Democratic Congressman David Cicilline has called out GOP lawmakers on the House Judiciary committee for using an oversight hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to try to get on Fox News.
Mr Cicilline cited a report in the New York Times last week that revealed ranking GOP member Jim Jordan had instructed Republicans on how to weaponise the immigration debate against the Democrats ahead of November’s midterms.
They include “misleading and provocative talking points that seek to portray migrants and refugees as perpetrators of gruesome crimes”, Mr Cicilline, from Rhode Island, said.
“It’s prepared so that the Republicans can argue that Democrats are seeking to abolish all immigration enforcement and even encourage illegal immigration.”
“There’s a whole plan about what this hearing is about, and it’s about creating Fox News spots that they can use for politics, and I regret that you have to be part of it,” Mr Cicilline told Mr Mayorkas.
The memo – which was marked “Confidential – for internal use only” and leaked to the Times – encouraged Republicans to exploit immigration fears by characterising migrants as sexual offenders.
On Tuesday, Mr Mayorkas released a detailed plan on how the administration planned to prepare for an expected surge at the border when Title 42 – a Trump-era measure that saw would-be migrants removed rather than be allowed to stay in the US while they seek asylum – where is lifted.
These included expanding migrant processing capacity, deporting and prosecuting some migrants and cracking down on human smugglers.
