One day after Senate Democrats squashed the House Republican effort to remove Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from office, GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky held Mayorkas’ feet to the fire during a Senate hearing, making him squirm in his seat.
On Wednesday, Democratic senators shut down the impeachment proceedings initiated last week by the Republican-controlled House over Mayorkas’ handling of immigration and border security.
On Thursday, during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, Paul masterfully laid bare the utter disregard for the law Mayorkas has shown in his time as homeland security secretary in a systematic and deliberate line of questioning without accusing or raising his voice.
The senator first asked Mayorkas what the criteria for paroling someone from detention was.
Mayorkas replied that the parole process, according to the law, involved “individualized determinations with respect to significant public benefit or an urgent humanitarian reason.”
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“So for what reason was the alleged killer of Laken Riley, Jose Ibarra, paroled and allowed to come into this country?” Paul shot back.
Paul was, of course, referring to the high-profile case of a Georgia college student who was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant.
Mayorkas refused to answer based on the fact the case is currently being prosecuted.
“You’re refusing to give any specifics about Jose Ibarra?” the senator said. “Well, I have the documentation, and the document says that the parole, the subject, the person accused of killing Laken Riley, was paroled due to detention capacity — it was full.
“So is detention capacity statutorily allowed to be used as a reasoning for parole?”
Mayorkas acknowledged that people were paroled because of a lack of beds for those encountered at the border, causing Paul to quickly retort, “You might have more beds if they remained in Mexico.”
The senator noted that the Biden administration had reversed “92 executive orders of the Trump administration which allowed them to apparently have people remain in Mexico, allowed them to have, you know, probably 90 percent less parolees than you have.”
“When you come to us and say, ‘Oh gosh, if we only had more legislation, we could do it,’ why don’t you bring back the executive orders of Donald Trump that seemed to be working? You immediately got rid of them for political purposes. The border is a disaster. Why don’t you bring back the 92 executive orders that you reversed?” he demanded.
The fiery exchange escalated as Paul listed other recent crimes allegedly perpetrated by illegal immigrants, including the killings of a Washington state trooper and a Michigan woman.
“I think a lot of people in America are going to be appalled, you know, that you refuse to answer the questions,” he said.
When asked about Ibarra’s unlawful entry, Mayorkas deflected again, saying that criminal perpetrators “need to be held accountable for their crimes.”
“Well, that’s not much consolation if you wait until after he’s murdered somebody,” Paul retorted.
Should Mayorkas be removed from office?
The senator then went on to explain to Mayorkas the major flaws in how the Department of Homeland Security screens and processes migrants who are paroled into the United States — the most crucial of which is that DHS relies heavily on the “honor system,” i.e., just taking migrants at their word for their name and background information.
Paul pointed out that when migrants arrive at the border and claim to be from a country such as Venezuela, DHS has no real way to verify that is their true identity or country of origin because “most domestic crimes in Venezuela probably are not in any kind of international database.”
“So if you waltz into the country through your generous parole programs and say, ‘I’m John Smith from Venezuela,’ you have no way of ascertaining that,” he said. “You still let them go. So you say, ‘Well we’re going to make sure that they’re not a violent criminal.’ You have no way.”
What’s even worse, Paul pointed out that when DHS does collect biometric data such as fingerprints from paroled migrants, since their identities were not properly vetted initially, the agency is essentially just issuing them a new official identity in the United States.
“You look in some databases, maybe they’re not in the database, but you have no way of even knowing that that’s their name. Then you give them biometrics … you give them fingerprints, now they have a new name and fingerprints, they essentially have been given a new identity by your agency,” he said.
Today, I confronted Mayorkas over the damage inflicted upon America and the families who have tragically lost loved ones due to the abject failure of the Biden administration’s border policies. https://t.co/q2ejsC69NV
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 18, 2024
Hearing the senator speak, I had the feeling that if a person from another country, completely unaware of our laws, saw the process, he or she would be convinced that the DHS was hoping for an attack on American soil.
To pretend to “vet” people by taking their word for who they are after they have just broken your laws by entering your country illegally is already ludicrous.
But then Mayorkas’ department takes it a step further by collecting fingerprints without first properly vetting migrants’ stated identities, effectively issuing them new official identities in the U.S. based on unverified information.
As Paul bluntly put it, the agency is just “giving a new identity” to these migrants.
It’s no wonder 90 percent of migrants are now turning themselves in to U.S. authorities instead of trying to escape them, according to Bloomberg.
It’s like the Biden administration has put up a sign: If you’re looking for a new start to get away from your criminal past, come to America. We’ll give you a new identity and a ticket to a city of your choice so that you can start all over again.
“I’m just so sickened and sad by the families of lost loved ones from this,” Paul said in conclusion. “I don’t see real remorse. I don’t see you willing to answer the questions. I mean, if it were me, I would be so upset by this, I would be doing everything possible to make sure another Jose Ibarra doesn’t get in.”
He concluded by saying, “All I can express is disappointment and bewilderment that the Democrats let you get away with it.”
Senator, you are not alone.
