never happen again.
Mr. Guest. At this time, I would now recognize the Ranking
Member for the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement,
the gentleman from California, Mr. Correa, for his opening
statement.
Mr. Correa. Thank you, Chairman Guest, and I concur with
you. Thank you for being Chair of this committee. I look
forward to working with you on border security.
Border security, in my opinion, is not just border
security. It is national security. This is not an issue of
Democrats or Republicans, but rather it is an issue that
addresses all taxpayers, all citizens in this great Nation.
Today is our first subcommittee hearing, 119th Congress. This
topic selected by you, Mr. Chairman. We are looking at the
past, yet I would like to look at the future and what the
challenges are for us at the border in this Nation.
We are not looking at conducting oversight on how the Trump
administration is ripping away legal statuses, legal rights,
work permits from immigrants lawfully within this country,
ending parole for Ukrainian war refugees or Venezuelans or
Cubans, in addition to ending status for Afghan refugees who
fought alongside American troops in Afghanistan. We have to
keep our moral obligation to those that have fought next to our
American troops, for those that had the back of our American
troops overseas.
We don't want to talk about ICE agents questioning and
arresting American citizens, U.S. citizens, Mr. Chairman; or
efforts to deport U.S. veterans, immigrant veterans that have
been essentially fighting for this country; or U.S. citizen
children with brain cancer. We need to address these issues,
Mr. Chairman.
I recently met with front-line CBP officers, who expressed
frustration with this new administration and how they are
addressing efficiency initiatives. Yet today we won't be
discussing those issues. Instead, we are looking at the past.
Let's be clear, the Biden administration left President
Trump with declining border crossing, record number of fentanyl
seizures, despite my colleagues not wanting to admit it, and
sadly for me, I hate to admit it, a higher daily rate of
deportations than we have seen in a very long time. When
President Trump first left office, unauthorized border
crossings were at a rise, gotaways were on the rise, and
synthetic opioid deaths were also on the rise. In fact, in
those days, they were already calling it a crisis, and that was
in the President Trump's first watch.
Now that he is back in office, I was hoping, Mr. Chairman,
that we focus on oversight of what is happening now at the
border. Yet it is hard to fix things when the administration,
today's administration, refuses to tell our staff what is
happening at the border. I hope we will have the administration
here to answer some questions as we begin to address and
continue to address national security.
Mr. Chair, President Biden is gone. Let's focus today on
the nuts and bolts of border security. For example, fixing
severe staffing shortages at our ports of entry, stopping
cartels from getting American-made weapons. Those are the
issues we need to focus on. Yet today the new administration is
doubling down on cutting the Federal work force and gutting DHS
in the name of efficiency and cost savings. Yet we are
completely overlooking the fact that Secretary Noem just spent
$200 million, $200 million, on TV ads praising the new
President.
We are also overlooking the fact that the administration
spent $16 million to fly 300 detained immigrants to Guantanamo
Bay in Cuba just to send them back to the United States. It is
also my understanding that this new administration also
directed our soldiers to construct tents and hold detained
immigrants in Guantanamo at a cost of $3 million. New tents in
Guantanamo for $3 million. But they weren't even built to DHS
standards, so they were not even used. How is that for cost
savings, Mr. Chairman?
Another example, in one facility in Texas, we are spending
thousands of dollars to detain a working family and their 6-
and 8-year-old children. I guess this is what America--a safer
America looks like today.
Let's not forget, with all the law enforcement agents, like
DEA, FBI, ATF, they are being forced to become deportation
officers away from their priority investigations of drug
cartels, money laundering, child sex trafficking. Sadly, some
of these cases may be going unsolved and will become cold
cases.
This administration pushed to inflate ICE arrests and
deportations. DHS ended up rounding up Venezuelan-American
families whose citizen children were recovering from brain
cancer. That is right, a 10-year-old American with brain cancer
was deported by this administration. Again, an American
citizen, 10 years old. By the way, the parents had no criminal
record and had been here for quite some time. Again, is this
what makes America look safer or America safe again?
Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working with you on future
hearings to focus on what makes our border stronger, safer,
what keeps our neighborhood safe, what keeps fentanyl, other
narcotics off our streets, as well as bad people from entering
this country, and, of course, while improving international
trade that is good for America.
Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for holding this hearing.
With that, I yield.
[The statement of Ranking Member Correa follows:]
Statement of Ranking Member J. Luis Correa
March 25, 2025
Today's hearing is our first subcommittee hearing of the 119th
Congress, though, its topic--selected by my Republican colleagues--
seems to be focused on the past. They appear to not want to conduct
oversight of how the Trump administration is ripping away legal status
and work permits from immigrants lawfully in the United States, like
ending parole for Ukrainians, Venezuelans, and Cubans in addition to
Afghans who helped our troops.
They don't want to talk about ICE agents questioning or arresting
U.S. citizens, or their efforts to deport veterans who served our
country in Iraq and U.S. citizen children with brain cancer.
My Republican colleagues don't want to hear from their constituents
about this--they've been directed to cancel town halls. They know their
actions are unpopular.
We can't ignore the concerns of the people we were sent here to
represent. No matter how tough it is to hear sometimes.
I recently met with front-line CBP officers who expressed deep
frustration with how this administration has handled their so-called
efficiency initiatives. Their frustration is understandable and
warranted. Yet we won't be discussing their needs or remedies to this
mismanagement here today.
Instead, Republicans set up a hearing to relitigate the past. The
Biden administration left President Trump with declining border
crossings numbers, a record number of fentanyl seizures, and--despite
some of my colleagues not wanting to admit it--a higher daily rate of
deportations than what we see now.
I hope my colleagues don't ignore that, or the conditions that the
first Trump administration left the border.
When President Trump first left office, illegal crossings were on
the rise, gotaways were on the rise, and synthetic opioids deaths were
on the rise.
In fact, they were already calling it a crisis on President Trump's
first watch. Now that he's back in office, I thought they'd focus on
conducting oversight of what's happening now at the border. It's hard
to fix things when the administration refuses to tell our staff what's
happening at the border. I hope we'll have the administration here to
answer our questions soon.
Or maybe, now that they are no longer set on blocking border
security legislation to score points against President Biden, maybe
they would have hearings aimed at fixing severe staffing shortages at
ports of entry, stopping the cartels from getting American-made
weapons, or authorizing more resources for our Homeland Security
Investigations special agents investigating human traffickers and drug
smugglers.
Instead, they've doubled down on cutting the Federal work force and
gutting DHS in the name of apparent ``cost savings.''
It seems that they must've completely missed the news about
Secretary Noem spending $200 million on TV ads praising President
Trump.
Or, that the administration spent $16 million dollars to fly and
detain only 300 migrants in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba just to send them back
to detention facilities in the United States.
It's my understanding that the administration also directed our
soldiers to construct tents to hold detained migrants in Guantanamo.
These tents cost over $3 million dollars to build and failed to
meet basic DHS standards, so they weren't operational.
This administration then forced DEA, ATF, HSI, and FBI agents to
put their investigations into the worst of the worst on hold in order
to help ICE arrest as many noncitizens as possible--many of whom have
been here for years working and have no criminal history.
Now, this administration is reopening family detention centers. At
one facility in Texas, we're spending thousands of dollars to detain a
working family and their 6- and 8-year-old children.
Is this what making America safe looks like?
With all the law enforcement agents being forced to become
deportation officers, it's possible that some of the cases that they
were working will go unsolved. Leads will go cold while they help round
up migrants convicted of driving their bicycle on the wrong side of the
road.
In this administration's push to inflate ICE arrests and
deportations, DHS ended up rounding up a Venezuelan American family,
whose U.S. citizen child was recovering from brain cancer. That's
right--a 10-year-old American with brain cancer was deported by this
administration.
The parents had no criminal record and have been here for quite a
long time. Yet, this administration made sure to prioritize their
deportation.
Again, is this what making America safe or securing the border
looks like?
Mr. Chairman, I urge you to focus future hearings on what this
subcommittee can actually do together in a bipartisan way--to secure
the border, improve international trade, and keep fentanyl off our
streets.
Mr. Guest. Thank you, Mr. Correa. At this time, I would now
recognize the Ranking Member for the entire committee, the
gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Thompson, for his opening
statement.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I look
forward to working with you as another Mississippian on this
committee. I welcome our panel of witnesses and look forward to
their testimony, also, today.
But more than 2 months into the Trump administration,
Americans want to know why administration officials aren't here
to answer the questions. Why haven't Republicans held a single
hearing with administration witnesses this whole Congress? Why
don't Trump administration officials answer to this committee
for their immigration policies? Are they afraid of answering
our questions about why they have rounded up and detained U.S.
citizens, even deported U.S. citizens with no due process? You
have already heard about the 10-year-old American girl who was
deported, battling brain cancer.
Don't they want to explain why they have disappeared people
with no criminal record or evidence of wrongdoing from this
country without so much as a hearing in defiance of a Federal
judge's order? Or why they pull law enforcement off cases
targeting child abusers, traffickers, and smugglers to carry
out immigration raids against people with no criminal history?
That is just what we know from the media reports. We have
received next to no information from DHS on what is happening,
despite our inquiries. Administration officials want to go on
FOX News and pose for photo ops, but they don't want to be held
accountable by Congress. Congressional Republicans are
complicit in helping them evade oversight.
Today, my Republican colleagues want to talk about the
Biden administration yet again, rather than the bad policies
and abuses of the Trump administration. I guess it is to be
expected. I understand many of my Republican colleagues are
hiding from their own constituents, having been directed by
their leadership not to hold town halls or to hear from
constituents who are upset at Trump's policies. We should be
focusing on the issues affecting our communities today.
This administration, with the help of unelected billionaire
Elon Musk, is ignoring laws passed by Congress. They are making
Americans less safe while increasing prices for every-day
goods. This committee should be providing oversight on the
Trump administration as they sentenced people with no criminal
record to hard labor in a notorious prison in El Salvador. This
committee should be examining how ordering thousands of special
agents to assist ICE with immigration enforcement hurts the
Government's ability to conduct criminal investigation into
child exploitation, human trafficking, drug smuggling, arms
smuggling, and tax fraud. Or worse yet, to assign FBI agents to
investigate Tesla damage as an act of domestic terrorism.
President Trump has even suggested convicted criminals of
these crimes, including U.S. citizens, should be sent to the
notorious mega prison in El Salvador, the very same place he is
disappearing migrants under the Alien Enemies Act. It doesn't
make us safer when the administration pauses serious criminal
investigation so that special agents can help ICE arrest people
in communities who pose no harm.
This committee should be conducting oversight of the Trump
administration, squandering millions in taxpayers' money to
house migrants in inhumane conditions in Guantanamo. Trump said
that the worst of the worst would be held there, but many of
the detainees had no criminal records at all. One migrant sent
there was riding his bike on the wrong side of the road. That
certainly doesn't sound like the worst of the worst.
We have also heard of U.S. citizens being detained and
questioned by ICE. CBP has detained and effectively deported
U.S. citizens. That is not who we are as people.
There are real threats to this country that we need to
focus on. While the Trump administration is fixated on creating
sound bites and photo ops, Democrats will remain focused on
doing what is best for the American people. The Trump
administration should be here to answer our questions.
I thank the witnesses for being here today, and I yield
back.
[The statement of Ranking Member Thompson follows:]
Statement of Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson
March 25, 2025
More than 2 months into the Trump administration, Americans want to
know why administration officials aren't here to answer our questions.
Why haven't Republicans held a single hearing with administration
witnesses this Congress? Why don't Trump administration officials
answer to this committee for their immigration policies?
Are they afraid of answering our questions about why they have
rounded up and detained U.S. citizens? Even deported U.S. citizens with
no due process? Including a 10-year-old American girl battling brain
cancer?
Don't they want to explain why they have ``disappeared'' people
with no criminal record or evidence of wrongdoing from this country
without so much as a hearing, in defiance of a Federal judge's order?
Or why they have pulled law enforcement off cases targeting child
abusers, traffickers, and smugglers to carry out immigration raids
against people with no criminal history?
And that's just what we know about from media reports. We've
received next to no information from DHS on what's happening despite
our inquiries.
Administration officials want to go on Fox News and pose for photo
ops, but they don't want to be held accountable by Congress. And
Congressional Republicans are complicit in helping them evade
oversight.
Today, my Republican colleagues want to talk about the Biden
administration, yet again, rather than the bad policies and abuses of
the Trump administration.
I guess it's to be expected. I understand many of my Republican
colleagues are hiding from their own constituents, having been directed
by their leadership not to hold town halls to hear from constituents
who are upset at Trump's policies.
We should be focusing on the issues affecting our communities
today. This administration, with the help of unelected billionaire Elon
Musk, is ignoring laws passed by Congress. They are making Americans
less safe while increasing prices for everyday goods.
This committee should be providing oversight on the Trump
administration as they sentence people with no criminal records to hard
labor in a notorious prison in El Salvador.
This committee should be examining how ordering thousands of
special agents to assist ICE with immigration enforcement hurts the
Government's ability to conduct criminal investigations into child
exploitation, human trafficking, drug smuggling, arms smuggling, and
tax fraud.
Or worse yet, to assign the FBI to investigate Tesla damage as an
act of domestic terrorism. President Trump has even suggested convicted
criminals of these crimes, including U.S. citizens, could be sent to
the notorious mega prison in El Salvador. The very same place he is
disappearing migrants to under the Alien Enemies Act.
It doesn't make us safer when the administration pauses serious
criminal investigations so that special agents can help ICE can arrest
people in communities who pose no harm.
This committee should be conducting oversight of the Trump
administration squandering millions in taxpayer money to house migrants
in inhumane conditions at Guantanamo. Trump said that the worst of the
worst would be held there, but many of the detainees had no criminal
records at all. One migrant was sent there for riding his bike on the
wrong side of the road. That certainly doesn't sound like the worst of
the worst.
We've also heard of U.S. citizens being detained and questioned by
ICE. CBP has detained and effectively deported U.S. citizens. That's
not who we are as a people.
There are real threats to this country that we need to focus on.
While the Trump administration is fixated on creating sound bites and
photo ops, Democrats will remain focused on doing what's best for the
American people. The Trump administration should be here to answer our
questions.
Mr. Guest. Thank you, Chairman Thompson--or Ranking Member
Thompson, for that opening statement.
Other Members of the committee are reminded that opening
statements may be submitted for the record. I am pleased to
welcome our distinguished panel of witnesses and I ask that our
witnesses please raise their right hand and please rise.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Guest. Let the record reflect that the witnesses have
answered in the affirmative. Thank you, and you may be seated.
I would now like to formally introduce our witnesses.
First, I would like to start with Ms. Lora Ries. She is the
director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the
Heritage Foundation. She has nearly 30 years' experience in the
immigration and homeland security arena. She twice worked at
the Department of Homeland Security on management and
immigration policy and operations issues, most recently as the
acting deputy chief of staff. Previously, she worked in the
Legislative branch as counsel for the U.S. House of
Representatives' Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on
Immigration and Claims.
Our second witness is Mr. Ammon Blair. He is a senior
fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation Secure and
Sovereign Texas Initiative. Blair has over 10 years of
experience as a U.S. Border Patrol agent serving in the Rio
Grande Valley sector. He is also a 20-plus-year U.S. Army
veteran serving both as an enlisted soldier and commissioned
officer in various leadership and staff roles, including as an
infantry platoon leader on Operation Lone Star.
Our third witness is Mr. Jon Anfinsen. He serves as the
executive vice president of the National Border Patrol Council,
the labor union representing over 16,000 Border Patrol agents
and support staff. In addition to his national role, he is the
president of the local chapter which covers the Del Rio, Texas,
area. He has been assigned as a Border Patrol agent for over 18
years. Throughout his career he has been assigned to the Del
Rio sector in Texas where he has served in various capacities,
including several years in the prosecution unit and 2 years as
a liaison to the U.S. Attorney's office in Del Rio.
Our fourth witness is Mr. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. He is
currently a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
He previously served as policy director and senior policy
counsel for the organization. Prior to the American Immigration
Council, he was a staff attorney in the Immigration Law Unit
for the Legal Aid Society of New York City.
I would like to personally thank all of our witnesses for
being here today. The witnesses' full statements will appear
for the record.
I now recognize Ms. Ries for 5 minutes to summarize her
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF LORA RIES, DIRECTOR, BORDER SECURITY AND
IMMIGRATION CENTER, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Ms. Ries. Good morning, Chairman Guest, Ranking Members
Thompson and Correa, and Members of the subcommittee. Thank you
for the opportunity to testify today. The views I express in
this testimony are my own and do not represent any official
position of the Heritage Foundation.
When trying to solve the mass illegal immigration that this
country experienced the past 4 years, it is important to ask
how did we get here to avoid repeating it in the future. The
last administration used a number of policy tools that fueled
the border crisis and facilitated mass illegal immigration to
the United States. In so doing, the Biden administration gave
aliens coming illegally here the 5 things that they want. When
coming to the United States, illegal aliens generally want to
enter our country, remain here, work here, send money home, and
bring or have family here. Policies that permit those 5 things
generate and facilitate more illegal immigration, whereas
policies that prevent those 5 things prevent illegal
immigration. Here are some examples from the last
administration.
For entry the Biden administration encouraged millions to
come and apply for asylum, going back to a 2020 Presidential
primary debate when Joe Biden encouraged aliens to
``immediately surge the border'' and claim asylum. During the
past 4 years, the left and media referred to all coming here
illegally as ``asylum seekers'' to both encourage people to
apply for the benefit and to generate American empathy for the
masses who were coming here.
The reality was, before the Biden administration, the vast
majority of asylum applicants were denied asylum because they
were not eligible. Knowing many were coming here for economic
reasons, not because they were fleeing persecution, meant the
administration was encouraging asylum fraud.
Then Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also
encouraged unaccompanied alien children border crossings by
saying publicly multiple times, if you come as an unaccompanied
child, you will not be turned back. The result? U.S. Customs
and Border Protection encountered a historic 550,000
unaccompanied children during the last 4 years. Biden's
Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible
for providing shelter for unaccompanied children, turned them
over to unvetted sponsors. Unsurprisingly, children ended up in
sex trafficking, child labor, and HHS lost track of at least
300,000 of them.
The Biden administration also paid tens of billions of
dollars to nongovernmental organizations, or NGO's, to build an
infrastructure for mass migration from as far south as at least
Panama to and throughout the United States. These NGO's
arranged transportation, shelter, health care, documentation,
legal services, and other, quote, ``wraparound'' services for
the aliens. The money sent to these NGO's went out through DHS,
the State Department, HHS, USAID, the Justice Department, and
more. We, the U.S. taxpayers, were paying for our own national
destruction.
To bring in additional tens of thousands of inadmissible
aliens each month, Secretary Mayorkas went around the legal
visa process, around the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, and
instead issued mass parole based mostly on nationality and in
violation of the immigration statute. To allow the masses of
aliens to remain in the United States, the Biden administration
severely restricted immigration enforcement, gave billions of
dollars to sanctuary jurisdictions in conjunction with the
NGO's to shield inadmissible aliens and provide them benefits.
The administration also increased and extended numerous
designations of temporary protected status, used prosecutorial
discretion to not seek aliens' removals, and administratively
closed other removal cases, thereby giving deportable aliens
more time here until they could become eligible for another
immigration benefit.
As for working in the United States, Secretary Mayorkas
issued employment authorization documents as a default. If the
underlying immigration benefit, like merely filing an asylum
application, already provided work authorization, Secretary
Mayorkas accelerated it. If Congress never authorized work for
an immigration benefit, like parole, Mayorkas issued work cards
anyway.
The Biden administration abused our immigration system,
resulting in a historic 11 million CBP encounters in just 4
years. These bad policies brought unsustainable numbers of
people to our communities, along with national insecurity,
fentanyl, violent gang members, and other issues. With the new
Trump administration, we have already seen border numbers
plummet because President Trump immediately put policies into
place that prevent illegal entry and other benefits for
inadmissible and deportable aliens.
This concludes my testimony and I look forward to your
questions. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Ries follows:]
Prepared Statement of Lora Ries
March 25, 2025
My name is Lora Ries and I am the director of the Border Security
and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express
in this testimony are my own and should not be construed as
representing any official position of The Heritage Foundation.
When trying to solve a historic problem like the intentional mass
illegal migration this country experienced the past 4 years, it is
important to ask the question, ``How did we get here?''--not just to
fix the problem, but also to avoid repeating it in the future.
The decision to open the border was a policy choice made by Joe
Biden's Presidential campaign. The American public saw glimpses of his
future policies in late 2019 and 2020. During a Presidential primary
campaign debate in 2019, Joe Biden said he would ``make sure . . . we
immediately surge to the border all those people that are seeking
asylum. They deserve to be heard. That's who we are. We're a Nation
that says if you want to flee and you're fleeing oppression, you should
come.''\1\ In January 2020, Biden tweeted that he would end the Remain
in Mexico program on Day 1.\2\ In an August 2020 media interview, Biden
said, ``There will not be another foot of wall constructed [by] my
administration.''\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Karl Salzmann, ``Flashback: Biden Tells Migrants to `Surge to
the Border,' '' Washington Free Beacon, May 10, 2023, https://
freebeacon.com/biden-administration/flashback-biden-tells-migrants-to-
surge-to-the-border/ (accessed March 16, 2025).
\2\ Joe Biden, X, Jan. 29, 2020, https://x.com/JoeBiden/status/
122269199-
9364657152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E12226919
9936-
4657152%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost
- .com%2Fnational%2Fbiden-immigration-policy-
changes%2F2020%2F12%2F22%2F2eb9ef92-4400-11eb-8deb-
b948d0931c16_story.html (accessed March 21, 2025).
\3\ Barbara Sprunt, ``Biden Would End Border Wall Construction, But
Wouldn't Tear Down Trump's Additions,'' NPR, August 5, 2020, https://
www.npr.org/2020/08/05/899266045/biden-would-end-border-wall-
construction-but-wont-tear-down-trump-s-additions (accessed March 16,
2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then, once Biden was sworn in as President, he wasted no time
unleashing his open border agenda. On the first day of his
administration, Biden began halting effective immigration enforcement
and anti-fraud measures. His orders included stopping construction of
the border wall system, ending enrollments of aliens in the effective
anti-asylum fraud Remain in Mexico program, ordering that no
deportations would occur for the first 100 days of his administration,
and revoking President Trump's Executive Order and Presidential
Memorandum ordering the collection of citizenship information during
the decennial Census and exclusion of illegal aliens from the Census
apportionment of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ National Immigration Law Center, ``Biden Administration Day One
Immigration Actions,'' January 28, 2021, https://www.nilc.org/
resources/biden-administration-day-one-immigration-actions/ (accessed
March 18, 2025); President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Executive Order 13986,
``Ensuring a Lawful and Accurate Enumeration and Apportionment Pursuant
to the Decennial Census,'' January 20, 2021, Federal Register, Vol. 86,
No. 14 (January 25, 2021), pp.7015-7017, https://
www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/25/2021-01755/ensuring-a-
lawful-and-accurate-enumeration-and-apportionment-pursuant-to-the-
decennial-census (accessed March 18, 2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biden directed Federal agencies to refer to legal and illegal
aliens alike as ``noncitizens,'' thereby ignoring statutory language to
erase the line between legal and illegal immigration.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Memorandum from Troy A. Miller, senior official performing the
duties of the commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to
deputy commissioner et al., ``Subject: Updated Terminology for CBP
Communications and Materials,'' April 19, 2021, https://
lawprofessors.typepad.com/files/4-19-21-cbp-memo.pdf (accessed March
18, 2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
His political appointees implemented policies to instruct U.S.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to process most inadmissible
aliens they encountered into the United States in violation of the
immigration statute instead of returning them across the border.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ Adam Shaw, Bill Melugin, and Griff Jenkins, ``Mayorkas Tells
Border Patrol Agents That `Above 85%' of Illegal Immigrants Released
into US: Sources,'' Fox News, January 8, 2024, https://www.foxnews.com/
politics/mayorkas-tells-border-patrol-agents-illegal-immigrants-
released-into-us-sources (accessed March 19, 2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Left and the media referred to all encountered illegal aliens
as ``asylum seekers'' in an attempt to generate American empathy for
the masses who were coming to the United States. Meanwhile, the real
consequence of this propaganda was to encourage inadmissible aliens to
file fraudulent asylum applications to buy themselves more time to
remain in the United States and gain work authorization.
Using a 2021 policy memorandum, Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas restricted U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement's (ICE's) ability to execute most of its
immigration enforcement functions, limiting investigations, arrests,
detentions, prosecutions, and deportations to spies, terrorists, some
aggravated felons, and aliens who illegally crossed the border after
November 1, 2020.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ Memorandum from Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Secretary, U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, to Tae D. Johnson, acting director,
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Troy Miller, acting
commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Ur Jaddou, director,
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; Robert Silvers, under
secretary, Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans; Katherine Culliton-
Gonzalez, officer for civil rights and civil liberties, Office for
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; and Lynn Parker Dupree, chief privacy
officer, Privacy Office, ``Subject: Guidelines for the Enforcement of
Civil Immigration Law,'' September 30, 2021, https://www.ice.gov/
doclib/news/guidelines-civilimmigrationlaw.pdf (accessed March 19,
2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yet, as the data shows, the Biden administration did not operate
even according to those very limited enforcement priorities. Echoing
Barack Obama's 2008 campaign statement that ``we are 5 days away from
fundamentally transforming the United States of America,'' Mayorkas
bragged in January 2022 that ``we have fundamentally changed
immigration enforcement. For the first time ever, our policy explicitly
states that a non-citizen's unlawful presence in the United States will
not, by itself, be a basis for the initiation of an enforcement
action.'' He called this ``a profound shift away from the prior
administration's indiscriminate enforcement.''\8\ In reality,
Mayorkas's policies were clear violations of Federal law.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ Adam Shaw, ``Biden's First Year: Mayorkas Says Admin Has
`Fundamentally Changed' Interior Immigration Enforcement,'' Fox News,
January 20, 2022, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bidens-first-year-
mayorkas-admin-fundamentally-changed-interior-immigration-enforcement
(accessed March 19, 2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
violated immigration parole
In addition to opening the border and ignoring immigration
enforcement statutes, Mayorkas violated immigration benefit statutes
passed by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The
most blatant of these violations was his use of immigration parole. The
INA states that:
``[T]he [Secretary of Homeland Security] may . . . in his discretion
parole into the United States temporarily . . . only on a case-by-case
basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit any
alien applying for admission to the United States, but such parole of
such alien shall not be regarded as an admission of the alien and when
the purposes of such parole shall, in the opinion of the [Secretary],
have been served the alien shall forthwith return or be returned to the
custody from which he was paroled and thereafter his case shall
continue to be dealt with in the same manner as that of any other
applicant for admission to the United States.''\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ 8 U.S. Code 1182(d)(5)(A), https://www.law.cornell.edu/
uscode/text/8/1182 (accessed March 19, 2025).
Congress later added the following statutory language to prevent
the abuse of parole to bring refugees into the United States more
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
quickly:
``The [Secretary] may not parole into the United States an alien who is
a refugee unless the [Secretary] determines that compelling reasons in
the public interest with respect to that particular alien require that
the alien be paroled into the United States rather than be admitted as
a refugee under section 1157 of this title.''\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ 8 U.S. Code 1182(d)(5)(B), https://www.law.cornell.edu/
uscode/text/8/1182 (accessed March 19, 2025).
Congress intended that parole would be used very rarely in special
circumstances when an alien does not have adequate time to use legal
visa or refugee processes--for example, when coming to the United
States for emergency surgery or to testify in a criminal case.
Therefore, Congress logically did not provide work authorization for
aliens who receive temporary parole.
Despite this clear statutory text, Mayorkas repeatedly used mass
and categorical parole to allow tens of thousands of inadmissible
aliens to bypass our lawful visa and refugee processes each month. He
created parole programs for aliens from Afghanistan, Colombia, Cuba,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ukraine,
and Venezuela, as well as aliens who have previously been deported \11\
and aliens who have resided in the United States illegally for at least
10 years and are married to U.S. citizens.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services, ``Humanitarian or Significant Public Benefit
Parole for Individuals Outside the United States,'' last reviewed/
updated August 19, 2024, https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/
humanitarian_parole (accessed March 19, 2025).
\12\ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ``Implementation of
Keeping Families Together,'' Notice of Implementation of the Keeping
Families Together Process,'' Federal Register, Vol. 89, No. 161 (August
20, 2024), pp. 67459-67490, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-
2024-08-20/pdf/2024-18725.pdf (accessed March 19, 2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, Mayorkas created a parole program under which any
alien could use the CBP Mobile One application to make an appointment
at a land or air port of entry where CBP paroled them into the United
States.\13\ In other words, instead of securing the border, the Biden
administration created a deceptive shell game by shifting the illegal
flow to the ports (red segments in chart below) while pointing at
(briefly) falling numbers of aliens crossing the Southern Border
between these ports of entry (orange segments in chart below).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\13\ News release, ``DHS Scheduling System for Safe, Orderly and
Humane Border Processing Goes Live on CBP OneTM App,'' U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, January 12, 2023, https://www.dhs.gov/
archive/news/2023/01/12/dhs-scheduling-system-safe-orderly-and-humane-
border-processing-goes-live-cbp-onetm (accessed March 19, 2025).
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Secretary Mayorkas also gave his mass parolees renewable work
authorization without Congressional authorization. He propagandized his
bypass of the statutory visa and refugee processes as ``expanding
lawful pathways'' and insisted that parole was granted on a ``case-by-
case basis.'' Federal judges, however, have found otherwise. For
example, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rebuked DHS's abuse of
parole in its December 2021 decision regarding the Secretary's
termination of the Migrant Protection Protocols. The court held that
``[d]eciding to parole aliens en masse is the opposite of case-by-case
decision making,'' and added that ``DHS's pretended power to parole
aliens while ignoring the limitations Congress imposed on the parole
power . . . [is] not nonenforcement; it's misenforcement, suspension of
the INA, or both.''\14\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\14\ Texas v. Biden, No. 21-10806 (5th Cir. 2021) (emphasis in
original).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
rendered asylum meaningless
The Biden administration grossly abused America's second-most
important immigration benefit after U.S. citizenship--asylum. Beyond
telling aliens to surge our border and claim asylum, as Biden did
during his 2020 primary debate, and de facto support from the media,
which refer to all illegal aliens as ``asylum seekers,'' Mayorkas
violated immigration statutes to facilitate asylum fraud both
procedurally and substantively.
He violated Congress's establishment of jurisdiction over asylum
applications by replacing immigration judges, ICE attorneys, and the
adversarial process with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service
(USCIS) asylum officers who processed both initial claims and second-
stage applications for border crossers. Without cross-examination by
ICE attorneys and immigration judges, USCIS asylum officers were more
likely to rubber-stamp and grant weak, questionable, and unverified
asylum claims.\15\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\15\ USCIS asylum grants have been significantly higher than
application denials. As of September 2024, USCIS had denied 4,600
asylum cases and granted 16,932 applications in fiscal year 2024.
Table, ``Number of Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for
Withholding of Removal by Quarter, Form Status, and Processing Time
(July 1, 2024-September 30, 2024),'' in U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, ``Immigration and
Citizenship Data: All USCIS Application and Petition Form Types (Fiscal
Year 2024, Quarter 4),'' December 18, 2024, https://www.uscis.gov/
tools/reports-and-studies/immigration-and-citizenship-data (accessed
March 19, 2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Substantively, the administration supported claims of domestic
violence, gang activity, general crime, and climate change as grounds
for asylum. These claims do not meet the requirements of the law, which
are based on persecution because of an alien's race, religion,
nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social
group. We now find ourselves far afield from the refugee protection the
United States committed to provide after World War II. The benefit of
asylum has been watered down and abused to be just another way to bring
more aliens into the United States and allow them to remain here.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\16\ Tibisay Zea, ``How the Asylum System Became the Main Avenue
for Mass Migration to the US.'' The World, February 12, 2024, https://
theworld.org/stories/2024/02/12/how-asylum-system-became-main-avenue-
mass-migration-us (accessed March 19, 2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
encouraged unaccompanied children border crossings
Secretary Mayorkas repeatedly stated publicly that he would not
turn unaccompanied children back from the border. This served as an
advertisement for cartels to smuggle children into the United States.
During the Biden administration, the CBP encountered over 550,000
unaccompanied children, a historic and terrible record.\17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\17\ Table, ``FY Comparison by Demographic,'' in U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, ``Nationwide
Encounters,'' last modified March 13, 2025, https://www.cbp.gov/
newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters (accessed March 19, 2025).
The results were gut-wrenching as seen in videos and photos of
children left at the river's edge, dropped over the border wall, or
abandoned. The Biden administration stopped DNA testing of suspected
smugglers posing as families with children at the border. Border agents
saw children that appeared to be drugged asleep so they could not
respond to border agents' questions about the adults accompanying them.
Their misery did not end once the children entered the United
States. Unable to find and vet enough sponsors to take in the children,
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) turned children over
to unknown and unvetted adults, subjecting the children to potential
sex trafficking and child labor. HHS later reported losing contact with
at least 300,000 of the children.\18\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\18\ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector
General, ``Management Alert--ICE Cannot Monitor All Unaccompanied
Migrant Children Released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services' Custody,'' Final Management Alert OIG-24-46, August 19,
2024, p. 1, https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2024-08/
OIG-24-46-Aug24.pdf (accessed March 19, 2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
relied on ngo's and their infrastructure
The Biden administration paid tens of billions of dollars to NGO's
to build an infrastructure from Panama north toward our Southern Border
and throughout the United States. to facilitate mass illegal
immigration. The taxpayer money went to NGO's through many accounts and
several departments: DHS, HHS, the State Department, USAID, the Justice
Department, and more. In addition, the Biden administration paid
sanctuary jurisdictions to provide illegal aliens shelter, health care,
documentation, and legal services, among other services.
Due to these open-border policies and operations, the backlogs at
both the Justice Department and DHS increased significantly. The number
of cases in the Justice Department immigration courts backlog tripled
from 1.2 million when Biden came into office to more than 3.7 million
as of October 2024.\19\ The number of immigration benefit applications
pending at DHS's USCIS grew from over 6.3 million cases \20\ when Biden
became President to over 9.4 million through September 2024.\21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\19\ Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, ``Immigration
Court Backlog: Historical Backlog (from 1998),'' https://
tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/backlog/ (accessed March 19,
2025).
\20\ Table, ``Number of Service-wide Forms by Quarter, Form Status,
and Processing Time, Fiscal Year 2021, Quarter 1,'' U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, https://
www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/reports/
Quarterly_All_Forms_FY2021Q1.pdf (accessed March 19, 2025).
\21\ Table, ``Number of Service-wide Forms by Quarter, Form Status,
and Processing Time, July 1, 2024-September 30, 2024,'' in U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, ``Immigration and Citizenship Data: All USCIS Application and
Petition Form Types (Fiscal Year 2024, Quarter 4),'' December 18, 2024,
https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/immigration-and-
citizenship-data (accessed March 19, 2025).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The results of the Biden administration's open border operations
were record-setting and devastating to America's sovereignty, security,
public safety, and economy. That is why it was the No. 1 issue for so
many Americans last November. With a new administration, we are already
seeing what securing the border does to the number of CBP encounters,
but it will take years and significant resources for interior
enforcement to get our immigration system to be lawful, orderly, and
manageable.
______
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The top 5 corporate givers provided The Heritage Foundation with 1%
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Members of The Heritage Foundation staff testify as individuals
discussing their own independent research. The views expressed are
their own and do not reflect an institutional position of The Heritage
Foundation or its board of trustees.
Mr. Guest. Thank you, Ms. Ries.
I now recognize Mr. Blair for 5 minutes to summarize his
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF AMMON S. BLAIR, SENIOR FELLOW, SECURE AND
SOVEREIGN TEXAS INITIATIVE, TEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION
Mr. Blair. Dear Chairman Guest, Ranking Member Correa, and
distinguished Members of the subcommittee, good morning and
thank you for inviting me to testify before you.
Over the last 4 years, the United States has endured a
deliberately orchestrated invasion through weaponized mass
migration. Millions of illegal aliens from over 170 countries
have been funneled, often with cartel facilitation, into Texas
and other border States, overwhelming State and local
resources. This is not just a border crisis. It is a full
spectrum national security failure, manufactured by the Biden
administration through the active subversion of U.S.
immigration law, the construction of an illegal parallel
immigration regime, and the forcible repurposing of our
homeland security apparatus to serve foreign nationals rather
than American people.
Federal agencies once tasked with homeland security were
repurposed into logistical arms for mass migration, tasked with
processing migrant care, and releasing millions of unvetted
foreign nationals into the into U.S. communities. This myopic
focus on the importation of foreign nationals left us blind to
the current state of Mexico and the national security threats
emanating from the border.
Mexico is not a distant concern. It is the most
strategically consequential nation to U.S. homeland security.
Yet it remains one of the most underestimated and politically
ignored threats in the American national security apparatus.
While our defense establishment focused on the borders and
sovereignty of foreign nations across the globe, Mexico
devolved into a narco-state on our doorstep, exporting
violence, criminal governance, and destabilization directly
into U.S. territory. Yet despite the clear and expanding
threat, the Biden administration ignored Mexico as a national
security priority, treating the border crisis as a humanitarian
management challenge rather than the gray zone conflict it has
become. This deliberate misframing paralyzed the Federal
response and allowed Mexico to become a sanctuary state for
enemies of the United States.
Mexico today is more accurately described as a state where
federal, state, and local governance has collapsed in key
regions and foreign terrorist organizations dominate political
and economic life, much like Afghanistan. These cartels
function as hybrid threats. Closely resembling their Middle
Eastern counterparts, they employ terror as a political weapon,
control territory, corrupt or coopt institutions, and use
violence strategically to shape governance outcomes. Their war
is not against a rival state. It is against the very concept of
law, sovereignty, and national borders.
Therefore, the security environment along the U.S.-Mexico
border cannot be understood through the outdated framework of
criminality alone. What exists is an intolerable strategic
alliance between the Mexican state at the national and
subnational level and the cartels, a relationship that has
evolved into a coordinated, aligned partnership with direct
consequences for U.S. national security. The Biden
administration's failure to acknowledge or confront Mexico's
authoritarian backsliding effectively greenlit a regime that
tolerates narcoterrorism as a cost of just doing business. By
continuing to treat Mexico as a diplomatic peer rather than a
strategic liability, the Biden administration insulated a
failing state from accountability while exposing American
communities to escalating violence.
Now, while Mexico is engaged in a noninternational armed
conflict where cartels openly battle for the state for control
of territory and population to spill over into the United
States has taken a far more insidious form. Cartels do not seek
to provoke a direct armed response from the U.S. military or
Federal Government. Nor does the Mexican state want to risk
exposure as a complicit or tacitly cooperative actor. Instead,
Mexican cartels have adopted their methods to achieve the same
objective: territorial control through covert gray zone tactics
that replicate their domination of Mexican society within U.S.
border communities.
In this model, operational control does not require
military confrontation. It is secured through the systematic
erosion of institutional integrity and the strategic compromise
of U.S. governance at every level. Cartels act as de facto
foreign intelligence services, targeting federal, state, and
local law enforcement, national guard elements, and the legal
system itself. Corruption, bribery, coercion, and espionage are
tools of influence, not just within enforcement ranks, but
among prosecutors, judges, and elected officials.
A recent study found that the Mexican cartels are now the
fifth-largest employer in Mexico. That same model of parallel
governance and economic capture is being exported across the
border. In rural Texas border counties cartel activity is so
deeply woven into daily life that the state is rapidly losing
functional sovereignty in these zones without a single shot
being fired. The communities along our Southern Border were
witnessing in real time their subordination, not just to the
surge of illegal aliens or the ambitions of a progressive
elite, but to the strategic designs of foreign nations, foreign
terrorist organizations, and their vast transnational criminal
threats. This is no longer a border issue. It is a national
one.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Blair follows:]
Prepared Statement of Ammon S. Blair
March 25, 2025
Dear Chairman Guest, Ranking Member Correa, and Distinguished
Members of the Committee: Good morning and thank you for inviting me to
testify before you.
My name is Ammon Blair, and I am a senior fellow at the Texas
Public Policy Foundation. I bring 22 years of military service and
extensive border security experience through my time in the U.S. Army
and U.S. Border Patrol.
I have witnessed first-hand the consequences of failed Federal
policy and how the Biden administration deliberately dismantled the
legal, structural, and operational defenses necessary to secure our
sovereignty and protect our citizens.
Texas and other border States have long faced persistent security
threats emanating from the Southern Border--including illegal
immigration, human and drug smuggling, insurgent activity, and foreign
terrorist infiltration--often with minimal Federal support (McCaffrey &
Scales, 2011). However, under the Biden administration, these threats
intensified dramatically, culminating in a full-scale security crisis
that demanded immediate and decisive action.
President Biden's policies--including facilitating the invasion,
releasing millions of illegal aliens into the interior, the halting of
critical border security infrastructure projects, the dismantling of
both border and interior enforcement mechanisms, and the refusal to
confront the threat posed by cartel-controlled Mexico--directly fueled
the collapse of law and order along our border (House Judiciary
Committee, 2024). In doing so, the Biden administration ceded
operational control of U.S. territory to foreign terrorist
organizations (Allen, 2023; Office of the Texas Governor, 2023).
the mexican state-cartel alliance: a hostile bilateral reality
Mexico is not a distant concern--it is the most strategically
consequential nation to U.S. homeland security, and yet it remains one
of the most underestimated and politically-ignored threats in the
American national security apparatus. While our defense establishment
focused on the borders and sovereignty of foreign nations across the
globe, Mexico devolved into a narco-insurgent state on our doorstep--
exporting violence, criminal governance, and destabilization directly
into U.S. territory.
Yet despite the clear and expanding threat, the Biden
administration ignored Mexico as a national security priority, treating
the crisis as a humanitarian management challenge rather than the gray
zone conflict it has become. This deliberate misframing paralyzed the
Federal response and allowed Mexico to become a sanctuary state for
enemies of the United States (Fernandez, 2024).
Mexico today is more accurately described as a state where federal,
state, and local governance has collapsed in key regions and foreign
terrorist organizations dominate political and economic life, much like
Afghanistan (Kaminski, 2024). These cartels function as hybrid threats,
closely resembling their Middle Eastern counterparts, they employ
terror as a political weapon, control territory, corrupt or co-opt
institutions, and use violence strategically to shape governance
outcomes (Maya, 2021). Their war is not against a rival state--it is
against the very concept of law, sovereignty, and national borders.
Therefore, the security environment along the U.S.-Mexico border
cannot be understood through the outdated framework of narco-
criminality alone. What exists is an intolerable strategic alliance
between the Mexican state, at the national and sub-national level, and
the cartels--a relationship that has evolved into a coordinated,
ideologically aligned partnership with direct consequences for U.S.
national security (Trevino, 2025a).
As President Trump declared on February 1, 2025, ``The Mexican DTOs
have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico. This
alliance endangers the national security of the United States, and we
must eradicate the influence of these dangerous cartels from the
bilateral environment'' (White House, 2025).
This was not political rhetoric--it was a necessary recognition of
a hostile, coordinated, and ideologically-aligned threat. Mexican
cartel organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG, now
operate in at least 65 countries, rivaling foreign terrorist
organizations in reach, capability, and lethality (Fitzgerald, 2025).
These networks are not merely trafficking narcotics--they are engaged
in narcoterrorism, human trafficking, arms smuggling, money laundering,
and political subversion. In many areas, they out-govern the Mexican
state, exercising de facto control and offering services the government
no longer can--or will (Georgetown Americas Institute, 2024).
As Texas Public Policy Foundation's Josh Trevino warns:
``The Mexican state is now essentially a single-party, left-populist
regime, aligned ideologically and operationally with comparable regimes
in Cuba and Venezuela. Like those regimes, it regards its nation's
trafficking cartels as vehicles for profit and control and also agents
of national policy abroad--especially but not only in the United
States.'' (Trevino, 2025b).
The alliance between the Mexican government and the Mexican cartels
is no longer speculative--it is openly acknowledged by leading policy
experts and institutions (Golden, 2024). As the Conservative U.S.-
Mexico Policy Coalition declares unequivocally that, ``The Mexican
government is not an ally to the United States, and can no longer
properly be described as a partner'' (Conservative U.S.-Mexico Policy
Coalition, 2023, p. 1).
The Coalition further warns that, ``The Mexican government and
Mexican criminal cartels exist in conscious and willing symbiosis, at
multiple levels, up to and including the Mexican presidency,'' and that
Mexico is now ``a willing partner in a regional authoritarian leftist
alliance that is fundamentally anti-American, actively interventionist,
and increasingly an arena and base for hostile powers from outside the
Western Hemisphere'' (Conservative U.S.-Mexico Policy Coalition, 2023,
p. 1).
The Biden administration's failure to acknowledge or confront
Mexico's authoritarian backsliding has effectively greenlit a regime
that tolerates narco-terrorism as a cost of doing business. By
continuing to treat Mexico as a diplomatic peer rather than a strategic
liability, the Biden administration insulated a failing state from
accountability while exposing American communities to escalating
violence.
In national security terms, democratic collapse in a neighboring
state is not a foreign policy concern--it is a homeland security
emergency. The United States cannot afford to ignore the consequences
of political decay when it fuels the operational capabilities of
cartels that already control swaths of American U.S. territory along
the Southern Border.
u.s.-mexico border
In May 2019, the Mexican investigative journal Contralinea
published a leaked map from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's
(AMLO) administration showing that over 80 percent of Mexico's
population centers prioritized for enforcement were either controlled
(57.5 percent) or contested (23.3 percent) by Mexican cartels. Only
19.9 percent of those areas were under undisputed government control.
The report, citing internal Mexican government data, exposed the ground
truth: the Mexican state had effectively lost governance over nearly
all key urban corridors, particularly those along the U.S. border
(Horowitz, 2019).
This loss of territorial control does not stop at Mexico's border.
The same cartel networks that dominate key Mexican population centers
have projected their power into Texas and other U.S. States, exploiting
the permissive environment created by both Federal inaction and
fragmented State-level coordination. What began as cross-border
trafficking has evolved into a full-spectrum, multi-domain campaign,
establishing operational control over critical areas within the United
States itself.
Mexican cartels have systematically established operational control
along the U.S. side of the border, employing sophisticated gray zone
activities that remain below the threshold of conventional armed
conflict (Luna, 2024; House Committee on Homeland Security, 2023).
Their operations now extend across multiple domains--land, air,
maritime, subterranean, cyber, and the electromagnetic spectrum--
enabling them to conduct surveillance, communication disruption, and
logistical coordination with precision and impunity (Sanchez, 2025;
Hackers Arise, 2025; Paz, 2024).
This multi-domain dominance has allowed cartels to seize and
maintain operational control over territory in Texas and other border
States, creating corridors of strategic access that allow the unimpeded
movement of people, narcotics, weapons, and information deep into the
interior of the United States. (McCaffrey & Scales, 2011, pp. 8-9, 17;
Allen, 2023). What began as a smuggling operation has evolved into a
functioning logistical architecture--a transnational `silk road' that
is now the cartels' most valuable asset. It is this infrastructure of
access and movement that adversarial nations and foreign terrorist
organizations increasingly exploit (Warren, 2019).
Through deliberate infiltration of every major city and many
suburban and rural areas, cartels have constructed a logistical supply
chain or `pipeline' that provides our adversaries--from adversarial
Nations like the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) to foreign terrorist
organizations--with direct pathways into the heart of our society
(House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, 2024, pp. 59-61).
Their ability to simultaneously employ political corruption, economic
coercion, social, and information warfare methods has transformed the
border states into critical terrain and operational ground zero for
hostile state and non-state actors seeking to exploit these established
networks of access (McCaffrey & Scales, 2011, pp. 9, 18; Maya, 2021).
weaponized mass migration
This vast and deeply embedded logistics infrastructure has not only
enabled the movement of illicit goods and narcotics--it has also set
the stage for a more insidious tactic of hybrid warfare: mass migration
as a weapon. With the supply chain and access networks already in
place, hostile state and non-state actors have shifted strategies to
exploit humanitarian channels, using population flows to overwhelm
American institutions, dilute law enforcement effectiveness, and
penetrate communities under the guise of asylum or refugee
resettlement. This evolution represents a strategic escalation--from
trafficking and infiltration to full-spectrum demographic
destabilization--coordinated, funded, and executed with the tacit
consent of a complicit Federal apparatus.
Over the last 4 years, the United States has endured a deliberately
orchestrated invasion through weaponized mass migration. Millions of
illegal aliens from over 170 countries have been funneled--often with
cartel facilitation--into Texas and other border States, overwhelming
State and local resources (Humire, 2025; Sanchez, 2024).
These mass population movements were not merely tolerated by the
prior Federal administration--they were facilitated. Federal agencies
and NGO's were repurposed to serve an ideological agenda of ``safe,
orderly, and humane migration,'' creating an extralegal immigration
regime in violation of long-standing Federal law (Department of
Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, 2024; Bensman, 2024).
This has not only compromised public safety but created systemic
national security vulnerabilities by serving as a force multiplier for
hostile state and non-state actors. The sheer scale of these movements
overwhelmed Federal, State, and local law enforcement resources,
degrading operational effectiveness and diverting attention away from
known threats.
Simultaneously, these mass migrations provided concealment and
cover for infiltration by foreign intelligence operatives (CCP), cartel
enforcers, and members of transnational criminal and terrorist
organizations--including MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and other violent
networks with direct ties to adversarial regimes. The precise
whereabouts and identities of many of these illegal entrants remain
unknown, creating blind spots in national security coverage and opening
the door to catastrophic risk across American communities (Exec. Order
No. 14165, 2025).
This weaponized migration strategy has imposed billions of dollars
in financial burdens at the Federal, State, and local levels, while
simultaneously enabling hostile state and non-state actors to establish
operational footholds deep within Texas territory, like Colony ridge
(Lindquist, 2025; Federation for American Immigration Reform, 2023).
These movements are not organic or accidental; they are deliberate in
design and execution, forming the backbone of a modern form of hybrid
warfare--one that weaponizes civilians to overwhelm infrastructure,
erode public trust, and create opportunities for adversarial
penetration (Lubinski, 2022; North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 2024).
In recognition of this existential threat, officials in nearly 100
Texas counties have issued disaster declarations or formally declared
an invasion (Blankley, 2024). The sheer scale, coordination, and
sustained impact of this crisis have transformed every county in Texas
and the United States into a de facto border county, subject to the
cascading effects of Federal failure and adversarial exploitation.
the consequences of federal abdication and the imperative of state
action
The evidence is overwhelming. The United States is under an
invasion--not by a conventional army, but by a networked system of
foreign terrorist organizations, corrupt political actors, and hostile
state actors. These adversaries exploit gaps in our legal framework and
operate with impunity in the gray zones created by deliberate Federal
inaction.
This is not a just border crisis--it is a full-spectrum national
security failure, manufactured by the Biden administration through the
active subversion of U.S. immigration law, the construction of an
illegal parallel immigration regime, and the forcible repurposing of
our homeland security apparatus to serve foreign nationals rather than
the American people.
Federal agencies once tasked with homeland security were repurposed
into logistical arms for mass migration, tasked with processing and
releasing millions of unvetted foreign nationals into U.S. communities.
At the same time, non-governmental organizations (NGO's), funded by
Federal grants, have become the ground logistics network--transporting,
housing, and resettling illegal aliens with no accountability (Vaughan,
2024).
The United States now faces the most sophisticated gray zone
infiltration campaign in the Western Hemisphere. This is not
bureaucratic incompetence--it is calculated policy.
The result has been catastrophic: strategic infiltration by hostile
state and non-state actors, collapse of strategic deterrence, cartel
territorial expansion inside U.S. borders, and a national posture of
surrender disguised as humanitarianism.
The Biden administration did not merely abdicate its constitutional
responsibilities--it actively realigned its mission away from defending
American sovereignty. As a result, Texas and other border States were
forced to shoulder the consequences of this betrayal. The burden of
homeland defense shifted--not by choice, but by necessity--to the
States and the citizens themselves.
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Mr. Guest. Thank you, Mr. Blair.
I now recognize Mr. Anfinsen for 5 minutes to summarize his
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF JON ANFINSEN, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL
BORDER PATROL COUNCIL
Mr. Anfinsen. Chairman Guest, Ranking Member Correa, and
Ranking Member Thompson, distinguished Members of the
subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify here today.
President Biden's Executive actions and inactions during
his term resulted in an unprecedented security and humanitarian
crisis along our borders. It didn't have to be this way, and we
have to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening again.
Not only was the entire world encouraged to essentially
illegally cross our borders, primarily with the goal of abusing
the asylum system, but it caused our agents to be sidelined,
left unable to do their jobs. Our job shifted from that of law
enforcement to that of processing asylum claims, sitting behind
computers on a virtual assembly line while illegal aliens
disappeared into the country because we weren't there to do it.
A lot of these folks were only discovered later after being
arrested for all sorts of crimes, some of them minor and some
of them horrific.
To put this in context, during the 12 years of Presidents
Obama and Trump, there were approximately 1.6 million gotaways
across all 12 years. During President Biden's 4 years, there
were over 2 million.
Now, this surge overwhelmed our resources, and it led to
tragic consequences. During President Biden's tenure, we saw an
average of 690 deaths at the border per year, with fiscal year
2022 being the worst, and there were over 900 deaths of people
trying to cross the border. You compare that to an average of
370 deaths per year under President Obama and 280 under
President Trump. Now, all of these deaths are unfortunate, but
it gives you an idea of how out-of-control things were or
became over the past 4 years.
I remember one incident in particular in Eagle Pass, Texas,
in August 2022, where a toddler and an infant, they were
siblings, had gone under the water when a family crossed the
river. Agents on the Boat Patrol unit pulled the siblings out
of the water, performed CPR on them, doing whatever they could
to save them. The toddler passed away right there at the scene,
and the infant was taken to the hospital and died a few days
later. The agents did their best to save them, and then they
spent the rest of the day dealing with questions from CBP's
Office of Professional Responsibility, with questions like, how
long did you do CPR? Who told you to stop CPR? Did you use an
AED? Among others.
They asked this because Congress requires OPR to
investigate in-custody deaths and deaths of people that we
encounter so that they can provide a report to Congress within
72 hours. So that means agents who have dealt with traumatic
events have to relive those events over and over right away so
that OPR can figure out if they even need to report this death
to Congress. The month after these 2 siblings drowned, 8 people
died in 1 drowning incident just upriver, and they were swept
away. This just kept happening over and over.
The crisis strained local resources as well. With places
like Maverick County, Texas, one of the areas that I cover,
they had to bring in refrigerator trucks to store the
unidentified bodies of people who died trying to cross the
border. Our agents, including those who were trained as EMTs in
the field, were often diverted from those field operations to
process asylum seekers, which left non-EMT agents to do their
best to handle rescue and recovery efforts.
This loss of life has taken a significant toll on our
agents' mental health and morale. Since fiscal year 2015, CBP
has had 101 employee suicides. In 2022, at what is probably the
peak of the border crisis, there was a 50 percent increase in
employee suicides compared to the previous 7-year average.
While the reasons for committing suicide are typically unknown,
we do know that having to deal with objectively terrible and
sad things at work, day-in and day-out without relief, does
nothing to help anyone's mental health.
Adding to these challenges, our agents faced unprecedented
attacks and demonization. A prime example was the
mischaracterization of an incident involving our Horse Patrol
unit in Del Rio, Texas, during the Haitian migrant crisis in
September 2021. There were 30,000 or so Haitians that crossed
the border illegally, and these Horse Patrol agents were
accused of using whips on some of them, and they were called
racists. President Biden promised the agents would, quote,
``pay'' for what they supposedly did. Even though they were
ultimately cleared of misconduct allegations, as media frenzy
and the administration's premature condemnation severely
impacted the agents involved and the entire agency. These
factors and others have made it difficult to recruit and retain
agents. We currently have about 19,500 Border Patrol agents;
2,500 of them could retire today, another 4,000 become eligible
within the next 4 years.
If all of that weren't enough, some of our basic resources
are also strained. As of the end of fiscal year 2024, over 50
percent of our vehicle fleet is also retirement-eligible. It
takes an average of 403 days for a new vehicle to be ordered
and delivered, leading to increased costs and on and on.
President Trump has some ideas for this manpower issue by
proposing to increase Border Patrol pay, offer retention
bonuses, add recruitment bonuses to bring in an additional
10,000 agents. We can only hope that there are enough people
who still want to do this job. The bottom line is that the
border crisis under the Biden administration severely impacted
our ability to secure the border and strained our work force to
the breaking point.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Anfinsen follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jon Anfinsen
March 25, 2025
Chairman Guest, Ranking Member Correa, and distinguished Members of
the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify before you
today. I hope that my testimony will assist the subcommittee in better
understanding how the Executive Actions taken by President Biden and
his administration directly resulted in an unprecedented security and
humanitarian crisis along our borders and within our country.
The bottom line up front is that it did not need to happen this
way, and we need to do what we can to prevent it from happening again.
My name is Jon Anfinsen, and I am the executive vice president of
the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC). My testimony is rooted in my
perspective and lived experiences as a front-line agent stationed in
Del Rio Sector in Texas, as well as the observations, perspectives, and
lived experiences of the agents I am honored to represent. The NBPC is
the union that represents over 16,500 front-line Border Patrol agents
and support staff that protect this country and enforce our laws each
day. Unfortunately, during the 4 years that President Biden and his
administration were in office, front-line agents were unable to
properly protect our Nation and fully enforce our laws.
The U.S. Border Patrol has always seen fluctuations in the number
of encounters of aliens or ``traffic'' we detect crossing our borders,
especially our Southwest Border, typically at the start of each new
Presidential administration. However, to say the changes we saw within
the first few weeks of the Biden administration were unprecedented is
an understatement. Not only was the entire world encouraged to
illegally cross our borders, primarily to abuse the asylum system, but
it caused our agents to be sidelined and truly unable to do our jobs.
In effect, our job was changed from one of immigration and law
enforcement to working on a virtual assembly line, simply completing
one step in the process of abusing the asylum system and the United
States' immigration laws. Gone were the days of agents patrolling in
the brush and desert, and instead, we were relegated to sit behind a
computer for an entire shift, all the while being notified that groups
of illegal aliens--who were not turning themselves in for
apprehension--were disappearing into the interior of the country,
having been spotted on cameras or reported by members of the community.
While we had no idea who these people were, where they were going,
or what their intentions were at the time--all serious concerns--based
on past investigations and intelligence, assessments show that many of
these aliens have prior criminal convictions in the United States and
also are likely smuggling fentanyl or other dangerous drugs into our
communities. At the time, it was practically a given that someone could
cross the border and be released, so the fact that some people chose to
sneak in and avoid that process suggests that at least some of them are
people we should be concerned about.
Not only were the previous 4 years a boon for the cartels in
Mexico, allowing them to smuggle practically anyone or anything into
the country, it created an entirely new business model for them. People
have always needed permission from the cartels to cross the border, and
traditionally, the cartels had to make arrangements to use smugglers to
transport people via their smuggling network to their final
destination. While the cartels still did that during the past 4 years
to smuggle people who wanted nothing to do with the Border Patrol,
there was an entirely different and much larger population just needed
to get across the border and give up. As a result, agents could not do
their job, and instead had to watch camera footage of groups getting
away to parts unknown.
To put it in context, during both of President Obama's terms, there
was a total of approximately 1,089,000 gotaways. During President
Trump's first term, there were approximately 549,000 gotaways. However,
during President Biden's 4 years, there were approximately 2,000,000
gotaways, though it is generally believed the number is much higher
because agents were not in the field enough to get a more accurate
count of those who absconded into the country.
Along the Southwest Border, specifically in Texas, where I work,
cartel members in Mexico basically became ferry operators, tasked only
with getting people across the river, where they were told to flag down
a Border Patrol agent. In other areas, groups were required to pay a
fee and were left to get across the river on their own, resulting in
what is referred to as the deadliest border in the world. We will
likely never know how many people died, but here is what we do know to
give you some context.
During President Obama's 2 terms, there was an average of
approximately 370 deaths at the border that were detected per year,
with fiscal year 2012 being the worst with approximately 470 deaths.
During President Trump's first term, there was an average of
approximately 280 deaths at the border that were detected per year,
with fiscal year 2020 being the worst with approximately 250 deaths.
And during President Biden's 4 years, the average was approximately
690 deaths at the border that were detected per year--fiscal year 2022
was the worst of his 4 years with over 900 deaths, the highest number
of deaths in any year going back as far as I have been able to
research. That was an average of 75 deaths per month in that fiscal
year, not to mention the bodies that were encountered by local
officials, straining county resources by filling up morgues in counties
up and down the border. For example, Maverick County, where Eagle Pass,
Texas is located, had to bring in refrigerator trucks to store the
bodies of unidentified people who died trying to illegally enter the
country because their morgue was full, something that increasingly
happened up and down the border as illegal crossings continued to
increase.
Because of the massive increase in tragic and horrific incidents,
some agents--those who were fortunate enough to be in the field and not
processing--were tasked with search-and-rescue or body recovery
efforts. And while search-and-rescue operations and providing medical
care are not unusual tasks for agents, we had never seen it on this
scale.
We have hundreds of Border Patrol agents trained as Emergency
Medical Technicians (EMTs), who are supposed to be deployed in the
field to help people in areas with limited emergency medical services
(EMS) and resources. Instead, they were frequently tasked with
screening asylum seekers at processing facilities or as the migrants
were loaded onto buses to head to the processing facilities. In
addition, when contracts were spun up to provide medical services
within the facilities, that didn't mean EMTs were automatically
deployed to the field because there was always processing to do. This
often resulted in non-EMT agents being the ones on the scene to try and
rescue people who were sick and dying, including those who had no
chance of survival.
In the Del Rio Sector, when crossings were at their worst, some
months involved an average of more than 1 death per day. Several
children, sometimes entire families, were swept away by the deceptively
calm-looking water in the Rio Grande River, causing agents and local
EMS personnel to scramble to launch rescue efforts or recovery
efforts--either was just as likely.
I remember one incident in particular in August 2022 in Eagle Pass,
Texas, where a toddler and an infant--2 siblings--had gone under the
water while a family crossed the river.
Agents on the boat unit responded, pulled some of them from the
water, including the kids, and performed CPR on the kids, doing the
best they could to save them. The toddler passed away, and the infant
went to the hospital, but passed away a few days later.
The agents did their best to save them and then spent the rest of
the day dealing with questions from the Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), like ``How long did
you perform CPR? Who told you to stop performing CPR? How many rounds
of CPR did you perform?'' Congress previously tasked CBP OPR with
investigating the death of people in our custody and providing a report
to Congress within 72 hours, which has caused agents who have dealt
with traumatic events to relive those events over and over in an
attempt by OPR to figure out if they needed to report a particular
death to Congress.
The month after these 2 siblings drowned, 8 people died in 1
drowning incident as they were swept away by the river--this just kept
happening, over and over.
Things like this weigh heavily on our agents, as does the never-
ending flow of children generally being put in dangerous situations. A
lot of our employees are parents, and most of us can see our own kids
when we look at small children playing on the ground in a processing
facility, sitting in the dirt at the border, or when their lifeless
body is pulled from the river. Situations and incidents like these,
which became the norm under the Biden administration, contributed to a
significant increase in mental health challenges faced by our agents.
Since fiscal year 2015, CBP has had 101 employee suicides, with 83
percent of those involving U.S. Border Patrol and Office of Field
Operations employees. In 2022, when the border crisis was peaking,
there was a 50 percent increase in employee suicides when compared to
the previous 7-year average. And while their reasons for committing
suicide are typically unknown, we do know that having to deal with
objectively terrible and sad things at work, day in and day out, does
nothing to help anyone's mental health.
For many years, CBP tried to pretend that suicide was not a problem
for the workforce, typically by not acknowledging that an employee
committed suicide. In recent years, however, CBP has devoted
significant resources to addressing this situation, including
recruiting operational psychologists, resilience specialists, and even
a suicidologist to tackle the problem.
While agents were doing their best to hold on during the worst and
most tragic days we've ever experienced as Border Patrol agents, a
large chunk of the country, media, Congress, and the Biden
administration did everything they could to demonize us.
In one very public example that I was able to observe up close and
personal, agents assigned to the Del Rio Sector's Horse Patrol Unit
were deployed to the land underneath the port of entry in Del Rio,
Texas, after thousands of Haitian immigrants began illegally crossing
the river from Mexico in September 2021. A day after we hit our high-
water mark of almost 15,000 people under and next to the bridge, the
spot where most people had been crossing the river was shut down,
causing them to start crossing in a different location downriver.
The Horse Patrol Unit was asked to help deter some people from
crossing at this new location, and while doing so, pictures and video
were recorded of them doing the job they were trained to do: use horses
to detain people. Some folks in the media immediately mischaracterized
what was taking place, claiming that agents were carrying whips and
were whipping these Haitian immigrants, which was ultimately determined
to be false.
However, what followed was an unprecedented attack on these agents
and the U.S. Border Patrol itself. While DHS leadership initially asked
people to pause and wait for an investigation to be completed, it was
not long before the administration's tone changed.
President Biden stated that the immigrants were ``strapped'' and
said, ``I promise you those people will pay. They will be investigated.
There will be consequences.'' Vice President Harris stated that the
agents' behavior was ``horrible,'' it evoked images of slavery, and
that there ``needs to be consequences and accountability'' because
``human beings should not be treated that way.''
In the end, it was confirmed that the agents were not carrying
whips, and they were not using anything else as a whip, ultimately
clearing them of the misconduct allegations. But not before the media
frenzy turned the lives of them and their family's upside down.
The result of all of this: even with strong Congressional funding
and support, the Border Patrol has been unable to grow our workforce
and recruit and retain enough agents to properly secure our border
because who wants to start a new career when the administration clearly
does not support the mission or the agents performing it?
The bottom line is that situations like this and the overall
demonization of an entire agency have led to CBP and the U.S. Border
Patrol being unable to hire enough agents to account for attrition for
several years. And when we do have a year where we happen to have a net
gain, it is only by a relative handful of agents because too many
incumbent agents have decided they had enough and retired as soon as
they were eligible to do so.
We currently have approximately 19,500 Border Patrol agents on duty
to protect our border. Of this number, more than 2,500 are eligible to
retire--today. These agents could literally put in their retirement
papers and be gone tomorrow. Another 4,000 agents will be eligible to
retire in the next 4 years. In total, we are looking at nearly one-
third of our current workforce potentially leaving in the next 4 years.
Why does this matter? Because under the last administration, we had
approximately 2 million illegal aliens observed on Border Patrol
surveillance platforms walking right into this country without being
arrested. We saw them, but we literally did not have enough agents to
arrest them. That is what happens when you do not have enough manpower
to meet the mission.
Similarly, we lack something as simple as reliable transportation
to allow agents to perform that mission. As of the end of fiscal year
2024, over 50 percent of the U.S. Border Patrol's vehicle fleet was
retirement-eligible. Of those vehicles, approximately 1,100, or 7
percent, are on track to be replaced, but they will take anywhere from
9 months to 2 years to receive. The average time from ordering a new
vehicle to its delivery is approximately 403 days. Due to the age and
worn state of our fleet, vehicles are being used far longer than
intended, resulting in millions of dollars in additional maintenance
costs and forcing newer vehicles to be used more frequently, thereby
drastically shortening their already relatively short life span. In
some locations, we have vehicles being used over 16 hours per day, as
one agent waits for another agent's shift to end so they can take the
same vehicle back to the border.
President Trump recognizes these challenges. He has proposed
increasing Border Patrol agent pay and offering retention bonuses to
keep the agents we already have. In addition, he has proposed
recruitment bonuses to add an additional 10,000 agents above our
current staffing level. I hope that all of you will support these
initiatives as they are brought forward in reconciliation and through
the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process.
I thank the subcommittee for the invitation to be here and for your
time this morning. I look forward to answering any questions you may
have.
Mr. Guest. Thank you, Mr. Anfinsen.
I now recognize Mr. Reichlin-Melnick for 5 minutes to
summarize his opening statement.
STATEMENT OF AARON REICHLIN-MELNICK, SENIOR FELLOW, AMERICAN
IMMIGRATION COUNCIL
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Chairman Guest, Ranking Member
Correa, and distinguished Members of the subcommittee, my name
is Aaron Reichlin-Melnick and I am senior fellow at the
American Immigration Council, a nonpartisan nonprofit
organization which envisions a Nation where immigrants are
embraced, American communities are enriched, and justice
prevails for all.
There is no doubt that President Biden's record at the
border was mixed. As we have argued, Biden made measurable
progress at restoring the asylum system while failing to lead
on a national level to respond to the unprecedented rise in
migration. True, the administration eventually settled on a
strategy in 2024 that produced results, including a drop in
border apprehensions of 80 percent. But the legality and long-
term viability of this strategy was questionable and it was
ultimately too little, too late.
However, Joe Biden is no longer president and while
President Biden ordered DHS to focus on immigrants who are
recent entrants or public safety threats, President Trump is
focused on arresting and deporting all removable immigrants,
including long-time residents, those with no criminal records,
families, children, and undocumented workers. Trump has made
immigration enforcement the top priority of Federal law
enforcement, above fentanyl trafficking, above terrorism, and
even above protecting our children from predators. This
obsession with draconian immigration enforcement will make us
all less safe. If continued over the next 4 years, it may also
impoverish us as a climate of fear and large-scale removals
cause the economy to shrink and Americans to lose their jobs.
Over the last 2 months, the Trump administration has
reassigned thousands of Federal law enforcement officers away
from their normal duties to instead carry out low-level civil
immigration enforcement arrests and prosecutions, including
against many people with no criminal record. This has diverted
resources away from serious public safety threats. According to
Reuters, at Homeland Security Investigations, which over the
last 2 years reported saving 3,000 children from predators,
scores of agents who specialize in child sexual exploitation
have been reassigned to immigration enforcement. Rather than
protecting kids, these special agents are staking out immigrant
workers' homes and taking down license plates. At the
Department of Justice, Attorney General Bondi declared on her
first day that immigration enforcement is the top priority of
the agency above nearly everything else. Even the FBI's Joint
Terrorism Task Force has been directed to assist in the
execution of President Trump's immigration initiatives.
But it doesn't stop there. Twenty-five percent of the DEA's
work force has been reassigned to immigration enforcement.
Rather than tracking down drug traffickers, DEA agents are
combing through old files to find cases where prosecutors can
add illegal entry or reentry charges years later. At the ATF, a
full 80 percent of agents have been reassigned to immigration.
Even the IRS isn't immune, with special agents trained in
financial crimes being made to go after random immigrants
instead.
In a world of limited resources, diverting Federal law
enforcement to the mass deportation agenda will have an obvious
effect. When HSI agents tracking on-line pedophiles are forced
to stake out undocumented workers, our children are not safer.
When DEA agents investigating drug rings are told to find
immigrant families who missed court dates, our communities are
not safer. When FBI agents tracking terrorists are told to
focus on immigration arrests instead, our Nation is not safer.
These concerns are not hypothetical. In 2018, under the
zero tolerance policy, border prosecutors were ordered to
charge all migrants with illegal entry. The result was clear:
there was a large drop in drug trafficking cases brought by
Federal prosecutors because prosecutors were spending night and
day focused on migrant parents instead of going after the drug
traffickers.
This administration's priorities are backward. While Trump
is spending billions of dollars on detaining ever greater
numbers of immigrants, his administration is slashing services
for Americans. Money is pouring into the pockets of private
prison companies at the same time as USDA is ending contracts
giving children access to fresh local food and Social Security
is closing offices nationwide. Rather than a single-minded
focus on mass deportation, this administration and Congress
should pursue common-sense policies that help American
communities.
We need a system that can resolve cases quickly while also
maintaining fairness, due process, and meaningful
accountability for all actors. That includes a path to
permanent legal status for undocumented immigrants who have
resided in this country for decades without breaking other
laws. This would build American prosperity, encourage the rule
of law, and break the power of unscrupulous employers who
exploit workers. In an option between self-defeating mass
deportations and a prosperity-building path to legal status,
the choice is clear.
Thank you and I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Reichlin-Melnick follows:]
Prepared Statement of Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
March 25, 2025
Chairman Guest, Ranking Member Correa, and distinguished Members of
the subcommittee: My name is Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, and I currently
serve as a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, a non-
profit organization that envisions a Nation where immigrants are
embraced, communities are enriched, and justice prevails for all. We
strive to create a society that values immigrants as vital contributors
and where everyone is afforded an equal opportunity to thrive socially,
economically, and culturally. We do this by shaping immigration
policies and practices at the Federal, State, and local levels through
educating decision makers and the public and advancing sensible policy
solutions through research and advocacy.
The Council has long studied border policy and immigration
enforcement within the United States. In 2023, we published Beyond a
Border Solution, a report calling for greater investment in the
immigration adjudication system and for border enforcement, as well as
legal changes to create a more functional humanitarian protection
system.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ American Immigration Council, ``Beyond a Border Solution,'' May
3, 2023, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/beyond-
border-solutions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no doubt that President Biden's record at the border was
mixed. As the Council made clear over the last 4 years, President Biden
made measurable progress at restoring the asylum system and offering
safe and legal alternate pathways, while failing to respond to the
urgent need to address the overwhelmed adjudication system or take a
leading role in coordinating a national response to the arrival of
large numbers of migrants seeking asylum or a better life in the United
States. While Congress eventually provided some support to local
communities, the administration's response was delayed. The
administration eventually settled on a strategy in late 2023 and border
encounters plummeted throughout 2024. The ``carrot and stick'' approach
remained in significant tension with the law, permitting some
individuals to access protections while forcing others to wait
indefinitely outside the country in Mexico. While this fragile state of
affairs effectively reduced irregular crossings from their peaks in
December 2023, its legality was questionable and ultimately it was in
many ways too little, too late.
However, much has changed since 2024. On January 20, 2025,
President Trump took office for a second time. As in his first term, he
has set about radically reshaping immigration law and policy. President
Trump campaigned on ``mass deportations'' and after taking office he's
set out to make deportation and immigration enforcement the No. 1
priority of the Federal Government.
Throughout the Federal Government, the Trump administration has
moved to shift nearly all Federal law enforcement agencies to focus on
interior enforcement; the ``mass deportations'' he promised on the
campaign trail. Rather than focus primarily on the border, recent
entrants, or even those with criminal records, the Trump
administration's shotgun approach to enforcement is simultaneously
targeting long-time residents,\2\ those with no criminal records,\3\
undocumented families,\4\ migrant children,\5\ undocumented workers,\6\
and random people with the misfortune to be caught standing near an ICE
operation.\7\ These indiscriminate and scattershot efforts to ramp up
arrests with no emphasis on targeting public safety threats are
indicative of an administration aiming to carry out as many arrests and
deportations as they can, with little care as to whom they round up and
what the impact will be on the rest of the country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Josh DuBose, ``California couple deported after living in U.S.
for 35 years,'' KTLA, March 19, 2025, https://ktla.com/news/local-news/
southern-california-couple-in-u-s-for-35-years-deported-to-colombia/;
Theara Coleman, ``Jeanette Vizguerra: a high-profile activist and the
latest casualty of the immigration crackdown,'' Yahoo News, March 20,
2025, https://www.yahoo.com/news/jeanette-vizguerra-high-profile-
activist-170455405.html.
\3\ Laura Strickler, ``New Immigration and Customs Enforcement data
shows administration isn't just arresting criminals,'' NBC News,
February 19, 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/
new-ice-data-shows-administration-isnt-just-arresting-criminals-rcna-
192656.
\4\ Jennie Taer, ``ICE will now target illegal migrant families for
deportation--and is reopening 2 detention centers to hold them,'' New
York Post, March 6, 2025, https://nypost.com/2025/03/06/us-news/trump-
admin-will-now-target-illegal-migrant-families-for-deportation/.
\5\ Marisa Taylor, Ted Hesson, and Kristina Cooke, ``Trump
officials launch ICE effort to deport unaccompanied migrant children,''
Reuters, February 23, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-
administration-directs-ice-agents-find-deport-unaccompanied-migrant-
2025-02-23/.
\6\ Ximena Bustillo, ``In child care centers and on farms,
businesses are bracing for more immigration raids,'' NPR, February 28,
2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/02/28/g-s1-50958/business-workplace-
raids-immigration-ice-deportation.
\7\ Associated Press, ``Ice violated Chicago agreement during
immigration raids, activists allege,'' March 17, 2025, https://
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/17/chicago-ice-raids.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
These efforts to carry out mass deportations are making Americans
less safe and less well-off. Law enforcement officers across the
Federal Government have been taken off their normal duties and forced
to carry out immigration arrests. Trust between immigrant communities
and local police is being undermined as the administration moves to
pressure local communities to end policies which promote cooperation
with police. A climate of fear has descended across the country, with
some immigrants with deep ties to this country staying home, skipping
work and school, and only venturing outside when strictly necessary.\8\
Should deportations ramp up further, the economic impact of this change
will only get worse, and all Americans can expect to feel the pinch.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ Rebecca Davis O'Brien and Miriam Jordan, ``A Chill Sets In for
Undocumented Workers, and Those Who Hire Them,'' New York Times, March
9, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/business/economy/immigrant-
workers-deportation-fears.html.
\9\ American Immigration Council, ``Mass Deportation: Devastating
Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy,'' October 2, 2024, https://
www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/mass-deportation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This administration's priorities are backwards. At the same time as
his administration is slashing Government services for Americans across
the board, President Trump is pouring resources into immigration
enforcement. Billions of dollars are going to detaining ever-greater
numbers of immigrants in overcrowded ICE detention beds and holding
cells.\10\ At the same time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is
terminating contracts to ensure America's children have access to
fresh, local food in our schools \11\ and the National Institutes for
Health are terminating grants to provide cancer care in rural
areas.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ Dennis Valera, ``Immigrant advocates protest inhumane
conditions in Baltimore ICE detention facility,'' CBS News, March 18,
2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/maryland-immigration-ice-
detention-facility-conditions/.
\11\ Aimee Picchi, ``USDA cancels $1 billion in funding for schools
and food banks to buy food from local suppliers,'' CBS News, March 13,
2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usda-cancels-local-food-purchasing-
food-banks-school-meals/.
\12\ Lauren Neergaard and Kasturi Pananjady, ``NIH research cuts
threaten the search for life-saving cures and jobs in every state,''
March 6, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/trump-science-medicine-
research-cancer-funding-university-0ef3fa47694784e47b0ecd51680410ba.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Trump administration's cuts also extend to core oversight of
their actions. On Friday, March 21, the Department of Homeland Security
effectively dissolved 3 oversight bodies created by Congress within the
Department of Homeland Security; the Office of the Immigration
Detention Ombudsman, the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services
Ombudsman, and the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.\13\
The latter agency was tasked with reviewing claims under the Prison
Rape Elimination Act brought by people in ICE detention.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\13\ Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Hamed Aleaziz, Adam Goldman, and Eileen
Sullivan, ``Trump Fires Nearly the Entire Civil Rights Branch of
D.H.S.,'' New York Times, March 21, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/
03/21/us/politics/trump-civil-rights-homeland-security-
deportations.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abolishing CRCL will cause investigations into serious allegations
of rape and sexual violence inside ICE detention centers to be dropped
or to languish with no forward progress, allowing perpetrators to
escape responsibility. And this is not even the first time the Trump
administration has openly ignored sexual violence against migrants. In
March the Trump administration dropped a lawsuit seeking compensation
for migrant children raped and sexually abused while held in shelters.
Displaying a shocking level of callousness, the Government argued in a
legal brief that dropping the case was necessary because compensating
children who had been raped and sexually abused while in Government-
funded shelters could ``incentivize illegal crossings at the Southern
Border.''\14\ None of this makes our communities safer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\14\ Justin Wise and Suzanne Monyak, ``US Said to Drop Sex Abuse
Lawsuit Against Migrant Child Shelter,'' Bloomberg, March 9, 2025,
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/us-said-to-drop-sex-abuse-
lawsuit-against-migrant-child-shelter.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rather than pour ever-greater sums of money into immigration
enforcement while cutting services for Americans and gutting basic
protections and oversight for those held in immigration custody, this
administration and Congress should pursue common-sense policies that
help our communities. A path to permanent legal status for the
overwhelming majority of undocumented immigrants who have resided in
this country for decades without getting into trouble with the law
would build American prosperity, encourage the rule of law, and reduce
exploitation of vulnerable immigrants by unscrupulous employers. In an
option between self-defeating mass deportations and a prosperity-
building path to legal status, the choice is clear.
president trump's obsession with draconian immigration enforcement is
making us less safe
The Trump administration has chosen to prioritize immigration
enforcement above nearly every other law enforcement priority; above
drug trafficking, above terrorism, and above protecting our children.
The first shift began at the Department of Justice. On President
Trump's first full day in office, the Department of Justice issued a
memo declaring that all U.S. Attorneys offices ``shall pursue charges
relating to criminal immigration-related violations'' whenever
presented, no matter how minor.\15\ Any failure to pursue such charges
requires a formal declination decision and has to be immediately
reported to senior leadership for review.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\15\ Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, ``Memorandum for All
Department Employees: Interim Policy Changes Regarding Charging,
Sentencing, and Immigration Enforcement,'' Dep't of Justice, January
21, 2025, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/
2f9af176-72c5-458a-adc4-91327aa80d11.pdf?itid=hp-top-table-
high_p001_f002.
\16\ Id. at 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although Federal law enforcement was already focused on serious
matters, the memo directed multiple law enforcement agencies to abandon
their current duties and shift to focusing on immigration-related
offenses again. The memo directed the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement
Task Force (established in 1982 to identify, disrupt, and dismantle
drug trafficking and related offenses) and Project Safe Neighborhoods
(established in 2001 to bring together Federal, State, and local law
enforcement to address violent crime) to divert ``resources and
attention to immigration-related prosecutions at the Federal, State,
and local levels.''\17\ Taking this one step further, the memo provides
that ``OCDETF Strike Forces shall prioritize the investigation and
prosecution of immigration offenses, including by requiring OCDETF-
funded AUSAs to devote significant time and attention to the
investigation of these crimes.''\18\ In other words, the DOJ directs
its components to stop focusing on drug trafficking and transnational
crime and instead mandates that law enforcement must focus on
immigration offenses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\17\ Id. at 3.
\18\ Id. at 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This mandate is not new under President Trump. In his first term,
Attorney General Jeff Sessions' 2018 ``Zero Tolerance'' policy mandated
that prosecutors charge every migrant crossing the Southern Border
under 8 U.S.C. 1325 for misdemeanor ``improper entry.'' This not only
led to cruel family separations that a majority of Americans opposed,
but it also meant prosecutors at the Southern Border were forced to
divert attention away from serious criminals, which led prosecutions
for drug trafficking to plummet.\19\ While it is too early to have any
hard data for this renewed shift in prosecutorial priorities, expect
something similar to occur in 2025. Prosecutors have limited resources,
and if they are mandated to use those resources on immigration charges,
they will by necessity be forced to stop bringing charges against other
Federal crimes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\19\ Brad Heath, ``As feds focused on detaining kids, border drug
prosecutions plummeted,'' USA Today, October 10, 2018, https://
www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2018/10/10/border-drug-
trafficking-prosecutions-plunged-zero-tolerance/1521128002/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
After taking office, Attorney General Pam Bondi emphasized in a
February 5, 2025 memorandum that the highest priority of the Department
of Justice will be ``immigration enforcement.''\20\ Incredibly, the
only priorities for the entire DOJ that AG Bondi lists in her
memorandum are immigration enforcement (including investigations of
local officials who do not cooperate with ICE), combatting trafficking
and smuggling of children across the border, crimes against law
enforcement, and targeting transnational criminal organizations such as
MS-13. Not a single other crime rises to the level of a priority for
the department--not terrorism, child sexual exploitation, public
corruption, gang violence, election interference, or even fentanyl
trafficking.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\20\ Attorney General Pamela Bondi, Memorandum for All Department
Employees: General Policy Regarding Charging, Plea Negotiations, and
Sentencing,'' February 5, 2025, https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/
1388541/dl.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The diversion of law enforcement away from their normal duties has
occurred throughout the Federal Government since Trump took office, not
just among prosecutors. For example, ICE's Homeland Security
Investigations (HSI), the criminal investigative arm of ICE, previously
had its primary mission ``keeping dangerous drugs and gang members off
our streets'' and ``identifying and supporting victims rescued from
child exploitation, human trafficking, and forced labor.''\21\ Not so
anymore. Now, pursuant to a January 20 Executive Order, the President
has mandated that the ``primary mission of [HSI] is the enforcement of
the provisions of the INA and other Federal laws related to illegal
entry and unlawful presence of aliens in the United States.''\22\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\21\ ICE Homeland Security Investigations, ``Who We Are,'' last
updated March 7, 2025, https://www.ice.gov/about-ice/hsi.
\22\ President Donald J. Trump, Executive Order 14159, Protecting
the American People Against Invasion, January 20, 2025, https://
www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/29/2025-02006/protecting-the-
american-people-against-invasion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rather than protecting American children from pedophiles and drug
traffickers, public reporting confirms that hundreds of HSI agents have
been diverted to carrying out immigration enforcement instead.\23\
Former HSI agents warned in February that these shifts may force agents
to abandon cases involving ``child exploitation crimes, cyber attacks
and Dark Web financial schemes, Iranian and Chinese nuclear
traffickers, Russian organized crime, trade fraud and sanctions
investigations.''\24\ Now, in March, reporting from Reuters confirms
the devasting impact of these cuts: ``scores of agents who specialize
in child sexual exploitation have been reassigned to immigration
enforcement,'' including menial duties such as ``surveillance outside
of immigrant workers' homes, taking down license plates and
distributing photos of `target' immigrants to detain.''\25\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\23\ Josh Meyer, ``Thousands of DHS agents shift to deportation
instead of drugs, weapons, and human trafficking,'' USA Today, February
14, 2025, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/14/dhs-
agents-deportation-not-trafficking/78641666007/.
\24\ Id. (``Cappannelli said one HSI agent involved in complex
multi-agency criminal investigations is now chasing border crossers out
of a remote station in Eagle Pass, Texas.'')
\25\ Brad Heath, Joshua Schneyer, Marisa Taylor, Sarah N. Lynch and
Mike Spector, ``Exclusive: Thousands of agents diverted to Trump
immigration crackdown,'' Reuters, March 22, 2025, https://
www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-agents-diverted-trump-immigration-
crackdown-2025-03-22/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Multiple other Federal law enforcement agencies are also being
forced to divert large numbers of agents away from their normal law
enforcement tasks to carry out immigration raids.
The Drug Enforcement Agency has been ordered to divert
agents to immigration enforcement, with one DEA special agent
in charge admitting that immigration enforcement duties are
``new to the DEA,'' and that the agency has been required to
send agents out to conduct immigration enforcement every
day.\26\ In total, 25% of DEA's entire 10,000 staff have been
diverted to immigration enforcement as of late March.\27\
Rather than tracking down drug traffickers, DEA agents are also
being told to comb through old files and find any cases
involving undocumented immigrants, going as far back as 5 years
ago, even cases where prosecutors declined to bring charges
because of a lack of evidence, and to go out and arrest these
individuals on immigration offenses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\26\ Shelby Bremer, ``DEA special agent in charge of San Diego
discusses immigration, US-Mexico border,'' NBC San Diego, March 8,
2025, https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/san-diego-dea-agent-
immigration-border/3772700/.
\27\ Brad Heath, Joshua Schneyer, Marisa Taylor, Sarah N. Lynch and
Mike Spector, ``Exclusive: Thousands of agents diverted to Trump
immigration crackdown,'' Reuters, March 22, 2025, https://
www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-agents-diverted-trump-immigration-
crackdown-2025-03-22/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has also been
deputized to carry out immigration enforcement. Agents have
been sent to join ICE on various enforcement operations,
including a controversial arrest of an adult outside a school
during morning drop-off.\28\ In total, as of late March,
``about 80%'' of the agency's ``roughly 2,500'' agents have
been reassigned to immigration enforcement and taken away from
their normal job investigating firearms offenses, arson,
bombing, and illicit shipments of alcohol and tobacco.\29\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\28\ Becky Vevea and Mila Koumpilova, ``Person Detained By ICE And
ATF Agents During School Dropoff, Charter School Leaders Say,'' Block
Club Chicago, February 28, 2025, https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/02/
26/person-detained-by-federal-immigration-officials-during-school-
dropoff-chicago-charter-school-administrators-say/.
\29\ Brad Heath, Joshua Schneyer, Marisa Taylor, Sarah N. Lynch and
Mike Spector, ``Exclusive: Thousands of agents diverted to Trump
immigration crackdown,'' Reuters, March 22, 2025, https://
www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-agents-diverted-trump-immigration-
crackdown-2025-03-22/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Internal Revenue Service has been directed to divert an
unknown number of criminal investigation agents, whose
expertise lies in investigating tax evaders and perpetrators of
financial, to immigration enforcement.\30\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\30\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. Marshal Service has been directed to send agents to
the Southern Border and to join ICE on enforcement operations
in the interior.\31\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\31\ Kerry Charles, ``U.S. Marshals visit southern border,'' MSN,
February 17, 2025, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/u-s-marshals-
visit-southern-border/ar-AA1zfeNrATF.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is not immune from this
shift in priorities. The January 21 memorandum provides that the Joint
Terrorism Task Force must ``coordinate with DHS, as well as State and
local members, to assist in the execution of President Trump's
immigration-related initiatives.''\32\ Media has already confirmed that
agents assigned to the JTTF have been taken off their normal duties and
instead are ``focused on making immigration arrests.''\33\ In essence,
rather than focus on disrupting terrorist threats, the FBI's primary
anti-terrorism task force must instead focus on finding and rounding up
migrants that the Trump administration declares a higher priority.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\32\ Bove Memorandum, at 3.
\33\ Barb Markoff, Christine Tressel, Tom Jones, Mark Rivera,
``Chicago FBI terrorism task force new objective: Immigration
enforcement,'' ABC 7 Chicago, March 6, 2025, https://abc7chicago.com/
post/chicago-fbi-terrorism-task-force-new-objective-during-president-
donald-trump-administration-immigration-enforcement/15985664/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a world of limited resources, diverting law enforcement agents
and prosecutors focusing on more serious crimes to carry out Trump's
mass deportation agenda is going to have an obvious effect. When FBI
agents investigating terrorists are instead forced to round up
migrants, our Nation is not safer. When ICE HSI agents working to track
on-line child pedophiles are forced instead to wait outside a random
migrant's house conducting surveillance instead, our children are not
safer. When DEA agents investigating a drug ring are told to instead
knock on doors to find a random migrant who missed a court hearing, our
communities are not safer.
Finally, to be clear, there is no evidence that the Trump
administration's increased enforcement operations are targeting only
public safety threats. Data published by ICE itself shows that the
percent of people arrested by ICE and held in ICE detention with no
criminal record has tripled since President Trump took office (see
Figure 1).
Figure 1: Percent of Individuals Arrested by ICE Inside the United
States and Held in ICE Detention Who Have No Criminal History
Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detention Management,
https://www.ice.gov/detain/detention-management.\34\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\34\ Detention data is posted to this site on a biweekly basis.
Prior data available through the Wayback Machine at https://
web.archive.org/web/20241204112435/https://www.ice.gov/detain/
detention-management.
Through the last months of the Biden administration, roughly 6% of
people arrested by ICE inside the interior of the United States and
sent to ICE detention had no criminal record, meaning 94% of those held
in ICE detention arrested in the interior were people with either a
prior criminal conviction or a pending criminal charge. As of early
March, over 18% of individuals held in ICE detention who were arrested
in the interior by ICE had no criminal record. In other words, the
Trump administration's enforcement efforts are leading to a significant
increase in the arrests of people who are not public safety threats.
And the people carrying out many of those arrests are law enforcement
agents whose normal jobs would require them to target only those
individuals engaged in serious violations of Federal criminal laws,
such as drug trafficking.
Mass Deportations Will Hurt the United States Economy and U.S. Workers
Today, there are at least 13 million undocumented people living in
the United States.\35\ Trump promises to carry out a mass deportation
campaign with the stated intent of arresting and deporting every one of
them. While most people entered without inspection across the U.S.-
Mexico border, millions entered with a visa and then overstayed.\36\
Over 8.6 million entered the country before 2009, meaning they have now
lived here for a minimum of 15 years.\37\ Nearly 5 million have been
here for a minimum of 25 years, and nearly 1.5 million have been here
for a minimum of 35 years.\38\ Without a path to permanent legal
status, they have spent decades living in limbo; living, working, and
often raising a family. They have become integral parts of their
communities, and yet the law prevents them from securing the necessary
paperwork that can make it formal.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\35\ Using American Community Survey data, we estimate that there
were 10.99 million undocumented immigrants in the country as of 2022.
DHS data shows that over 2.5 million people were released after
crossing the Southern Border either at or between a port of entry since
January 2023. U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec., Office of Homeland Security
Statistics, ``Immigration Enforcement and Legal Processes Monthly
Tables,'' https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/immigration-
enforcement/immigration-president-enforcement-and-legal-processes-
monthly, last updated October 29, 2024. Roughly 500,000 additional
people entered through the CHNV parole program over that period.
Without more recent Census data, we do not know the total of
undocumented immigrants that left the country in 2023 and 2024, so it
is not possible to provide an exact estimate of the undocumented
population as of today.
\36\ Congressional Research Service, ``Nonimmigrant Overstays:
Overview and Policy Issues,'' November 21, 2023, https://sgp.fas.org/
crs/homesec/R47848.pdf.
\37\ U.S. Dep't of Homeland Sec, Office of Homeland Security
Statistics, ``Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population
Residing in the United States: January 2018-January 2022,'' April 2024,
at 4 https://ohss.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2024-06/
2024_0418_ohss_estimates-of-the-unauthorized-immigrant-population-
residing-in-the-united-states-january-2018%25E2%25- 80%2593january-
2022.pdf.
\38\ Id.
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Undocumented people are part of nearly every community and
institution in the country. Over 100,000 undocumented children graduate
from an American high school each year.\39\ We estimate that there were
408,000 undocumented college students in 2021.\40\ As of 2022, we
estimate that there were roughly 1.7 million undocumented immigrants
with a bachelor's degree or higher.\41\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\39\ Fwd.US, ``The Post-DACA Generation is Here,'' Mary 23, 2023,
https://www.fwd.us/news/undocumented-high-school-graduates/.
\40\ American Immigration Council, ``Undocumented College
Students,'' August 2, 2023, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/
research/undocumented-college-students-2023.
\41\ American Immigration Council, ``Mass Deportation: Devastating
Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy,'' October 2, 2024, https://
www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/mass-deportation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Undocumented immigrants are also parents, spouses, and family
members to millions of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.
Over 11.3 million U.S. citizens, plus an additional 2.4 million people
with lawful permanent residency, live with someone who is undocumented
(most often a member of their family).\42\ Nation-wide, more than one
in 13 children in K-12 education has at least 1 parent who is
undocumented; in Nevada, 1 in every 7, in Texas, 1 in every 8, and in
California, 1 in every 11.\43\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\42\ Fwd.US, ``New data analysis shows 28 million people, including
nearly 20 million Latinos, are at risk of family separation in 2025,''
October 24, 2024, https://www.fwd.us/news/mixed-status-families-oct/.
\43\ Pew Research Center, ``Unauthorized immigrants and
characteristics for States, 2022,'' https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-
content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/SR_24.07.22_unauthor- ized-
immigrants_table-3.xlsx.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
While President Trump talks about targeting ``criminal
immigrants,'' over 90% have no prior criminal record whatsoever.\44\ Of
the minority that do, the most common prior convictions are traffic
offenses.\45\ Efforts to ramp up arrests for a mass deportation
campaign would therefore necessarily sweep up thousands of people who
have no or minimal criminal histories. In October, the Council
published an analysis of 42 years of demographic data confirming that
there is no statistically significant correlation between the immigrant
share of the population and the total crime rate in any State.\46\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\44\ Muzaffar Chishti and Michelle Mittelstadt, ``Unauthorized
Immigrants with Criminal Convictions: Who Might Be a Priority for
Removal?'' Migration Policy Institute, November 2016, https://
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/unauthorized-immigrants-criminal-
convictions-who-might-be-priority-removal.
\45\ This is based on the profile of criminal records of
individuals arrested by ICE. See, e.g., U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, ``U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Fiscal Year
2019 Enforcement and Removal Operations Report,'' 2020, https://
www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Document/2019/
eroReportFY2019.pdf.
\46\ American Immigration Council, ``Debunking the Myth of
Immigrants and Crime,'' October 17, 2024, https://
www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/debunking-myth-immigrants-
and-crime.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instead of mass deportation, Congress could create a new path to
permanent legal status allowing undocumented people already living here
to file an application, pay a fee, and get some form of permanent
status. The Council has studied the impact of the creation of a path to
legal status for the undocumented population. In 2013, we examined the
impact of the 1986 path to legal status created by the Immigration
Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and concluded that legalization ``would
be the cheapest Federal workforce development and anti-poverty program
for children in history.''\47\ Economists agree that a path to legal
status ``is not only a humanitarian act; it is also a form of economic
stimulus'' that will ``generate more tax revenue for Federal, State,
and local governments, as well as more consumer spending which sustains
more jobs in U.S. businesses,'' which ``would benefit everyone by
growing the economy and expanding the labor market.''\48\ And we
examined data from both the Government and the academy showing that
legalization programs do not drive increased migration, and if properly
designed may actually reduce migration at the border.\49\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\47\ Dr. Sherrie A. Kossoudji, ``Back to the Future: The Impact of
Legalization Then and Now,'' American Immigration Council, January 31,
2013, https://www.americanimmigra- tioncouncil.org/research/back-
future-impact-legalization-then-and-now.
\48\ American Immigration Council, ``An Immigration Stimulus: The
Economic Benefits of a Legalization Program for Unauthorized
Immigrants,'' April 2013, https://www.american- immigrationcouncil.org/
sites/default/files/research/legalization_0.pdf.
\49\ American Immigration Council, ``Built to Last: How Immigration
Reform Can Deter Unauthorized Immigration,'' May 2013, https://
www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/
built_to_last_how_immigration_reform_can_deter_unauthorized-
_immigration.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite the economic benefits of legalization, President Trump
plans to pursue mass deportations of millions of undocumented people.
This year, the Council studied the impact of taking the country down
this path.\50\ In our October 2024 study, ``Mass Deportation:
Devastating Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy,'' we examined the
fiscal and economic impacts of mass deportations of the estimated 11
million undocumented immigrants present in the United States as of
2022, as well as the 2.3 million individuals who entered the country
and were placed into removal proceedings from January 2023 through
April 2024.\51\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\50\ Portions of the aforementioned report are reproduced in this
testimony.
\51\ American Immigration Council, ``Mass Deportation: Devastating
Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy,'' October 2, 2024, https://
www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/mass-deportation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our analysis concludes that beyond the enormous human toll that
mass deportations would take on the United States, mass deportations
would also impose extraordinary economic and fiscal damage to our
country. Mass deportations would cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of
billions of dollars, with an estimated cost of an 11-year operation to
arrest, detain, process, and deport 1 million people per year at $88
billion.\52\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\52\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mass deportations would also cause economic chaos. As millions are
expelled, the U.S. population and labor force would shrink. So too
would the economy. Prices would rise in sectors with significant
undocumented workforces, including construction, agriculture, and
hospitality. Building, maintaining, and repairing houses would become
more expensive, as would groceries, restaurants, travel, and child
care. Every American would feel the pinch of inflation.
Overall, we estimate that a successful mass deportation campaign
would lead to a loss in total GDP of 4.2% to 6.8%; in comparison, the
GDP dropped by 4.3% during the Great Recession.\53\ And just like that
period, many Americans would lose their jobs. Even an attempt to deport
millions of people will have repercussions for local economies. After
all, undocumented immigrants are not just producers, they are also
consumers. Collectively, they hold $256.8 billion in annual purchasing
power. If millions of people are deported or otherwise forced to leave,
American businesses will close not just from a lack of workers, but
also from a lack of customers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\53\ John Weinberg, ``The Great Recession and its Aftermath,''
Federal Reserve History, November 22, 2013, https://
www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-recession-and-its-aftermath.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A large-scale mass deportation campaign will also increase labor
exploitation during the years in which it is carried out. Unscrupulous
employers will dangle deportation over any of their workers who dare to
push back, and will have the full force of the U.S. Government to back
up their threats.
economic impacts of mass deportation
Beyond the direct costs of the largest law enforcement operation in
history, mass deportation would profoundly damage the U.S. economy. We
used data from the most recent American Community Survey to estimate
the economic impacts of deporting the 11 million undocumented people in
the country as of 2022.
First, mass deportations would exacerbate on-going U.S. labor
shortages.\54\ In 2022, nearly 90% of undocumented immigrants were of
working age, compared to 61.3% of the U.S.-born population aged between
16 and 64, so undocumented immigrants are more likely to actively
participate in the labor force. Losing these working-age undocumented
immigrants would worsen the severe workforce challenges that many
industries have already been struggling with in the past few years.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\54\ See Stephanie Ferguson Melhorn, ``Understanding America's
Labor Shortage,'' U.S. Chamber of Commerce, November 22, 2024 (``Right
now, the latest data shows that we have 8 million job openings in the
U.S. but only 6.8 million unemployed workers.'')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The impact of mass deportations would be concentrated in several
key U.S. industries. The construction and agriculture industries would
lose at least 1 in 8 workers, while in hospitality, about 1 in 14
workers would be deported due to their undocumented status. Within
those industries, some trades would be hit harder than others.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 42% of farm workers
are undocumented.\55\ Our own analysis suggests that nearly one-third
of workers in major construction trades, such as plasterers, roofers,
and painters, are undocumented. Similarly, 28% of agricultural graders
and sorters, and a quarter of household cleaners, are undocumented.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\55\ U.S. Dep't of Agriculture, ``Farm Labor,'' last updated
December 6, 2024, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-
labor/#legalstatus.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The impact of losing these workers would be devasting. Labor
shortages in the construction industry are already high, with the
industry projecting a need to hire an additional 454,000 new workers in
2025 just to keep up with demand.\56\ The construction workforce is
already looking at the possibility of a ``foreboding exodus of
experience'' as the median age of construction workers rises;\57\
deporting an additional 1.5 million workers could destabilize the
industry, rapidly increasing prices for construction labor and causing
some construction firms to go under. Not only would the price of new
houses rise, but so too would the price of maintenance and repair.
These impacts would be felt not only by homeowners and likely home
buyers, but also by the U.S. Government, which would be required to
spend more on any of its own construction projects, more on disaster
recovery, and more on basic maintenance of any U.S. Government
property.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\56\ Associated Builders and Contractors, ``ABC: 2024 Construction
Workforce Shortage Tops Half a Million,'' January 31, 2024, https://
www.abc.org/News-Media/News-Releases/abc-2024-construction-workforce-
shortage-tops-half-a-million.
\57\ Zachary Phillips, ``Construction's age problem: A foreboding
exodus of experience,'' Construction Dive, May 25, 2023, https://
www.constructiondive.com/news/construction-labor-retirement-recruiting-
dei/651184/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As prices rise and businesses falter, Americans would lose jobs. A
recent study also found that for every 500,000 immigrants removed from
the labor market due to deportation, U.S.-born workers lose 44,000
jobs.\58\ Using that metric, deportation of 11 million undocumented
immigrants could cause a loss of 968,000 jobs held by U.S. citizens.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\58\ Chloe East, ``The labor market impact of deportations,''
Brookings, September 18, 2024, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-
labor-market-impact-of-deportations/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mass deportation would also reduce the overall size of the U.S.
economy. Among the deported would be 1 million undocumented immigrant
entrepreneurs, who generated $27.1 billion in total business income in
2022. Losing the 157,800 undocumented entrepreneurs in neighborhood
businesses would lead to disruptions to services that have become an
integral part of community life and provide local jobs for Americans.
We also find that undocumented immigrant households have a combined
purchasing power of $256.8 billion. This is money that goes into the
economy and stimulates broader economic growth. After all, undocumented
immigrants not only produce goods; they also consume goods, and that
money goes back into the U.S. economy. Mass deportation would disrupt
this economic behavior and damage the economy.
Mass deportation would also deprive Federal, State, and local
governments of billions in tax contributions from undocumented
households. In 2022 alone, undocumented immigrant households paid $46.8
billion in Federal taxes and $29.3 billion in State and local taxes.
Yet undocumented immigrants are unable to benefit from many of the
programs they pay into, including Social Security, Medicare, and
unemployment insurance. The United States would lose out on key
contributions undocumented households make to social safety net
programs annually, including $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7
billion to Medicare. As the U.S. population ages, the loss of these
payments would make it increasingly challenging to keep social safety
net programs solvent.
Beyond broader economic impacts, millions of families would feel
the pinch caused by deportation. Deporting undocumented immigrants
would separate 4 million mixed-status families, affecting 8.5 million
U.S. citizens with undocumented family members (5.1 million of whom are
U.S. citizen children). Many of those who would be deported are
breadwinners, and mass deportations would slash the income of their
households by an average of 62.7% ($51,200 per year). In many cases,
U.S. citizens may choose to leave as well to remain with a loved one
who was being deported, which would make the economic impact even
worse.
Taken together, we calculate that mass deportation would lead to a
loss of 4.2% to 6.8% of annual U.S. GDP, or $1.1 trillion to $1.7
trillion in 2022 dollars. In comparison, the U.S. GDP shrunk by 4.3%
during the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009. The negative impact
would be the most significant in California, Texas, and Florida, the 3
States that were home to 47.2% of the country's undocumented immigrants
in 2022 and where 1 in every 20 residents would be deported.
conclusion
President Trump's actions in his first months show that he has
taken the first steps to go down the path of mass deportations. If we
continue in that direction the entire country will suffer. Millions of
mixed-status families will be torn apart or forced to leave, and
millions of people will be kicked out of their jobs and the lives
they've made here for decades. In the wake of their removal, the
economy will shrink. Prices will rise across most sectors, and may
increase the most in construction, agriculture, and hospitality. As
inflation rises and the economy shrinks, businesses will go under,
workers will lose their jobs, and we will become poorer both as a
Nation and as individuals. We would also leave a permanent stain on
this country's legacy and undermine our credibility around the world.
Who would ever trust the United States to talk about human rights if we
forcibly evict millions of people at the point of a gun?
By contrast, if Congress passes a path to permanent legal status,
we can benefit as a Nation. Bringing millions of people out of the
shadows will allow them to obtain stability, fight against
exploitation, and contribute even more to this country. Rather than
self-sabotage, we should follow the proud tradition of this Nation and
give people a real chance to come into compliance with the law rather
than bring down the hammer.
Mr. Guest. To all of our witnesses, thank you for
summarizing your opening statements.
Members will be recognized by order of seniority for their
5 minutes of questioning. An additional round of questioning
may be called after all Members have been recognized.
I now recognize myself for 5 minutes of questioning.
Ms. Ries, when I grew up, history was one of my favorite
subjects in school. I had a teacher in high school who would
often use these words. He would say, those who don't know
history are doomed to repeat it. I feel that as we as a
Congress move forward as a body to try to encapsulate what the
Trump administration is doing, that it is important that we
also look back.
I think you did a great job in your opening statement,
kind-of talking about many of the actions that you described of
the prior administration that you said unleashed an open border
agenda. You mentioned the stopping of the construction of the
border wall, the ending of Remain in Mexico, the mass parole by
the use of the CBP One app. You talk about NGO's and how the
prior administration built an infrastructure that facilitated
illegal immigration.
So I would ask if, just for a moment, if you would talk
about these policies and the other failed policies of the
administration and the impact that it has had on all law-
abiding American citizens.
Ms. Ries. Yes. Thank you. I'd say the Biden administration
used a few particular tools to carry this out. I talked a
little bit about asylum, asylum fraud, encouraging people to
come here and apply for asylum, even though we knew that so
many people aren't ultimately eligible for it, as well as
parole. Parole is something that is in the immigration statute,
but pre- the Biden administration, it was very rarely used. The
point of it is if someone doesn't have time to go through the
visa process or the refugee program, but needs to come here
temporarily on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian
need or in the significant public interest. The classic example
is someone coming from surgery who doesn't have time to get a
visa. For that reason, I believe that is why Congress did not
authorize work authorization for parole and yet Secretary
Mayorkas granted work authorization for the parolees.
We talked about the use of the NGO's, truly an arm of the
Government, to carry this out. DOGE has revealed the billions
of dollars that have gone out through various departments to
execute this.
Mr. Guest. Ms. Ries, let me ask you, did the combination of
the policies of the Biden administration, did it make America
more safe or less safe?
Ms. Ries. Less safe.
Mr. Guest. Mr. Anfinsen, I want to ask you a couple
questions. First, thank you for your service. I had a chance to
visit with you a few minutes before the hearing. You actually
shared with me a story that in the sector that you are assigned
to, Del Rio, that back in September 2021, that there were
actually, on one given day in a single sector, there were
15,000 encounters that day, more than the entire month of
February along the entire Southwest Border. We've seen with the
policies implemented by the Trump administration, just over
11,000 total encounters on the Southwest Border. You were
telling me that you had 15,000 encounters on a given day just
in a single sector along the Southwest Border. Is that correct?
Mr. Anfinsen. That's correct. We had what's been deemed the
Haitian migrant crisis in Del Rio. Essentially, almost 30,000
people crossed over the span of about a week and a half. The
high-water mark for 1 day was about 15,000 people below the Del
Rio port of entry and in the brush to the left and right of it.
So it was this--we've never seen anything like that before.
Mr. Guest. Let me ask you about current morale. There was a
statement issued in one of the opening statements, and I don't
recall by Mr. Correa or Mr. Thompson, that the morale of the
Border Patrol agents was low. How would you contrast the morale
of the Border Patrol agents today versus the morale under the
Biden administration?
Mr. Anfinsen. Complete 100-degree--180-degree change. We're
able to do our job again. That's the--we want to work. With
all--there's a lot of people bashing Federal employees these
days. We want to work. It's a very difficult job and we want to
be out there, and we're finally able to do it.
Mr. Guest. One final question, and I will ask each of the
witnesses just to answer yes or no, because my time is quickly
expiring. It has been reported that there are roughly 1.5
million individuals who have final orders of removal that are
currently at large within the United States. So that means that
they have been through the process, their claims have been
denied, and that a magistrate or a judge has issued a final
order of removal for those individuals.
So my question is, should we be enforcing those orders of
removal? Ms. Ries.
Ms. Ries. Yes.
Mr. Guest. Mr. Blair.
Mr. Blair. Yes, sir.
Mr. Guest. Mr. Anfinsen.
Mr. Anfinsen. Yes, sir.
Mr. Guest. Mr. Reichlin-Melnick.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. It depends on the individual
circumstances.
Mr. Guest. So if a judge orders a person to be removed, we
should not enforce the judge's order. Is that your testimony?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Many of those orders were issued in
absentia against people who did not receive Government notice.
In fact, 20 percent of in absentia orders are later
successfully overturned. So I think each individual case is
different.
Mr. Guest. All right. So I am going to take that as a no.
Well, with that, I will now recognize Mr. Correa for his 5
minutes of questioning.
Mr. Correa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do hope we have
additional opportunity to delve into these issues.
Mr. Anfinsen, I had the opportunity to travel from Texas to
California to visit most of the ports of entry and areas
between ports of entry. Talk to a lot of your agents. Most of
the employees right now at the border, green and blue uniforms,
came on board after 9/11. So you're right, we've got a massive
wave of retirements coming any day now. Low morale? Pay. You
pay a person at San Ysidro the same that you pay somebody in
New Mexico. Mandatory overtime? Do we have mandatory overtime?
Mr. Anfinsen. That's correct.
Mr. Correa. So you got an agent who's got to go home and
take care of the kids, a single parent, what does he say when
he's popped with a 16-hour turn?
Mr. Anfinsen. Sorry at best.
Mr. Correa. How does that help morale?
Mr. Anfinsen. That's right.
Mr. Correa. OK. Suicides, absolutely. I hope, Mr. Chairman,
moving forward, let's look at these issues. That's bread-and-
butter stuff.
Recruitment. The reason you can't bring in more people is
because of the security background check. It's tougher than
even the FBI's background check. These are the issues we got to
look at that we've been talking about for years now.
Now, Mr. Blair, you talked about the narcos.
Mr. Blair. Yes, sir.
Mr. Correa. You're absolutely right. Very powerful. In
Mexico, people are scared to death to walk on those streets.
Who finances those narcos?
Mr. Blair. They finance themselves through their illicit
commodities.
Mr. Correa. The sale of drugs to our taxpayers, our
constituents. Those American dollars are going to Mexico to
finance the narcos. Is that correct, yes or no?
Mr. Blair. Yes, sir. We are one of their largest----
Mr. Correa. So you are witnessing right now the biggest
transfer of wealth in recent history. American consumers
financing narcos that are killing people in other countries.
Yes, no?
Mr. Blair. Yes, as well as all the other 65----
Mr. Correa. Thank you very much. Love to talk to you a bit
more, but I got a couple of minutes left. Maybe one of my
colleagues here can indulge a little bit more.
But Mr. Reichlin-Melnick, let's talk about that a little
bit. Trump administration pulling thousands of agents to the
border, pulling FBI, DEA, ATF from investigating child abuses,
sex traffickers, gangs, drugs. If you want to go after these
issues, wouldn't you go after the pocketbook? Wouldn't you go
after and investigate where these dollars are flowing, where
they're coming from?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. I think so, yes.
Mr. Correa. So how does this shift in personnel help the
situation or not?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. I don't think it does. I think
trained law enforcement that are focusing on very serious
crimes like child sexual exploitation should stay on the job
doing those jobs.
Mr. Correa. I mean, if you want to punch a drug cartel, you
want to go after their pocketbook. Correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Correct.
Mr. Correa. So when you pull somebody from ATF, DEA, FBI,
from that investigation, what are we doing?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. I don't see how that helps.
Mr. Correa. Let me come back to the issue of deporting
individuals that don't have a criminal record. I am from
California. We are the land of the nuts and fruits many say. We
are also the fifth largest economy in the world. We are also
the biggest ag State in the United States, account for 60
percent of the Nation's venture capital. We have more
inventions, Silicon Valley. We have been able to fix our human
resource, our work force issues by integrating documented and
undocumented workers. Most of workers in the fields are
probably undocumented. Is that good or bad for economy, for
lowering the prices of food?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes. Certainly undocumented workers
contribute significantly to the United States. Many of them are
taxpayers. About half of undocumented immigrants pay taxes as
well, putting billions of dollars into local economies.
Mr. Correa. A lot of them pay into the Social Security
system; will never see a dime off that system.
Mr. Chairman, I have got half a minute left here, but I
would love to delve with you into these issues. Nobody, nobody
wants a murder or rapists in our neighborhoods because by the
time they are actually reported to the police, they ravage
through our ethnic communities first. We don't want that to
happen. At the same time, we recognize the fact that we have a
work force shortage in this country and that we need legal
pathways to work in this country.
Look forward, Mr. Chairman, to addressing the real issues.
By the way, we didn't even talk about the fact that a lot of
these crossings, illegal crossings, undocumented crossings at
the border are also a result of COVID. That's another issue.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for indulging me. If I can, before
I give you the mic, I would like to submit for the record, I
would like to ask for unanimous consent to submit an article
from Reuters dated March 22 of this year entitled, ``Thousands
of Agents Diverted to Trump Immigration Crackdown,'' that
describes how special agents from HSI, FBI, ATF have been
forced to put their investigations on hold in order to do
immigration enforcement. Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Guest. Without objection, it will be admitted into the
record.
[The information follows:]
Article Submitted by Ranking Member J. Luis Correa
the wider image: inside trump's immigration crackdown as net widens
Exclusive: Thousands of agents diverted to Trump
immigration crackdown
By Brad Heath, Joshua Schneyer, Marisa Taylor, Sarah N. Lynch, and Mike
Spector
March 22, 2025 6:16 AM EDT Updated 4 days ago
Summary
Federal agents diverted from crime-fighting to immigration
enforcement
Critics argue crackdown diverts resources from other crimes,
making America less safe
Trump administration defends shift, citing immigration as a
national security threat
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters).--Federal agents who usually hunt
down child abusers are now cracking down on immigrants who live in the
U.S. illegally.
Homeland Security investigators who specialize in money laundering
are raiding restaurants and other small businesses looking for
immigrants who aren't authorized to work.
Agents who pursue drug traffickers and tax fraud are being
reassigned to enforce immigration law.
As U.S. President Donald Trump pledges to deport ``millions and
millions'' of ``criminal aliens,'' thousands of Federal law enforcement
officials from multiple agencies are being enlisted to take on new work
as immigration enforcers, pulling crime-fighting resources away on
other areas--from drug trafficking and terrorism to sexual abuse and
fraud.
This account of Trump's push to reorganize Federal law
enforcement--the most significant since the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks--is based on interviews with more than 20 current and
former Federal agents, attorneys and other Federal officials. Most had
first-hand knowledge of the changes. Nearly all spoke on the condition
of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss their work.
``I do not recall ever seeing this wide a spectrum of Federal
Government resources all being turned toward immigration enforcement,''
said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former Homeland Security official who
has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations. ``When
you're telling agencies to stop what you've been doing and do this now,
whatever else they were doing takes a back seat.''
In response to questions from Reuters, Homeland Security Assistant
Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the U.S. Government is ``mobilizing
Federal and State law enforcement to find, arrest, and deport illegal
aliens.'' The Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to respond to
questions about its staffing. In a statement, the FBI said it is
``protecting the U.S. from many threats.'' The White House did not
respond to requests for comment.
The Trump administration has offered no comprehensive accounting of
the revamp. But it echoes the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, when
Congress created the Department of Homeland Security that pulled
together 169,000 Federal employees from other agencies and refocused
the FBI on battling terrorism.
Trump's hardline approach to deporting immigrants has intensified
America's already-stark partisan divide. The U.S. Senate's No. 2
Democrat, Dick Durbin, described the crackdown as a ``wasteful,
misguided diversion of resources.'' In a statement to Reuters, he said
it was ``making America less safe'' by drawing agents and officials
away from fighting corporate fraud, terrorism, child sexual
exploitation and other crimes.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an interview with
Reuters, denied the changes across Federal law enforcement were
hindering other important criminal investigations. ``I completely
reject the idea that because we're prioritizing immigration that we are
not simultaneously full-force going after violent crime.''
He said the crackdown was warranted. ``President Trump views what
has happened over the last couple years truly as an invasion, so that's
how we're trying to remedy that.''
On January 20, his first day back in office, Trump signed an
executive order directing Federal agencies to team up to fight ``an
invasion'' of illegal immigrants. He cast the nation's estimated 11
million immigrants in the U.S. illegally as the driving factor behind
crime, gang violence and drug trafficking--assertions not supported by
government statistics--and accused immigrants of draining U.S.
Government resources and depriving citizens of jobs.
Almost immediately, Federal law enforcement started posting photos
of the crackdown to social media: agents wore body armor and jackets
emblazoned with names of multiple agencies--including the FBI, Drug
Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, known as ATF--during raids on immigrants
without proper legal status.
Before this year, ATF had played almost no role in immigration
enforcement. It typically investigated firearms offenses, bombings,
arson and illicit shipments of alcohol and tobacco.
But since Trump's inauguration, about 80 percent of its roughly
2,500 agents have been ordered to take on at least some immigration
enforcement tasks, two officials familiar with ATF's operations said.
The ATF agents are being used largely as ``fugitive hunters'' to find
migrants living in the U.S. illegally, one of the officials said.
The DEA, whose roughly 10,000 staff have led the nation's efforts
to battle drug cartels, has shifted about a quarter of its work to
immigration operations, said a former official briefed by current DEA
leaders on the changes. Two other former officials described the
commitment as ``substantial'' but did not know precisely how much work
shifted.
Many of the reassigned Federal officials have had little training
or experience in immigration law, the sources said. The State
Department's 2,500 Security Service agents, for instance, typically
protect diplomats and root out visa and passport fraud. They've been
authorized to assist with ``investigating, determining the location of,
and apprehending, any alien'' in the U.S. unlawfully, according to a
February 18 memo from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to the U.S. Secretary
of State.
The ATF and the State Department acknowledged in a statement they
are helping with immigration enforcement, but declined to elaborate on
specific staffing decisions.
The changes coincide with extraordinary immigration measures that
have prompted dozens of lawsuits claiming that Trump's presidency is
exceeding constitutional limits and other legal boundaries. These
include deporting alleged members of a Venezuelan gang under an 18th-
century wartime powers act and detaining a Columbia University student
activist with legal permanent residency status over his role in pro-
Palestinian protests.
The White House has said it is acting within the limits of the
Constitution and that it was protecting the safety and jobs of U.S.
citizens.
The results, so far, are mixed: the number of migrants seeking to
cross the southern U.S. border in February was the lowest in decades
and the number of people detained over immigration violations has
surged. That hasn't yet led to an increase in deportations, but experts
expect a jump in those numbers in coming months.
``STOP AND FRISK''
The focus on immigration is drawing significant resources away from
other crime-fighting departments, according to the more than 20 sources
who spoke to Reuters.
Until January, pursuing immigrants living in the country illegally
was largely the job of just two agencies: Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, or ICE, and Customs and Border Protection, with a combined
staff of 80,000. Other departments spent little time on deportations.
That's changing.
At Homeland Security Investigations, the top investigative arm of
the Department of Homeland Security, scores of agents who specialize in
child sexual exploitation have been reassigned to immigration
enforcement, said Matthew Allen, a former senior HSI official who now
leads the Association of Customs and HSI Special Agents, whose members
include about 1,000 current and former agents.
Over the past 2 years, those HSI agents have helped more than 3,000
child victims, often after complex probes, DHS data shows. ``There's a
good argument that these changes will lead to some child victims
continuing to be exploited,'' said Allen.
While HSI falls under the control of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, its team of 7,100 special agents typically play little
part in routine immigration enforcement. They usually probe national
security threats, terrorism, drug smuggling, human trafficking, illegal
arms exports, financial crimes, child sex crimes and intellectual
property theft. Immigration enforcement has been left to another ICE
branch known as Enforcement and Removal Operations.
But on January 31, HSI staff received an internal email from a top
official with a new mission of ``protecting the American people against
invasion.''
Going forward, the memo said, HSI special agents and other
employees should be prepared to play an increasingly critical role in
detaining and deporting immigrants, or barring their entry at U.S.
borders.
Recently, HSI has been offering training to employees unfamiliar
with immigration enforcement. This includes how to lure immigrants out
of their homes for interrogation in so-called ``knock and talk''
visits, conduct stop and frisk operations, or carry out warrantless
arrests, according to previously unreported internal documents shared
with Reuters.
HSI's new work also includes checking if companies have hired
unauthorized immigrants, surveillance outside of immigrant workers'
homes, taking down license plates and distributing photos of ``target''
immigrants to detain, according to an employee and photos of the
operations shared with Reuters.
At the IRS, criminal investigation agents, who typically probe a
variety of tax and financial crimes, were being redirected into the
immigration operations, Reuters previously reported.
IRS special agents are usually ``out there following complex money
trails; they break up drug deals, and they make people pay the taxes
they owe,'' said Elaine Maag, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings
Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank that studies tax issues.
``There are direct and indirect costs to pulling IRS criminal
investigators out of the field.''
The IRS did not respond to a request for comment.
PROSECUTION WORK PILING UP
On the second day of Trump's administration, a top Justice
Department official, Emil Bove, told Federal prosecutors in a memo that
they should ``take all steps necessary'' to prosecute illegal
immigrants for crimes in the U.S.
In the memo, Bove called for increasing the number of immigration
prosecutions, and said any cases that are declined must be urgently
reported to the Justice Department.
As a result, Federal prosecutors, who typically handle a variety of
crimes, have been inundated with immigration cases, two of the sources
said.
In San Diego, the number of people charged in Federal court in
February with felony immigration crimes more than quadrupled compared
to the previous year, a Reuters examination of Federal court records
found. The number of people charged with felony drug crimes dropped
slightly over the same period.
In Detroit--where immigration prosecutions have been rare--the
number of people charged with immigration offenses rose from two in
February 2024 to 19 last month, Reuters found.
Case management records from the Justice Department show that fewer
than 1 percent of cases brought to prosecutors by the DEA and ATF over
the past decade involved allegations that someone had violated an
immigration law.
Since January, however, DEA agents have been ordered to reopen
cases, involving arrests up to 5 years old, where prosecutors had
declined to bring charges, two people involved in the work said.
Sometimes prosecutors rejected those cases because of problems with
the evidence, they said. Now, if immigration authorities determine that
the people were in the country illegally at the time of that case,
agents are being dispatched to arrest them, the people said.
As Trump and billionaire Elon Musk slash the size of the Federal
bureaucracy, jobs that deal with immigration enforcement appear largely
exempt.
In a January 31 email to ICE employees, a human resources official
told them they wouldn't be eligible for the retirement buyouts offered
to some 2.3 million Federal workers. ``All ICE positions are
excluded,'' said the previously unreported email, shared with Reuters.
Joshua Schneyer and Mike Spector reported from New York. Additional
reporting by John Shiffman, Ned Parker, Kristina Cooke and Ted Hesson.
Editing by Jason Szep.
The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from the great State
of Texas, Mr. Gonzales, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Gonzales. Thank you, Chairman Guest, appreciate your
leadership on this. Thank you, everybody, for testifying before
us. It is good to see you, Jon. I didn't even know you owned a
suit. It is great to see you up here and not in the field.
You know, I represent two-thirds of the Texas-Mexico
border. A lot of the places that people talk about, we live it.
Del Rio with the Haitians under the bridge, we lived that.
Eagle Pass, thousands of people, we lived that. When they
rushed the--when these IAs rushed the bridge in El Paso, also
in the district. But I want to start with one thing in
particular that I don't think gets enough coverage, and I want
to start with Ms. Ries. This is a very simple question. Where
are the children? There are reports of hundreds of thousands of
children that are missing, regardless of their legal status.
Where are the children?
Ms. Ries. Well, that's a valid question because 550,000
came in unaccompanied during the last administration. HHS was
so overwhelmed, treated them basically like widgets on an
assembly line, and turned them over to unvetted sponsors. So
then HHS lost track of so many of them and, unfortunately, some
were subjected to sex trafficking, child labor, and God knows
what else. But they need to be found.
Mr. Gonzales. I agree with you and I think this is an area
that the President working with Congress, we are going to have
to work really hard to find these children. No one else is
going to advocate for them.
I saw during the last administration as their policies were
eroded where they would at one time would vet everyone in the
household before they would turn a child over to now they were
just turning children over as quickly as they possibly could
just because of the sheer numbers. I think that is an area that
we absolutely need to focus on. I am sure you are going to
gain, you are going to have that level of support for from this
committee.
My next question is to Mr. Blair. How can the President,
how can President Trump and Congress best tackle rounding up
and deporting the hundreds of thousands of convicted criminal
illegal aliens loose in our country?
Mr. Blair. Thank you, sir. That's a great question. The
best way to do so is working as a multijurisdictional,
multiagency plan through your local, State, and county law
enforcement. It's those law enforcement agents or officers that
are in the communities, they know the communities, they know
the criminality or the criminal elements within their
communities. So the only way that President Trump and also Tom
Homan are going to be able to go after all those hundreds of
thousands that are currently on the non disclosed docket for
ICE that have criminal records is by going through a
multiagency multijurisdictional plan led by the Federal
Government. The Federal Government is just not big enough.
Federal agencies are not large enough. So they're going to have
to go through that all the way down to the local level.
Mr. Gonzales. Spot on. I couldn't agree with you more. Last
year I sent a letter to ICE asking how many convicted criminal
illegal aliens are in our country. One, I was shocked I got a
response back. But even more shocking was the fact that it was
662,000. That is a large number. To your point, the only way
we're going to accomplish this is if we all are in the same
boat, paddling in the same direction. Local, State, Federal,
all coming together.
I just held a roundtable last week in San Antonio with
that, with my sheriffs, with my police chiefs. We had FBI
there, we had HSI, we had DEA. We had all these different
partnerships. You have already seen some of the successes that
President Trump has been able to and his administration has
been able to accomplish in Houston and throughout the country.
But to your point, I think you are spot on, we have to do more.
The only way we do this is if we all pool our resources
together to get these--once again, I am not talking about
somebody that is here waiting their court case. I am talking
someone that is a convicted criminal illegal alien to the tune
of 600,000.
My next question is to you, Jon. It is pretty simple. I
mean, you are on the ground, you are in the field. What is the
pulse of the Border Patrol agents on the ground after President
Trump has initiated these policy changes?
Mr. Anfinsen. Well, they're doing the job that they were
trained to do, so obviously they're happy about that. There are
a lot of different policies that are being challenged in court.
So we're where day-to-day, things are changing in terms of what
rules are supposed to be followed. So that's been a little
confusing. But ultimately, they're glad to be back to work,
doing the job that we were doing, at least during the first
Trump administration. So it's completely different than what it
was in the last 4 years.
Mr. Gonzales. Yes, I agree with you. I mean, I have been
at, since the President has taken office, I have been at the
border 6 different times, various different sectors. I have 4
different Border Patrol sectors. It is a breath of fresh air on
the ground.
One thing that I would add, though, I am seeing a lot of
agents, new agents that have been in the force less than 4
years that really don't know what their job is supposed to be.
So I think a large part of it is how do we train our agents to
get back to doing the jobs that they need to do?
Thank you, everybody, again, and thank you, Chairman, for
this hearing.
Mr. Guest. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentlelady from Illinois, Mrs. Ramirez,
for her 5 minutes of questioning.
Mrs. Ramirez. Thank you, Chairman.
We spend a lot of time in this committee, subcommittee,
obviously, it is the border subcommittee, but the entire full
committee talking about the border. But I really think that for
us to understand the border, we also have to understand history
and context. Two things incompatible with Trump's
administration of authoritarianism, white supremacism, and this
white man's good old days. So I want to spend some time doing a
little bit of history here.
Let's consider Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Why
do these countries get humanitarian parole? Because each face a
humanitarian crisis. High numbers of asylum seekers cross the
border, fleeing political, social, and economic instability
that the United States played a role in creating. But last
week, the Trump administration announced that individuals from
Cuba, from Haiti, from Nicaragua, and Venezuela must leave the
United States in the next month, not because the humanitarian
crisis has passed, but because this administration is committed
to an authoritarian agenda and consequences be damned.
So let's clear some things together here. Mr. Reichlin-
Melnick, I want to ask you a couple of yes-or-no questions.
First, let me start with, were any taxpayer funds used to bring
these migrants into the United States?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Absolutely not.
Mrs. Ramirez. Thank you. Can you explain how many people
may lose their legal status under the Trump administration?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. You know, when just the CHNV parole
program, which the administration announced would be terminated
earlier last week, we're looking at hundreds of thousands of
people. So far with temporary protected status, 800,000
combined with another 300,000 likely in the fall.
Mrs. Ramirez. Very briefly, what types of jobs are people
in the CHNV program and temporary protective status filling in
our communities?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. They're filling all kinds of jobs in
communities like Springfield, Ohio, where they were helping
rebuild the manufacturing base, and in places like Florida and
Texas and California, they're working legally. They're filling
jobs that are open to any person in the country who's able to
work legally. Without them, the economy will suffer.
Mrs. Ramirez. Thank you for your response. I want to talk
about Guantanamo Bay. Mr. Melnick, let's just be clear again,
yes or no, did detaining migrants of Guantanamo Bay improve our
border security?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Absolutely not.
Mrs. Ramirez. Yes or no, to your knowledge, did they send
only criminals to Guantanamo?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. No.
Mrs. Ramirez. Yes or no, does the administration have the
ability to hold the quote, ``worst of the worst'' here in the
United States?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Absolutely they do.
Mrs. Ramirez. Yes or no, did they need Guantanamo to
achieve that end?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. They did not.
Mrs. Ramirez. Quickly, what other problems did you see with
this administration's use of Guantanamo Bay?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Beyond there was the treatment of
people at those facilities, in facilities that were--clearly
did not meet ICE standards, where people were held in solitary
confinement, even people, again, with no criminal record. It
was also extraordinarily expensive.
Mrs. Ramirez. So I want to talk now about El Salvador.
President Trump recently invoked the Alien Enemies Act. The
last time this law was used was during a dark period in
American history. Some of us just talked about, if we don't
know history, we are damned to repeat it again. It was used to
detain more than 100,000 Japanese Americans being in
intermittent camps following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Trump
has invoked it to target the Tren de Aragua gang, he says, and
recently deported more than 100 individuals they allege are
connected to the scene. These individuals were disappeared to a
mega prison in El Salvador.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick, can you explain some of the problems
with President Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. The No. 1 problem is the lack of due
process. The administration is asserting an unprecedented
authority to point at any person and say, you're a member of
Tren de Aragua. You don't get any right to say that you're not.
We're going to stick you on a plane. We don't even have to tell
you first. At a court hearing yesterday, the Department of
Justice said people do not even have a right to be told they're
going to be subject to this law before they're put on a plane.
Mrs. Ramirez. That is right. Do we know who some of the
individuals sent to El Salvador are?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. We do. We know that many of them
allege that they are not members of the gang, including Andry,
a Venezuelan gay barber who is seeking asylum, a makeup artist,
who has said repeatedly he has been sent there by mistake.
Mrs. Ramirez. Has the Trump administration provided any
evidence of gang ties?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. None whatsoever.
Mrs. Ramirez. So let me ask you this last question. Why
should American citizens, permanent residents, law-abiding
legal immigrants, fear President Trump's invocation of the
Alien Enemies Act?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. This country was founded on the rule
of law, on the idea that no person could be held to account by
the Government without an opportunity to understand the charges
brought against them and an opportunity to respond. That is not
happening here.
Mrs. Ramirez. That is right. I will say history does, in
fact, repeat itself. Some of the worst parts of our past
started with eroding people's right in making them the enemy.
We can't let this administration continue to criminalize
immigrants in order to be able to criminalize any dissent,
which is exactly why I think Secretary Noem needs to come
before this body and answer questions. I demand that.
With that, I yield back.
Mr. Guest. Thank you.
I now recognize the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Crane, for
5 minutes.
Mr. Crane. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
hearing today. I want to thank you all for joining us on this
important subcommittee hearing. I only have 5 minutes, so I ask
you to please keep your answers brief. I also have a service of
unanimous consent requests that I will be entering into the
record after my questioning.
Mr. Anfinsen, on January 27, 2024, President Biden said a
new, broader bill would grant him new emergency authority to
shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. Additionally,
on January 30, 2024, President Biden said when asked about his
actions on the border, I've done all I can do. Give me the
Border Patrol. Give me the people who can stop this and make it
work right.
My question to you, sir, did President Biden lie to the
American people about his actions and authority at the Southern
Border?
Mr. Anfinsen. He claimed there was nothing else he could
do, and then he did more that summer with the Executive Order.
So clearly he wasn't telling the truth.
Mr. Crane. Thank you. DHS and CBP fall under the Executive
branch meaning Biden always had the authority. He chose to
operate the border in the way he did. Would you agree with
that, sir?
Mr. Anfinsen. Yes.
Mr. Crane. Mr. Blair, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
data released February 18, 2025, according to U.S. Customs and
Border patrol Protection, from January 21 through January 31,
2025, the number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions along the
Southwest Border dropped 85 percent from the same period in
2024. The number of inadmissible aliens encountered by CBP's
Office of Field Operation at ports of entry along the Southwest
Border quarter dropped 93 percent in the 11 days after January
20, compared with the 11 days prior. The list goes on and on.
My question is, and please answer yes or no, sir, would you
agree CBP data suggests that President Trump's first 30 days in
office was more effective at stopping illegal immigration than
4 years of Joe Biden?
Mr. Blair. Yes, sir.
Mr. Crane. Thank you. Ms. Ries, my question is briefly
explain what liberal States stand to gain from mass illegal
immigration and unchecked parole.
Ms. Ries. Part of it's head count. They're counted in the
Census even though noncitizens can't vote and are not supposed
to vote. Then those numbers are used for districting in
Congress. Then, in turn, those same numbers are also used for
the Presidential electoral college votes.
Mr. Crane. Would you agree, ma'am, that redistricting is a
major political outcome for Democrats welcoming migrant
caravans into their local communities?
Ms. Ries. Yes. It gives them more headcount and, therefore,
more districts.
Mr. Crane. Would you agree illegal immigration for
redistricting is not what the Founders intended under Article
I, section 2, clause 1 of the Constitution regarding
Congressional districting?
Ms. Ries. I agree.
Mr. Crane. I'd like to play a 20-second recording of a
former Homeland Security Committee Member. Can we go ahead and
play that?
[Audio recording played.]
Mr. Crane. Thank you. That was Rep. Yvette Clark, a
Democrat from New York, from January 8, 2024. Her words
outlined Biden's failed plans for illegal immigration to gain
political influence.
Ms. Ries, you wrote on this issue for Heritage Foundation
in February 2024. The article was titled, ``Stop Allowing Non-
Citizens to Determine Congressional and Presidential
Representation.'' It was a great piece, and I plan to introduce
the article into Congressional Record at the conclusion of my 5
minutes.
The last thing I want to say to Mr. Reichlin-Melnick is I
find it interesting as I sit here and listen to you blame
President Trump and attack President Trump, you know, for
saying to the American people that he was going to protect the
American people, he was going to put them first, and he was
going to implement policies to fix the mess created by the
Biden administration. I just find it rich that you are
attacking President Trump for doing exactly what the American
people wanted, not the individual who caused this problem.
Sadly, if you guys don't figure this issue out, you are going
to lose the next election as well.
Thank you. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Guest. Were you intending to enter something in the
record?
Mr. Crane. Yep, I have got several.
Mr. Guest. If you will just give us some brief descriptions
so that we can do that at this point.
Mr. Crane. Yep. So this is an article, ``Biden Promises to
Shut Down the Border if Given the Authority in a Partisan
Bill.''
Mr. Guest. Without objection, be entered into the record.
[The information follows:]
Article Submitted by Honorable Elijah Crane
biden promises to `shut down' the border if given the authority in a
bipartisan bill
The president threw his support behind an emerging deal in the Senate
that he said would give him ``authority to shut down the border
when it becomes overwhelmed.''
Jan. 26, 2024, 10:11 PM EST, By Megan Lebowitz, NBC News
WASHINGTON.--President Joe Biden on Friday vowed to halt crossings
at the border when it's ``overwhelmed'' if Congress passes bipartisan
immigration legislation giving him that authority.
In a strongly worded statement, Biden threw his support behind an
emerging immigration deal in the Senate, one that former President
Donald Trump is seeking to torpedo since it could hand a legislative
victory to his likely opponent in November.
``What's been negotiated would--if passed into law--be the toughest
and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we've ever had in our
country,'' Biden said Friday night. ``It would give me, as President, a
new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes
overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign
the bill into law.''
Biden, who has recently expressed optimism that a bipartisan deal
could come soon, reiterated that the border is ``broken'' and argued
that ``it's long past time to fix it.''
``Securing the border through these negotiations is a win for
America. For everyone who is demanding tougher border control, this is
the way to do it,'' he said. ``If you're serious about the border
crisis, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it.''
Congressional Republicans, particularly in the House, have said
they will only accept aid money for Ukraine if it is coupled with
tougher immigration policies.
The Biden administration made a supplemental request last year
tying border funding to aid for Ukraine and Israel. Senate negotiators
have recently ramped up talks to strike a deal on those issues, even as
Trump has encouraged Republicans to reject a bipartisan border deal.
Biden's statement on Friday comes as U.S. Customs and Border
Protection released numbers showing encounters with undocumented
migrants hit a new record in December by exceeding 300,000--with most
at the southwest border.
According to preliminary government data, the U.S. saw more than a
50 percent decrease in border encounters between ports of entry in the
nation's Southwest during the first half of January.
``CBP's message for anyone who is thinking of attempting to
circumvent lawful pathways to enter the United States is simple: don't
do it,'' said U.S. Customs and Border Protection in a statement. ``When
noncitizens cross the border unlawfully, they put their lives in
peril.''
Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Julia Ainsley contributed.
Mr. Crane. No. 2, ``Biden Has the Power to End the Border
Crisis. He Doesn't Want To.''
Mr. Guest. Without objection, be entered into the record.
[The information follows:]
Article Submitted by Hon. Elijah Crane
biden has the power to end the border crisis. he doesn't want to
theFederalist.com/2024/01/30/biden-has-the-power-to-end-the-border-
crisis-without-congress-he-just-doesnt-want-to/
January 30, 2024
The White House, corporate media, and even Senate Republicans claim
Democrats' open-border amnesty bill, which does more to secure Ukraine
than the U.S., is the only way to successfully curb the influx of more
than 10 million illegal border crossers. The real power to end the
record-breaking Southern border crisis, however, lies with President
Joe Biden, who previously used his executive authority to undo all of
his predecessor's border safeguards. He simply isn't wielding it.
``Have you done everything you can do with executive authority [on
the border]?'' a reporter asked the president on the White House lawn
on Tuesday.
``I've done all I can do. Just give me the power . . . ! Give me
the border patrol! Give me the people! The judges! Give me the people
who can stop this and make it work right!'' Biden replied.
John Kirby, Biden's coordinator for strategic communications at the
National Security Council, also denied during a White House press
briefing on Monday that Biden was``withholding executive action on the
border until he gets the money'' from the Senate border deal. Shortly
after, he confirmed the administration's stance, which is that ``the
proper way forward is to get the supplemental passed.''
Democrats' not-so-secret long game is to blame the ongoing border
crisis on House Republicans who refuse to give in to Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell's manipulation tactics by passing a bad border
bill.
Republicans like Sen. James Lankford, who was chastised by his
state's GOP for ``playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border
policy,'' want you to believe that their negotiations are the only path
forward. They want you to believe that the administration they swore to
punish for the border's collapse is making a good-faith effort to fix
it.
But even Trump, who was McConnell's original target for ire, saw
through the establishment senators' sham.
``They are using this horrific Senate Bill as a way of being able
to put the BORDER DISASTER onto the shoulders of the Republicans. The
Democrats BROKE THE BORDER, they should fix it. NO LEGISLATION IS
NEEDED, IT'S ALREADY THERE!!!'' Trump wrote on Truth Social.
During his first hours in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2021, Biden
halted construction on Trump's border wall. The former vice president
also rescinded the Republican's executive order refusing Federal
funding to ``sanctuary'' cities harboring illegal migrants, discouraged
the immediate removal of illegal border crossers who committed crimes,
and toppled Trump's ``Remain in Mexico'' policy.
Biden's day-one proclamations were just the beginning of what would
become 296 executive actions on immigration and the southern security
boundary in just his first year. Since then, the Democrat has continued
to loosen border enforcement by demanding agents avoid making arrests,
scaling back ICE deportation, and reinstating Obama-era catch-and-
release.
Overall, nearly one-third of Biden's border actions were reversals
of his predecessor's policies.
Biden's pen doesn't simply hold the power to undo our nation's
defenses. In October 2023, the Democrat waived 26 Federal laws to
resume construction of the border wall to comply with a 2019
appropriations bill.
Unlike Trump, who had to jump through judiciary hoops every time he
tried to secure the Southern border, Biden could cut off the hundreds
of thousands of people without a hitch thanks to the administrative
state's disinterest in opposing its preferred Presidential pawn.
The only reason Biden has yet to use his power to secure the border
(and satiate voters who say illegal immigration is their top concern
heading into the 2024 election) is because he simply doesn't want to.
With one stroke of a pen, our commander-in-chief could authorize
the return of law and order to our border by shutting it down. With one
press conference, he could threaten Mexico with steep tariffs for being
an accomplice to the crisis as Trump did.
Instead, Biden is using more time and effort to pump up legislation
that would codify the crisis and fight a state that wants to defend
itself against the invasion.
Biden never had a change of heart about our national security
crisis. He never wanted to secure the border. His decision to throw his
weight behind controversial border legislation instead of exercising
his executive authority simply means that the bill fits perfectly in
his deliberate plan to run a borderless nation.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The
Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The
Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated
from Baylor University where she majored in political science
and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.
Mr. Crane. No. 3, ``CBP Releases January 2025 Monthly
Update.''
Mr. Guest. Without objection, we entered into the record.
[The information follows:]
Article Submitted by Hon. Elijah Crane
cbp releases january 2025 monthly update
Release Date Tue, 02/18/2025
WASHINGTON.--U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released
operational statistics today for January 2025. CBP monthly reporting
can be viewed on CBP's Stats and Summaries webpage.
``The men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection are
aggressively implementing the President's Executive Orders to secure
our borders. These actions have already resulted in dramatic
improvements in border security,'' said Pete Flores, Acting
Commissioner. ``The reduction in illegal aliens attempting to make
entry into the U.S., compounded by a significant increase in
repatriations, means that more officers and agents are now able to
conduct the enforcement duties that make our border more secure and our
country safer.''
Below are key operational statistics for CBP's primary mission
areas in January 2025. View all CBP statistics online.
Halting the flow of illegal aliens into the country
CBP is no longer catching and releasing illegal aliens into the
U.S. CBP is leveraging legal authorities to take every reasonable step
to ensure illegal aliens are placed in detention and expediently
removed from the country. In simple terms, illegal aliens are being
arrested, detained and then rapidly removed.
From Jan. 21 through Jan. 31, 2025, the number of U.S. Border
Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border dropped 85 percent from
the same period in 2024.
CBP, with support from the Department of Defense, has dramatically
increased active patrols of our international borders.
CBP One and CHNV paroles have ended
On Jan. 20, CBP ended use of the CBP One app to schedule
appointments for inadmissible aliens.
CBP also terminated all categorical parole programs and returned to
a case-by-case review based on criteria established in law.
The number of inadmissible aliens encountered by CBP's Office of
Field Operations at ports of entry along the southwest border dropped
93 percent in the 11 days after Jan. 20 compared with the 11 days
prior.
Partnership with the Department of Defense
CBP is utilizing a whole-of-government approach that includes the
support of the Department of Defense (DOD). DOD is a critical partner
in securing our international borders and making America safe again.
The message is clear: do not make the journey, or you will be
detained and removed.
Safeguarding Communities by Interdicting Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
As the largest law enforcement agency in the United States, CBP is
uniquely positioned to detect, identify, and seize illicit drugs like
fentanyl before they enter our communities.
In the last two fiscal years, CBP seized record amounts of
fentanyl--nearly 50,000 pounds--enough to produce more than 2 billion
lethal doses. In January 2025, CBP seized 1,029 pounds of fentanyl, and
methamphetamine seizures increased 15 percent.
Additional CBP drug seizure statistics can be found on the Drug
Seizure Statistics webpage.
Facilitating Lawful Trade and Travel
CBP's enhanced enforcement posture not only makes every American
safer, but it also saves you time and money. CBP is also the front line
for facilitating lawful international travel and trade which is a
critical element of our nation's economic prosperity.
The number of travelers arriving by air into the United States
increased 4.5 percent from January 2024 to January 2025. Passenger
vehicles and commercial trucks processed at ports of entry each
increased 2.5 percent over the same period, and the number of
pedestrians arriving by land at ports of entry increased 0.4 percent.
If you plan to travel internationally, you can contribute to
enhanced efficiencies by utilizing our mobile applications with
technological enhancements to help speed up the travel process when
entering the United States via air, land, or sea. These innovative
improvements include the Global Entry and Mobile Passport Control apps.
CBP works diligently with the trade community and port operators to
ensure that merchandise is cleared efficiently while interdicting
illicit cargo that is hidden in some shipments. In January 2025, CBP
processed more than 2.9 million entry summaries valued at more than
$338 billion, identifying estimated duties of nearly $7.9 billion to be
collected by the U.S. Government. In January, trade via the ocean
environment accounted for 35 percent of the total import value,
followed by air, truck, and rail.
Protecting Consumers and Eradicating Forced Labor from Supply Chains
CBP continues to lead U.S. Government efforts to eliminate goods
from the supply chain made with forced labor from the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region of China. In January, CBP stopped 1,986 shipments
valued at more than $13 million for prohibited importation into the
United States under 19 U.S.C. 1307.
CBP also seizes millions of counterfeit products every year worth
billions of dollars had they been genuine. In January, CBP seized 1,977
shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $291
million.
External Revenue
CBP completed 30 audits in January that identified $71 million in
duties and fees owed to the U.S. Government, stemming from imported
goods that had been improperly declared in accordance with U.S. trade
laws and customs regulations. CBP collected over $703 million of this
identified revenue and from previous fiscal years' assignments.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is America's front line:
the Nation's largest law enforcement organization and the world's first
unified border management agency. The 65,000+ men and women of CBP
protect America on the ground, in the air, and on the seas. We
facilitate safe, lawful travel and trade and ensure our country's
economic prosperity. We enhance the Nation's security through
innovation, intelligence, collaboration, and trust.
Last Modified: Feb 18, 2025.
Mr. Crane. ``Stop Allowing Noncitizens to Determine
Congressional and Presidential Representation,'' by Ms. Ries.
Mr. Guest. Without objection, being entered into the
record.
[The information follows:]
Article Submitted by Hon. Elijah Crane
stop allowing noncitizens to determine congressional and presidential
representation
Feb 8, 2024, Commentary by Lora Ries @lora_ries, Director, Border
Security and Immigration Center; RJ Hauman, Founder and
Principal of Stryker Strategies LLC and a Visiting Advisor at
The Heritage Foundation
key takeaways
Democratic-controlled states have gained congressional seats by
welcoming and harboring illegal aliens.
This warped representation is carried over into the Electoral
College.
Congress must put an end to the electoral influence of a growing
noncitizen population.
The open border has enabled the Left to amass more political power.
Democratic-controlled states have gained congressional seats by
welcoming and harboring illegal aliens.
As president, Donald Trump tried to halt this wrongdoing by
ordering the Census to exclude all noncitizens from apportionment. But
one of President Biden's first acts in office was to reverse this
policy as he began to open the border to millions of illegal aliens.
Barring the Census from including noncitizens in apportionment is
critical in making sure that American citizens--the only population who
can and should vote in U.S. elections--are picking America's leaders.
Biden's intentional border crisis has produced unprecedented
apportionment issues, distorting the representation that states have in
the House, and how many electoral votes they have in Presidential
elections.
border and immigration concerns are deciding elections in europe
Congressional and Electoral College apportionment is based on the
number of residents, as determined by the Census. Currently, Census
includes illegal aliens and other noncitizens as residents.
Consequently, a state can gain extra congressional districts and
representation in Congress thanks to the presence of a large population
that isn't legally allowed to vote. Since the number of congressional
seats is limited to 435, this additional representation comes at the
expense of other states.
This warped representation is carried over into the Electoral
College, where each state is allocated a number of votes equal to the
number of senators and representatives in its congressional delegation.
In a 2018 lawsuit against the Census Bureau within the Commerce
Department, then-Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., wrote:
``In a state in which a large share of the population cannot vote,
those who do vote count more than those who live in states where a
larger share of the population is made up of American citizens.
Counting large illegal alien populations in the Census appropriates
voting power from Americans and bestows it on other[s].
Solving this flawed process is of paramount importance going into an
election year.
First, excluding noncitizens--tens of millions of whom are illegal
aliens--from apportionment would help discourage sanctuary policies.
Sanctuary jurisdictions like California, Illinois and New York have
welcomed illegal immigrants, at least in part, to keep their
populations high.
During a 2021 hearing about Haitian migrants, Rep. Yvette Clarke,
D-N.Y., stated that her district ``can absorb a significant number of
these migrants,'' adding, ``I need more people in my district just for
redistricting purposes.''
These states need to keep their population numbers inflated with
illegal aliens because Americans citizens are fleeing in droves due to
their disastrous policies. Making it clear to these states and their
radical Governors that they won't be able to use illegal aliens to
``cook their books'' to maintain disproportionate political power (and
money) will go a long way toward breaking the sanctuary state trend.
Second, no longer including noncitizens in apportionment will help
ensure that only American citizens will shape our political landscape
and pick future leaders. Letting states include millions of aliens in
their Census counts is the equivalent of letting foreign countries
determine the political destiny of the United States, which is
unacceptable.
Why Biden's Support Among Hispanics Is Tanking--Here's a Hint: The
Border Crisis
To address this issue and restore trust in the electoral process,
Congress should pass legislation to ensure that all future
apportionment determinations only include American citizens.
A Senate bill to do just that was recently unveiled by Sen. Bill
Hagerty, R-Tenn., and 20 of his colleagues, followed by a House
companion led by Reps. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., and Warren Davidson, R-
Ohio, that is gaining steam. If passed into law, this would likely end
up before the Supreme Court, but it is on firm legal footing.
The Constitution requires the counting of ``persons,'' who the
Founding Fathers almost certainly assumed to be citizens. Regardless of
history or tradition, Congress has the plenary authority to define
``persons'' or otherwise clarify how the Census is to be conducted.
To the extent past Federal cases disagree with Congress on this
point, Congress can effectively overrule case law and define
``persons'' as citizens and require the counting of only citizens in
the Census (or the non-counting of noncitizens) for apportionment.
U.S. citizenship should mean something and come with rights, such
as voting in elections, as well as responsibilities, such as obeying
our laws.
Congress must put an end to the electoral influence of a growing
noncitizen population that is unfairly altering both representation in
the House and the Electoral College. American citizens should not have
their voting rights devalued or their Congressional and Presidential
representation corrupted due to the inclusion of noncitizens in our
Census.
This piece originally appeared in Fox News.
Mr. Crane. The last one, ``Brooklyn Congresswoman Wants
Migrants to Fill Up Her District.''
Mr. Guest. Without objection, that will also be entered
into the record.
[The information follows:]
Article Submitted by Hon. Elijah Crane
brooklyn congresswoman wants migrants to fill up her district
independentsentinel.com/brooklyn-congresswoman-wants-migrants-to-fill-
up-her-district/
By M Dowling, January 8, 2024.
Brooklyn Congresswoman Clark admitted that she wants more migrants
in the country to fill up her district [with future voters and for
redistricting]. I doubt anyone thought bringing in illegal aliens was a
humanitarian effort. The intention is partly to give Democrats a
permanent electoral majority. Maybe that's the whole reason. Democrats
want all the power all the time. We will pay a very heavy price; keep
reading.
``I'm from Brooklyn, NY,'' Clark said. ``We have a diaspora that
can absorb a significant number of these migrants, and, you know, when
I hear colleagues talk about, you know, the doors of the inn being
closed, no room in the inn, I'm saying, you know, I need more people in
my district, not just for redistricting purposes, and those members
could clearly fit here.''
NY Congresswoman Clarke (D) saying the quiet part out loud about the
border:
``I need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes.''
pic.twitter.com/bbDss7cnls_End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 8, 2024.
Some of these illegal aliens are committing serious crimes. Many
come from countries where rape is a daily occurrence.
The independent reporter at Viral News NYC reported on X that the
illegal aliens living in Floyd Bennett Field appear to be stealing
license plates.
He said he had received a call from a source from the Parks
Department/the NYPD. He showed up at Floyd Bennett Field and found
multiple cars up in the park with fake license plates, stolen license
plates, and no plates. He also received reports from NYPD sources that
migrants were parking cars downtown Manhattan using fake NY templates,
which legally don't exist. Staten Island residents report that cars
with fake or stolen plates were caught on multiple cars belonging to
migrants.
How do all these people get cars and motorbikes? Curtis Sliwa said
they all have knives.
They are also big on shoplifting.
Mr. Guest. At this time, the Chair would recognize the
gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Ogles, for his 5 minutes of
questioning.
Mr. Ogles. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to the witnesses.
My colleague invoked history and so let's start there.
``Article II, Section 1, the executive power shall be
vested in a President of the United States. Section 3, the
President shall take care that the laws be faithfully
executed.'' The take care clause allows the President to issue
Directives and Executive Orders. So, as we look at how
President Trump is addressing the issue of illegal immigration,
whether or not he chooses to grant or deny humanitarian parole
or amnesty or, you know, sanctuary is his prerogative per the
Constitution.
Staying on the idea of history for a moment, let's not
forget all of those folks that entered in this country did so
illegally. That is their first act is an illegal act. It should
also be noted. If there is one takeaway from my questions or
testimony in this committee is that they should be deported.
There should be no pathway. There should be no amnesty.
This is our country. We get to decide who comes in and we
get to decide who leaves. It's that simple.
If my friend and colleague from Arizona and I want to
travel overseas, we would have to do so on a visa. We would
have to do so legally. If we entered a country, whether it is
in the Middle East or Europe, illegally, they would kick our
butts out. I don't think anyone can deny that fact.
You know, we try to hold ourselves to some higher standard
and we point to other issues or complaints about, well, it is
stressing the FBI or it is stressing the, you know, the long
laundry list of moaning and groaning. We are forgetting the
very fact that they entered this country illegally. If we
choose to send their butts home again, pardon me for saying
that, I have children, that is our prerogative. It is just our
prerogative.
You mentioned, ma'am, in your article, what I would say a
very diabolical motivation for why the Biden administration so
carelessly, recklessly allowed our country to be invaded. That
was the Presidential election and the next Census. Because, you
see, in the blue States that are having population flight are
disproportionately being flooded. You see in the future, in the
next Census where States like Tennessee, my home State, Ohio,
the Carolinas, Florida, maybe Texas, will pick up additional
House seats that will forever change the House of
Representatives to be, quite frankly, Republican. The
Democratic Party, I believe, and this is my opinion, flooded
our country to try to stem the inevitable, that this country is
sick and tired of the woke nonsense and the invasion that is
taking place under their watch.
You have blue mayors, Democratic mayors in blue cities
under the Biden administration that were screaming for
assistance. Please stop. We can't take anymore.
I went to the border under the Biden administration. I
traveled to Tucson, I went south at the border and I went to a
section, it wasn't controlled by the U.S. Government, but
rather the cartel. While we were there, in this very remote
area on one of the hottest days of the summer, over 100 people
turned themselves into myself and the special operators that we
went down with, I went down with. Went down unannounced, by the
way. Before Border Patrol would come and pick those individuals
up, 3 different pods, they sent choppers up in the air to fly
for over half an hour because they would not come into the area
until they had completely surveilled to make sure the cartel
wasn't in the area.
Some of those gaps in those fence, and by the way, I
crossed into Mexico, walked in about 100 yards, as I walked in,
a cartel sniper crossed over the ridge and put eyes on me. This
is the United States border.
I would argue that a sovereign nation should have 3 things:
a secure border; fair, open, and honest elections; and
obviously a powerful military. The Biden administration failed
at all 3 of those and President Trump is working to fix the
record. I support the President and, again, I'll emphasize no
amnesty. It's time to start mass deportations.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Guest. Thank you.
At this time, the Chair recognizes the gentlelady from
South Carolina, Mrs. Biggs.
Mrs. Biggs. Thank you, Chairman Guest. Border security is a
priority for my district and I am grateful to you for holding
this hearing. Thank you to our witnesses for being here today
and giving us your input.
The Biden administration border crisis inflicted historic
damage on our Nation, and I think that is relevant to today.
Under his failed leadership, illegal crossings reached record
highs with over 300,000 in December 2023 alone and more than 9
million over Biden's 4 years as President. The illegal
population is now estimated to exceed 15 million. Meanwhile,
American families like those in the Third District of South
Carolina were left behind. After Hurricane Helene, our
community struggled to pick up the pieces while illegal
immigrants were placed in luxury hotels.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to enter into record this
article entitled, ``Clawed Back: DHS Chief Noem Secures Eye-
Popping Sums Sent to New York for Migrant Hotels.''
Mr. Guest. Your statement will be entered into the record,
without objection.
[The information follows:]
Article Submitted by Hon. Sheri Biggs
``clawed back'': dhs chief noem secures eye-popping sum sent to nyc for
migrant hotels
By Adam Shaw, Bill Melugin
Published February 12, 2025, Fox News
The Department of Homeland Security says it has taken back $59
million in FEMA funds earmarked for hotels housing migrants in New York
City, a day after it fired those involved in making the payment.
``Secretary Noem has clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep
state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels,'' a DHS
spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
``There will not be a single penny spent that goes against the
interest and safety of the American people,'' they said.
federal agency in doge's crosshairs played key role in harris' strategy
to curb migrant crisis
The announcement came after the Department of Government Efficiency
(DOGE) said it had uncovered $59 million in payments for luxury hotels
for migrants who had flooded into the sanctuary city during the recent
crisis at the southern border. Elon Musk said the payments had been
sent in the last week.
DHS announced Tuesday that it had fired four employees ``for
circumventing leadership'' and making the payments unilaterally. The
firings included FEMA's CFO, two analysts and a grant specialist.
The use of FEMA to make payments related to immigration has been a
topic of controversy in recent months. The funding comes via the
Shelter and Services Program (SSP). It is congressionally appropriated
and requires FEMA to use funding shifted over from Customs and Border
Protection (CBP). The Biden administration pushed back last year over
claims that disaster funding was being diverted, noting that the
funding is appropriated to CBP and administered by FEMA.
A New York City Hall spokesperson confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday
that the city had received funds ``through the past week'' that were
allocated by the Biden administration for the purpose of housing and
supporting illegal immigrants.
trump's ice limits illegal immigrant releases amid moves to shake off
biden `hangover'
Of the $59.3 million, $19 million was for direct hotel costs, while
the balance funded other services such as food and security. According
to NY City Hall, the funds were not part of a disaster relief grant.
``The previous administration left New York City largely on its own
to manage an international humanitarian crisis. At its height, we took
swift emergency action to house thousands of migrants arriving in our
city every week--including in completely vacant hotels--ensuring that
no family slept on our streets and that the public safety of longtime
New Yorkers was not compromised,'' a spokesperson said. ``Thanks to our
smart management of the crisis, we have helped over 184,000 migrants
leave the city's shelter system since the spring of 2022. But, we are
not out of the woods yet.''
A spokesperson said that it never paid luxury hotel rates, that the
city applied for funding in April and FEMA allocated the funding last
year.
On Wednesday, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander responded to the
revocation of funds by saying that NYC ``cannot take this lying down.''
``I call on the Mayor to immediately pursue legal action to ensure
the tens of millions of dollars stolen by Trump and DOGE are rightfully
returned. If instead Mayor Adams continues to be President Trump's
pawn, my Office will request to work in partnership with the New York
City Law Department to pursue aggressive legal action,'' he said,
according to the New York Post.
Mayor Eric Adams later said on X that his office ``learned about
the Federal Government clawing back more than $80 million in FEMA
grants applied for and awarded under the last administration, but not
disbursed until last week.''
``While we conduct an internal investigation into how this
occurred, our office has already engaged with the White House about
recouping these funds and we've requested an emergency meeting with
FEMA to try and resolve the matter as quickly as possible. The
Corporation Counsel is already exploring various litigation options,''
he said.
Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily
covering immigration and border security.
Mrs. Biggs. Thank you. This article demonstrates how the
Biden administration abandoned the American people in favor of
spending $59 million in taxpayer money on illegal immigrants in
New York City. That is just unfair and it is un-American.
Under President Trump's leadership, we are already seeing a
return to law and order and national sovereignty. In just 1
month back in office, border encounters dropped to just 11,000,
proving that strong leadership, not luck, solves crisis.
So my question is to Ms. Ries. We have talked about a lot
here today, but what impact did this have on average American
families? I am talking about like housing cost or strained
school systems, longer wait times for health care when the last
administration put illegal immigrants ahead of our U.S.
citizens.
Ms. Ries. Well, communities were very strained and they
weren't notified in advance that large populations were coming
to their communities. So they didn't have time to prepare for
more teachers or expanded classrooms. So schools were
overcrowded, hospital rooms, emergency rooms were overcrowded,
not enough shelter, so the prices of housing went up. That is
why this was a No. 1 issue for Americans voting last fall.
Mrs. Biggs. OK. The second part of that question, now that
we are back under strong leadership, how do we ensure that
future administrations never repeat the failures of the Biden
era and always put America first?
Ms. Ries. Well, this is where Congress needs to step in and
codify many of the changes that are necessary. We can't--we
shouldn't be going back and forth, President-to-President via
Executive Order. We need to shut down the benefit fraud,
particularly asylum fraud. Make sure there's enough resources
not just for CBP, but also for ICE and the Interior, which is
so important right now in the reconciliation bill.
Mrs. Biggs. Thank you. With that, I yield back.
Mr. Guest. The gentlelady yields back.
At this time, I recognize the gentleman from North
Carolina, Mr. Knott, for his 5 minutes of questioning.
Mr. Knott. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Witnesses, it is great to
hear what you had to say. I am sorry that I have been back and
forth. I was able to hear most of your opening statements and
thank you for your opinions. Thank you for the work that you
all have achieved to get here and to provide such valuable
information.
From my background, I agree with most of what was said and
my personal belief is that the border crisis of the last 4
years was an intentional act inflicted upon the American
people. There were mechanisms that were used and procedures
that were implemented that had never been used before. As a
prosecutor in the Department of Justice, I saw internally how
they made it more difficult than it had ever been in my career
to prosecute illegal immigrant criminals. Whether it was the
temporary protective status, whether it was the refusal for
permission, whether it was change of policy, whatever it was,
the nerve center of Washington, DC, again, made it more
difficult for people in the United States to protect themselves
against illegal immigrant crime or just the overflow of people
who came into our communities.
Mr. Melnick, I do want to talk to you. I heard your opening
statement. Again, from my perspective, labeling the Biden-
Harris record on immigration as mixed I think is sort-of a
gross misstatement. Just on a basic level, would you be willing
to admit that the Biden-Harris administration was willing to
incentivize illegal immigration?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. No, I don't think that's accurate.
I'm happy to explain more if you'd like.
Mr. Knott. Well, would you admit that there were obviously
motivations beyond just asylum seekers that propelled people
into the United States?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes, there was a mixed flow. There
were genuine legitimate asylum seekers, tens of thousands of
which who have won their cases every year, and there were
economic migrants. Absolutely.
Mr. Knott. In the United States, taxpayers foot the bill
for health care for illegal immigrants, isn't that correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. It really depends on the
circumstance. We know undocumented----
Mr. Knott. All right. I will play favorable in some
instances to taxpayers foot the bill for health care for
illegal immigrants. Correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. EMTALA requires emergency rooms treat
every person regardless of status. Yes.
Mr. Knott. Well, in some States there are programs where
you don't have to be here legally and you can get access to
Medicaid. Correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. I believe some States have emergency
Medicaid for pregnant women.
Mr. Knott. That is a yes.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes.
Mr. Knott. In some instances, taxpayers foot the bill for
housing for illegal immigrants. Is that correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Again, in some circumstances, some
communities have opened up status--programs to people
regardless of immigration status.
Mr. Knott. Taxpayers foot the bill for health care,
housing. There's also transportation costs that are inflicted
on the taxpayers. Correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. I'm unaware of what you're referring
to there.
Mr. Knott. Well, people were flown into the country
illegally. Once they were here illegally, they were bussed all
over the country. They arrived in New York City, California,
North Carolina, Texas, Illinois, at the taxpayers' expense,
correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes. Governor Abbott chose to run
that program.
Mr. Knott. Well, he's not the only person that ran that
program. Correct? There are dollars far beyond Texas that put
illegal immigrants all over this country.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Other States and communities offered
up travel vouchers to some individuals who wanted to travel to
other States.
Mr. Knott. In some instances, upon arrival, illegal
immigrants can get driver's licenses, isn't that correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. In some States, driver's licenses are
available to any resident, regardless of immigration status.
Mr. Knott. Even in some municipalities, people who are here
outside the permission of the law can even vote, isn't that
correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. I am unfamiliar with any who allow
that. There are some States that allow noncitizens to vote. I'm
unsure whether that applies to people who are here in violation
of immigration law.
Mr. Knott. So just so we are clear, there was the program
that allows health care, housing, transportation, food,
driver's licenses, and even the right to vote. The advocates
for the Biden-Harris administration say there were not
incentives for illegal immigrants to come here. Hypothetically,
let me ask you this. Illegal immigrants are counted in the
Census, correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. That's correct.
Mr. Knott. So if California loses 1 million American
citizens, 1 million taxpayers, because of the overregulation,
the high cost of living, whatever it may be, and 1 million
illegal immigrants are sent to California, they don't lose one
electoral vote. Isn't that correct? It is basic math. Isn't
that correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. It depends on the other populations,
actually. Because if other States grow higher, the formula is
actually quite complicated.
Mr. Knott. They are not penalized by driving 1 million
American taxpayers out of their State. Isn't that correct? If
they have refilled those seats with 1 million illegal
immigrants.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. It depends on population growth and
changes elsewhere. The formula is quite complicated. A State
can maintain a stable population and still gain or lose
representatives.
Mr. Knott. But they are able to maintain their electoral
clout as if no one had left their State. Correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Again, this is a complicated formula.
It depends on other States and the overall population growth.
Maintaining a stable level of population does not necessarily
lead to the same level of representatives.
Mr. Knott. Well, gaining 1 million illegal immigrants at
minimum, at minimum, maintains electoral clout, correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. It would maintain population,
certainly.
Mr. Knott. Yes. That's counted in the electoral college?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes.
Mr. Knott. That's counted in the House of Representatives
representation, correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes. Well, of course, no, Texas and
Florida are the second- and third-highest level of undocumented
immigrants in the country. You are assuming----
Mr. Knott. That is not the question, but I appreciate the
point. Illegal immigrants are afforded representation at the
expense of citizens in States wherever they are.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. I would not say at the expense.
Mr. Knott. You don't have to. Again, you are advocating for
Biden and Harris.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. We come from a Government that every
person in this country we're representing.
Mr. Knott. It's my time, sir. You are advocating for Biden
and Harris' immigration record, which, again, I think is a
gross over-complementary position.
Ms. Ries.
Mr. Guest. Mr. Knott, I am sorry but your time has expired.
Mr. Knott. We will talk soon. Thank you, ma'am.
Mr. Guest. At this point, the Chair would recognize the
gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Johnson, for 5 minutes.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. It is an
honor to be on this subcommittee with everyone here.
Being in Texas, I have a front-line view of our border
situation and we can all agree it is a mess. Our agents are
significantly under-resourced and our agencies are woefully
underfunded. But we would all be fooling ourselves if we said
this was all on the Biden administration. Our immigration
failures has been multi-administration-long over decades.
George Bush tried to first solve this. Obama tried to solve
this. Multiple Presidents have tried to solve this. But it has
been routinely stopped in the Congress.
Republicans like to brag about border security. We are
pumping our chest today trying to attack the Biden
administration. But where was everybody last Congress when
there was a bill on the table to fix it? There was a bipartisan
bill worked on by Members of both parties to have an agreement
to put much-needed emphasis on solving our border crisis, to
give much-needed resources to the border.
One of the problems is that it takes people like 5 years to
get an appointment, just an appointment to determine if they
are here. This is a crisis that needs to be fixed. But
President Trump didn't want this border security bill under the
Biden administration because he didn't want Biden to have a
win. He was willing to compromise the on-going safety and
security of our border for politics to have a campaign issue.
Republicans in this Congress silently complied, despite work
and months and months of work to come up with a comprehensive
agreed-to bill. That just doesn't happen in this building when
people can come to it on both sides and agree.
The reality of it is President Biden had an aggressive
asylum reduction program that worked. Right, Mr. Reichlin-
Melnick? It worked. Significant people, a drop--there was a
significant decrease in people coming to our border by the end
of the Biden administration. Isn't that true?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes. Border apprehensions dropped 80
percent from December 2023 to January 2025.
Ms. Johnson. So here we are. If we are talking about people
coming to the border, it worked under President Biden's
leadership. What didn't work was passing a bill under
Republican leadership in this building because they kowtowed to
President Trump who wanted a campaign issue.
Now what we have is we are not going after violent
criminals. We are going after kids with cancer. We are going
after people who want to come here and build houses. We are not
pursuing criminals. We are not pursuing drug dealers. We are
pursuing chefs and cooks and people who want to pave our roads
and work as floor nurses in our country. We are rounding up
people who are here contributing to our economy, paying taxes,
so that we can have some photo op in Guantanamo of nonviolent
criminals.
One of the things that you said earlier that was really
struck me in your comments, sir, was how we are diverting our
various agency personnel from drug enforcement, from terrorist
investigation, making our communities less safe to round up
illegally people who are just here working, taking care of
their families. Isn't that right?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. That's right.
Ms. Johnson. I am very worried about that. I mean, if
this--and then also where are the outcries, if we are talking
about security of this country, where are the outcries of the
outrageous, irresponsible recklessness of the Secretary of
Defense of putting national security secrets on a damn Signal
chat? Where is that outcry? I mean, there should be, regardless
of party uniform outrage, demanding that these folks on this
Signal chat come and testify to Congress so that we can uncover
the gross violations of our national security that was engaged
in the Trump administration. But again, crickets.
I yield back.
Mr. Guest. The gentlelady yields.
We will now go into a second round of questioning. We will
then allow Mr. Knott to start us off.
Mr. Knott, you have 5 minutes for the next round of
questioning.
Mr. Knott. Thank you, Mr. Guest.
Just to follow up with where we left off, again, I think
that any summary or analysis of the Biden administration's
immigration performance, other than it was an abysmal failure
for the country, is far too rosy and candidly far too partisan.
I say that with respect. I understand that we can disagree. But
when you look at the overall toll and the cost that it made
most Americans feel and pay, anything other than an outright
failure is far too rosy of a picture.
Again, I'm familiar with your organization, Mr. Melnick. It
does not seem to be very bipartisan. It seems to be very, very
open-ended in terms of just there is no number that would be
too high, there is no cost that would be too high for the
American people to take.
Again, I will go back to Ms. Ries. In regards to what we
were discussing earlier, Mr. Melnick, you made some very
compelling points insofar as it was an unsustainable influx for
the country. Whether it is health care, whether it was law
enforcement, whether it was educational quality, whether it was
just basic infrastructure, can you please flesh out very
concisely how illegal immigration, especially over the last 4
years, has been an unsustainable burden on the country?
Ms. Ries. Well, starting tens of billions of dollars went
out the door to NGO's to build a very secretive infrastructure
to bring in millions of people. So we have that sunk cost. Then
we have overwhelmed communities, overcrowded schools, emergency
rooms, jails, law enforcement, lack of housing, et cetera. The
communities have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, in some
cases billions of dollars. The New York City mayor testified
the billions of dollars New York City has spent on the back end
to provide these services to illegal aliens. That doesn't even
account for the deaths, the violence, et cetera, which is
incalculable.
Mr. Knott. Yes. In regards to the incentives that we were
talking about, there was no acknowledgment that there were
incentives for illegal immigrants to come here illegally. I am
curious as to your opinion. The way I see it, there was
innumerable incentives for people to come here illegally, as
evidenced by the fact that they did to the tune of 10-plus
million crossings. What incentives were you familiar with?
Ms. Ries. The open border, the fact that they were released
into the country, the fact that they could work here, continue
to send money home, bring family here, have children here, et
cetera.
Mr. Knott. Yep. Mr. Anfinsen, if I could get your take. You
are familiar, obviously, with Border Patrol and the morale.
Isn't it true, sir, that whether it was prosecutions of illegal
reentries or the policies that came from the top at Border
Patrol, the ability to enforce the border was compromised
intentionally over the last 4 years?
Mr. Anfinsen. It was very difficult to seek prosecution.
There were very specific and high criteria, a very high bar to
get prosecutions, certainly compared to previous years.
Mr. Knott. There was a lot of kerfuffle that was mentioned
earlier that we can't fight terrorists, we cannot fight drug
traffickers based off of the policies that the Trump
administration is putting into place. Again, I find that
grossly offensive. Can you fight terrorists? Can you fight drug
traffickers with the open-border policies that we saw over the
last 4 years?
Mr. Anfinsen. You can't do anything with open-borders
policies but let people in.
Mr. Knott. Except welcome them in. So, again, this
narrative that we cannot fight criminals with tough immigration
enforcement, I find to be fundamentally contrary to reality.
In regards to the border bill that they said that President
Trump torpedoed, did you have an opinion about that bill?
Mr. Anfinsen. As an organization, we were in favor of it to
a degree. I call it sort-of like a Stockholm syndrome. At that
point we had been used and abused for so long that anything
seemed good. But in the long run, it had a sunset clause, it
was going to go away and then it wasn't going to change
anything in the long run.
Mr. Knott. There were obviously portions of that bill that
would have codified, in terms of tools that you had, it would
have made it more difficult in some respects to enforce the
border?
Mr. Anfinsen. Ultimately, yes, sir.
Mr. Knott. Mr. Blair, in regards to your experience, are
you familiar with the way that that bill that was referenced by
my colleague on the other side of the aisle would have hurt the
ability to enforce the border?
Mr. Blair. Yes, sir. It would have codified illegal
immigration to the sum of a few thousand.
Mr. Knott. Yep. It would have, before the border was
closed, it would have welcomed roughly 2 million in before it
was an automatic closure, correct?
Mr. Blair. Yes, sir.
Mr. Knott. In regards to the exact language, it legalized,
codified catch-and-release, correct?
Mr. Blair. Yes, sir, I did.
Mr. Knott. I'm again running short on time. Mr. Chairman, I
will yield back the balance. Again, I thank the witnesses for
their testimony and we appreciate any commentary on how to make
immigration work for the American people. Thank you.
Mr. Guest. Thank you, Mr. Knott. It is amazing how quickly
5 minutes goes by, is it not?
At this time I yield to the gentleman from California, Mr.
Correa, for his 5 minutes of questioning.
Mr. Correa. Thank you very much.
Mr. Melnick, I want a quick questions-and-answers. Have
U.S. citizens illegal permanent residents been caught up in
President's Trump immigration raids?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes.
Mr. Correa. Have veterans who have served honorably and
have been discharged honorably, have they been affected? Have
they been deported?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. A veteran in Newark was arrested.
But, of course, veterans have been deported for years. In fact,
we've long called on Congress to provide better----
Mr. Correa. Has due process been afforded to individuals
detained?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. We have serious concerns about the
process that's going on, including multiple allegations of
violations of settlements and violations of detention
standards.
Mr. Correa. Mr. Chairman, I got to tell you, great issues
here.
Ms. Ries, I heard you talk about Census, redistricting, a
little bit about my political history. I started out trying to
represent an area whose registered voters, U.S. citizen voter
registration participation was very low. Heavily immigrant
community never wanted to vote. It is called voter suppression.
They would get letters saying anybody who is not eligible
legally registered to vote, you are subject to a felony. When
you get a letter like that at home, guess what people do? They
say, hell no, I am not voting. I don't care if I am registered,
I am legally registered or I am not going to vote because I'm
going to stay away from that process.
In the last Census, President Trump put out an edict: do
not count them people. Who are those people? All the above.
California lost 1 seat, Congressional seat. Texas should have
gained 3 seats. But in Texas, unlike California, they didn't
encourage people to be signed up to be counted. Citizens,
noncitizens, legal, and undocumented. There are a lot of issues
here. Love to sit down and talk to you.
Mr. Melnick, what is the value of nearshoring? We are
talking about bringing back manufacturing from China to the
USA. Southern California today is the manufacturing center of
the United States. Guess who those employees are that are
working making widgets.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. I think immigrant workers tend to
have a very----
Mr. Correa. A very with and without documents because they
have those employers saying, Lou, help me, my workers need to
be legalized. They are not. So what is the value of nearshore?
We talk about the costs, but not the benefits. National
defense. What is the value of national defense?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. This is one of the reasons that we
think that a path to legal status can help push back against
the unscrupulous employers that are exploiting people. This
country needs workers helping them to work legally.
Mr. Correa. Talk about an incentive to come to the United
States. Let's talk about incentive to come to the United
States. My trip to Guatemala, they were telling me, Guatemala
officials, that it cost $20,000 to make the trip from Guatemala
to the border. You get 2 shots at crossing the border. After
that you're done. Eighty percent of the women who undertake
that trip north are raped or sexually abused. Mr. Anfinsen, you
know that as well. What is the incentive for these people? A
welfare check? You are going to get raped so I can get a
welfare check? It is going to cost me $20,000 cash? What is the
incentive?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. It's the American Dream.
Mr. Correa. Hunger, something for my children in the
future, and my kids are being recruited to go into gangs. This
is the bigger issue here we have to address. It is not Biden,
it is not Trump. It is public policy.
You know, General Kelly, General Kelly, former Homeland
Security chairman, would say border security does not begin or
end at the border. It is all of the above. Love to work with
all of you in big public policy. Immigration to this country, a
lot lately, record number lately. When was the last time we had
such record numbers? Early 1900's? Yes?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes, and 1990's.
Mr. Correa. In the 1900's, what was their policy? You
walked in through Ellis island and what was the policy? Deport
you or?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. You just had to show up at the U.S.
border. As long as you could show that you didn't have a
disease or any serious enfeeblement was the laws, they would
let you in.
Mr. Correa. Nineteen-nineties. Today, what is the policy?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. We've got a significantly more
restrictive policy. In fact, we haven't updated our immigration
laws since November 1990. It's been 35 years.
Mr. Correa. What I am trying to say, ladies and gentlemen,
this is a multi-challenging issue. Immigration, border
security, U.S. economic policy, foreign public policy, trade
public policy, all symptoms of the same issue, which is
American security.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Love to continue the discussion,
but I think I am out of time. I yield.
Mr. Guest. Thank you. At this time, I recognize myself.
Mr. Melnick, in your opening written statement, you say
that over 18 percent of individuals held in ICE detention who
were arrested by the Interior, by ICE, had no criminal record.
So putting that into perspective, 82 percent of those
individuals arrested by ICE were at least charged, if not
convicted, with crimes. Is that correct?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. That's correct. We know from ICE data
the majority of those are immigration offenses and low-level
offenses. In fact, only 12 percent of people currently held in
ICE detention are categorized as the most serious offenders.
Mr. Guest. Then in previous questions, I asked you a little
bit about final orders of removal. I think you said, and I am
not trying to misstate, so if I get this wrong, please feel
free to correct me, that you believe that roughly 20 percent of
the final orders of removals should not be enforced because the
individuals claiming asylum, they failed to appear at their
court proceedings. Is that accurate?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. No, I didn't say they should not be
enforced. I wanted to emphasize each individual case has to be
assessed individually. Some people have a final order due to no
fault of their own. The Government didn't send the notice to
appear to the right address, for example. So that's why each
case has to be looked at individually. I don't want to do a
categorical statement every person with a final order should be
removed because some of them were removed in error or ordered
removed in error. They have a right to go back to the court and
say, I'd like you to fix this, there was a mistake done.
Mr. Guest. So it seems to me, and maybe I am mistaken, that
you would like to establish what is known in the legal law, and
as you know, as a bright line test. Are you trying to say that
the bright line test of this administration should be that no
individual who has not been charged with a crime should be
removed from the country?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. No. But in a world of limited
resources, where we have nearly 4 million people in immigration
court, it is important to focus on those with the most serious
offenses first, not just take a scattershot approach to
everybody.
Mr. Guest. All right. To the Trump administration's credit,
over 8 out of every 10 of the individuals that they have
apprehended have been charged with some crime. Now, we can
argue whether or not we think that crime is serious enough that
they should be apprehended or not, but over 80 percent have
been charged with crime. So there is not this round-up where we
are out there seeking to bring in large numbers of people that
have not been charged with crimes. You have not seen that, have
you?
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. We have seen a significant increase
of arrested people with no criminal convictions.
Mr. Guest. We have also seen a significant increase of
those arrested that have criminal convictions.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. Yes. Overall and immigration was
changing.
Mr. Guest. Overall numbers have grown over 600 percent from
the same numbers a year ago. So if your numbers are growing by
600 percent, you are going to see a larger increase of those
with criminal convictions than those without. But then when you
look at the overall percentages, we are still talking that 82
percent of the individuals arrested by ICE that they are
seeking to deport have some sort of criminal convictions. Then
you throw into addition to that those that we talked about
earlier with final orders of removal.
So I think it is unfair for you to characterize the fact
that this administration is out going, seeking to just round up
anyone that they can find on the street, because that is not
supported by the documents, is not supported by the numerical
information that you have provided.
Mr. Reichlin-Melnick. I think the ratio has changed. When
President Trump took office, about 6 percent of people in ICE
detention arrested by ICE had no criminal record. So it's 18
percent now. It's tripled. So certainly arrests overall are
going up, but the portion of those arrests that are people with
no criminal record is rising faster than the portion of the
arrest of those people with a criminal record.
Mr. Guest. Thank you.
To close on a high note, Mr. Anfinsen, I want to ask you if
you would do myself and Representative Correa a favor. When you
return back to the men and women that you serve with, please
tell them that we thank them for their service. We thank them
for their sacrifice. I pledge to you that myself and Ranking
Member Correa, that we will do everything within our authority
to make sure that the men and women who serve our country have
the resources that they need, that you have the number of
agents that you need to perform your duties, and also that you
have the pay that you need so that those individuals can
support their families and that those individuals can be
compensated for the work that they do.
So with that, I would like to thank all of our witnesses
for being here today. We had a distinguished panel. I believe
that while we had a very robust discussion at times, I believe
that it was an important discussion. Again, we appreciate you
giving of your time to enlighten us and other Members of this
committee on the important decisions that we have facing us.
With that, the hearing will be adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 11:53 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
[all]