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House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has issued another subpoena to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, seeking records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
This latest subpoena follows the GOP-led House’s impeachment of Mayorkas last month and marks the third demand sent to the DHS chief in recent months. In December, Jordan issued a subpoena requesting documents related to “violent” illegal aliens, followed by another in February concerning border security in Texas.
The Ohio Republican has also been seeking information on the illegal immigrant suspected of killing University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, the Daily Wire reported.
“As a part of its oversight efforts, we conducted transcribed interviews with several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. During these transcribed interviews, the ICE witnesses were unable to answer certain questions about data, documents, and communications related to the Biden Administration’s immigration policies,” Jordan wrote in a cover letter accompanying his latest subpoena.
“On November 2, 2023, the Committee requested that the Department provide the information that the ICE witnesses could not provide during their transcribed interviews. To date, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to fully comply with our requests,” the GOP lawmaker added.
Jordan noted that committee staff had made several attempts to inquire about the status of the requested information in the months following DHS’s missed deadline.
However, on two occasions, the agency’s staff only provided “a partial answer” initially, later offering links to some public data and information that failed to meet the panel’s requirements, the chairman elaborated.
“Although we appreciate that DHS has provided some limited data, your failure to produce all the requested documents and information prevents the Committee from fulfilling its constitutional oversight obligations,” Jordan wrote in his letter.
The Ohio Republican further noted that the Oversight committee has jurisdiction over issues that concern federal immigration law and hinted that the information being sought could have an impact on legislative actions that could include “reforming Alternatives to Detention, increasing penalties on aliens who abscond from ICE, and enhancing ICE’s tracking, detention, and communications standards for aliens on the terrorist watchlist.”
A DHS spokesperson pushed back on Jordan’s claims, however.
“Instead of working cooperatively, as DHS has repeatedly sought to do, the House Judiciary Committee continues to waste time with unnecessary subpoenas that serve no purpose beyond political posturing,” said DHS press secretary Mia Ehrenberg. “In this Administration, DHS has produced thousands of pages of documents, provided countless briefings, and sent dozens of witnesses to appear for hearings. On this request alone, DHS already provided the vast majority of the information requested by the committee and made clear that our efforts remain ongoing.”
She added: “DHS will continue cooperating with Congressional oversight requests, all while faithfully working to protect our nation from terrorism and targeted violence, secure our borders, respond to natural disasters, defend against cyberattacks, and more.”
About a dozen Republican senators said they plan to disrupt the chamber’s business if Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) allows articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to be tabled without holding a trial.
“Six sources told Fox News Digital that roughly a dozen GOP senators have been planning for more than a week to obstruct legislative proceedings and regular business in the Senate if, at a minimum, points of order are not agreed to in the impeachment trial of Mayorkas when the House impeachment managers deliver the articles to” Schumer, the outlet reported.
“The Senate runs on unanimous consent,” a Senate Republican aide familiar with the talks told the outlet. “Any one senator can do that.”
