Texas Rep. Chip Roy blasts Secretary Mayorkas on border security

By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday about border security measures and was met with blistering criticism from Republican lawmakers. One lead critic, who’s called for Mayorkas’ impeachment, was Chip Roy, a conservative congressman from Texas.

Roy, who’s led delegations to the Texas-Mexico border and rallied against the Biden administration’s open border policies, blasted Mayorkas over the steady flow of people pouring into Texas and the U.S. under his watch.

“There have been over one million-plus individuals put into proceedings or released into the United States on your watch,” Roy said to Mayorkas. “I’ve asked multiple Border Patrol personnel … if we double, triple, quadruple the CBP budget, would that one million released to go down, and they categorically said no, it would go up. Do you agree? Yes or no.”

Mayorkas replied, “I’m not sure I understand your question.”

He then asked Mayorkas, “Will you testify under oath … do we have operational control [of the border] yes or no?”

“Yes, we do,” Mayorkas said.

Roy then went on to define what operational control means according to federal statute. It means, “the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States including entries by terrorists, other non-lawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics and other contraband,” he said.

“Do you stand by your testimony that we have operational control in light of this definition?” he asked again.

Mayorkas replied, “I do,” and said the former DHS secretary in the Trump administration “would have said the same thing.”

“The secretary would have at least had a basis for saying that we have some sort of control of the border, but the fact is we currently have people flowing across the border, including dangerous narcotics and dangerous terrorists,” Roy said. He then referred to a letter he received from DHS confirming that 42 people on the national terrorist watchlist had been released into the U.S. under Mayorkas and that DHS doesn’t know where they are.

Mayorkas shook his head and said what Roy was saying wasn’t true. He also asked Roy, “Congressman, are you actually interested in the facts and the law?”

Roy said, “Yeah, I’m reading you the law and I’m telling you the facts.”

Mayorkas shook his head in disagreement.

“Chip Roy is stating the obvious and empirical fact that every Texan already knows, especially those that live within a couple hours of the border,” Wade Miller, executive director of Citizens for Renewing America, said. “The United States of America does not have operational control of our southern border. That’s a fact, not an opinion.”

Those in law enforcement and Border Patrol agents have told The Center Square not only does the U.S. not have operational control of the border, it doesn’t have operational awareness, meaning agents don’t know how many are evading law enforcement who enter illegally.

Agents estimate one million people who’ve evaded capture are already in the U.S. illegally with no way of knowing who they are.