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House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has fired off another subpoena to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, demanding records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The subpoena comes after the GOP-led House impeached Mayorkas last month and is the third one sent to the DHS chief in recent months. In December, Jordan issued a subpoena demanding documents on “violent” illegal aliens and another in February about 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 stated that committee staff attempted on multiple occasions to inquire about the status of the requested information in the months following DHS’s missed deadline.
On two occasions, the agency’s staff initially provided “only a partial answer” and later shared links to some public data and information that did not fulfill the panel’s requirements, the chairman added.
“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.
The chairman 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 assertions.
“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.”
Federal agents who spoke to the Washington Examiner after the House voted to impeach Mayorkas on Feb. 13 say the job has been horrendous since he was confirmed by the Democrat-controlled Senate in February 2021.
Some of them also fear that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will move to dismiss the two articles before a trial can even begin.
“I want to see our government take action!!” a California-based agent wrote in a text message to the outlet when asked about the impeachment. “It took them long enough.”
Another California-based federal law enforcement agent said that Mayorkas, who has led the DHS for three years, ought to be held accountable for the chaos at the border.
“Yes, I would like to see a trial,” said the agent, who has been with the Border Patrol for 20 years. “There are no consequences for smugglers right now. We have so many [people who fail to yield to agents] and smugglers loading [vehicles with illegal immigrants] right on the border.”
