WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Wednesday launched the opening salvo in what is sure to be many hearings related to the southwest border this year.
The House Judiciary Committee had expected to hear from Dale Lynn Carruthers, the Terrell County judge who has been among Texas border community officials declaring migrant surges as an “invasion.”
The committee’s chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, announced at the start of the hearing that Carruthers was not able to travel to Washington from Texas because of the ongoing ice storm in the state, but he summarized her prepared testimony: that her once-safe community now lives in fear with a proliferation of home burglaries and daily high-speed car chases.
“Groups of illegal migrants regularly dress in camouflage to cross the judge's and her neighbors' land,” Jordan said, summarizing the testimony. “These are not asylum-seekers, not asylum-seekers looking to turn themselves into Border Patrol agents but foreign nationals trying to evade law enforcement.”
The committee heard a different story from El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, who was introduced as a witness by Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas.
Samaniego described his area as the epicenter of migrant surges but said his community has learned how to treat asylum-seekers in a way that strikes a balance between security and compassion. He said there is no open border in El Paso but rather asylum-seekers who present themselves to border patrol agents for processing.
“There is no invasion of migrants in our community,” Samaniego said. “Nor are there hordes of undocumented immigrants committing crimes against citizens or causing havoc in our community.”
He said making such claims continues a “false, racist narrative” that he tied to the rampage at an El Paso Walmart that killed 23 and injured dozens on Aug. 3, 2019.
Republicans are eager to use their new majority to spotlight the border with hearings in several committees, including the panels devoted to the judiciary and to government oversight.
Freshman Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, is a new member of that House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Casar joined leaders from left-leaning groups this week as they previewed the upcoming border hearings by saying GOP rhetoric on the issue equates migrants with crime and drugs and stokes anti-immigrant violence. They charged Republicans with exploiting the issue for political gain rather than offering real solutions.
“Right-wing, anti-immigrant cynics do not care about solving our immigration issues,” Casar said. “They do not care about addressing this humanitarian crisis across the Western Hemisphere that is pushing people out of their homes, fleeing for their lives.”
Republicans, including those in Texas, have harshly criticized the Biden administration’s approach to the border.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently wrote to top Republicans on both the House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Accountability Committee offering his assistance as they take the president to task.
Paxton wrote that Biden has undermined border security by halting construction of a border wall, revoking the “Remain inMexico” policy and at least initially seeking to end Title 42, the public health measure first that has been used to turn away migrants in the name of fighting COVID-19. Millions of border crossings over the past two years have put a burden on Texas communities, he wrote.
“I am hopeful that beyond unearthing and publicizing the lengths to which Biden and his officials have gone to cause an unmanageable flood of illegal immigration, these hearings will move us closer to holding this Administration accountable for failing the American public,” Paxton wrote.
Paxton noted in the letter that he recently launched his 15th border-related lawsuit against the administration.
“I look forward to our working together to hold accountable those who have destroyed our border and wreaked havoc on our communities,” he wrote.
Paxton echoed the Republican refrain that a lack of border security is allowing fentanyl to pour into the United States. Those on the other side cite statistics that indicate fentanyl is coming into the country chiefly through legal ports of entry and primarily being transported by U.S. citizens.
“Fentanyl is a very serious and urgent issue. It’s just not an immigration issue,” said Zach Mueller, political director for America’s Voice. “The fentanyl that is being trafficked in the United States comes through ports of entry, not with migrants seeking asylum.”
Texan Brandon Dunn testified at Wednesday’s hearing about how he co-founded the nonprofit Forever 15 Project after his 15-year-old son Noah died of illicit fentanyl poisoning on Aug. 21. Dunn said Noah was a sophomore at Johnson High School in Hays County, murdered by a drug dealer who was selling counterfeit Percocet pills.
“Illicit fentanyl is primarily manufactured in Mexico by the drug cartels and smuggled through our southern border and it is true that most seizures happen at border checkpoints ... however, due to the lethality of this drug, any amount smuggled in a backpack, or a fanny pack, or even somebody’s pocket can be enough to kill thousands of people,” Dunn testified.
Casar is among the Democrats who have criticized the administration for some of its recent moves leaning into Title 42 and pushing new penalties for those who cross the border illegally.
Casar has praised the administration for opening new legal pathways for some migrants to enter the country but says get-tough aspects of the administration’s latest plans are a misguided response to conservative attacks that will never satisfy those critics.
“The far-right extremists in the Republican Party are not engaging in a policy debate,” Casar said. “They are not going to slow down their attacks on the administration just because the administration takes a harder line on immigration.”
Republicans aren’t backing off their critiques of the administration.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, this week said the new policies allow the administration to “roll out the welcome mat for tens of thousands of migrants” while making it appear the numbers have fallen.
Those new policies create a magnet for even more migrants to leave home for the United States, he said.
“‘The president hasn’t solved the problem,” Cornyn said. “He’s just swept it under the rug, and he’s arguably made it worse.”
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