The border, drug trafficking and even minors in shelters confront Mayorkas with Congress

The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, has asked Congress for an amount of 103.2 billion dollars so that the agency can operate in fiscal year 2024, but not before facing strong reproach from the Republican opposition both in the Senate as in the House of Representatives for what they consider a “failure” on the southern border.

The thorniest issues that Mayorkas has had to defend in both chambers of the federal legislature, in consecutive hearings on Tuesday and this Wednesdayhave had to do with the situation on the southern border, where issues such as irregular migration, drug trafficking, the growing incursion of fentanyl and even the undocumented minors that the DHS has had to shelter are combined.

House Committee Chairman Mark Green told Mayorkas on Tuesday that “we reject this budget, because it does not stand up for the people of the United States,” adding that Mayorkas’ work in the two years in office can be summed up as a “mission that reflects incompetence.”

Mayorkas has broken down the amount requested in both committees presenting separate items and agency priorities.

“The president’s budget for the fiscal year 2024 for the Department, for a total of 103.200 million [de dólares]will ensure that DHS has the resources to carry out our mission of safeguarding the American people and our homeland while preserving our values,” said the head who deals with homeland security, border protection and directing the immigration system. .

The president of the Committee in the House of Representatives, however, criticized the problem of drug trafficking across the border south, especially with the growing presence of fentanyl that would transit through the “chaos” of immigration.

“The drug cartels laugh in our faces because you protect them by refusing to stop illegal immigrants,” Congressman Green told him.

The head of DHS said that the agency’s commitment is to “identify the logistical, financial and communication knots” of the cartels and that the different agencies of the US government to combat the problem “work together to reach transnational criminal organizations” to counter the trafficking of narcotics and opioids.

They ask for your resignation

Mayorkas’ appearance in the similar instance of the Senate on Wednesday flowed along the same paths of reproach and accusations of negligence from the opposition, to the point of requesting his resignation from office.

Senator Ron Johnson told Mayorkas that he “had no focus” in terms of border work when asking him for an explanation of how he explained that during President Biden’s administration some “4 or 5 million migrants” who do not qualify for asylum.

The DHS secretary, between stumbling blocks and interruptions, tried to explain that the numbers of reports of sightings, arrests, and removal of undocumented immigrants on the other side of the border with Mexico under Title 42 are counted in statistics, but not every case represents An individual per se nor are the figures used to account for the number of immigrants who have actually entered the country.

“The senator confuses the numbers of individual sightings recorded” and the work of the different agencies with issues such as human trafficking “where we have a high priority,” Mayorkas said.

The senators from the Republican wing also put the secretary of homeland security on the ropes by adding the problem of unaccompanied minors on the southern border, and the exploitation that could be behind it.

“Do you know how many of those children are victims of sex trafficking?” Johnson asked Mayorkas. “You better resign,” the senator, obviously annoyed, recommended.

From the Democratic side, the positions before the budget proposal for the DHS were more accommodating in recognizing the work to find solutions and to face the problem of the southern border.

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