By U.S. Representative Mark Green
R-Tennessee
Truly transparent thread

When they were inaugurated, one of the responsibilities Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took on was to ensure the security of the American homeland and safeguard our sovereign borders. Nearly four years later, in light of the catastrophic and unprecedented border crisis that unfolded under their watch, can anyone say with a straight face that they fulfilled that obligation?

The answer, unequivocally, is no – and it is Americans who are paying the price.

From the start, Biden, Harris and other key officials in their administration were determined to end President Donald Trump’s effective border security policies, regardless of the consequences. They also refused to enforce long-standing immigration laws that administrations of both parties have enforced.

The new Biden-Harris team was warned by current and former Department of Homeland Security law enforcement officials during the presidential transition about what would happen if they took that path, according to a new report from my committee. – and yet she chose to do it. anyway.

This dereliction of duty has led to disastrous consequences in the area of ​​public safety. Under the leadership of Biden and Harris, our borders are wide open and ripe for exploitation, and domestic controls have fallen off the cliff. The figures confirm it.

Since fiscal year 2021, the Border Patrol has recorded more than 55,000 apprehensions of illegal aliens with criminal histories, compared to only about 22,000 in fiscal year 2017-20. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said “hardened criminals often hide in illegal migrant groups.” According to a Border Patrol deputy chief, “for any crime that might be committed, we meet with the people who committed it.”

The problem of criminal aliens is not limited to borders. Between fiscal years 2017 and 2020, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 480,000 aliens with criminal convictions or pending charges on their records. In contrast, during the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, those arrests fell to about 165,000, despite historic numbers of illegal aliens crossing the border. Similarly, the Trump administration deported more than 604,000 criminal aliens from fiscal year 2017 to 2020, while the Biden-Harris administration only removed about 158,000 from fiscal year 2021 to 2023 (the ICE data for fiscal year 2024 has not yet been made public). Additionally, expulsions of gang members last year were down 40% from the peak during the Trump administration.

Those numbers have fallen because the Biden-Harris administration has tied the hands of law enforcement. According to guidance issued by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in September 2021, ICE staff cannot “rely solely on the fact of conviction…” in deciding whether to detain a suspected criminal alien, a statement that a federal judge ruled in 2022 “flips the presumption of detention on its head.”

So it’s no surprise that ICE’s non-detainee registry has exploded to more than 7.4 million people, up from about 3.2 million at the end of fiscal 2020. Among those millions are find nearly 650,000 foreigners with criminal histories, including more than 13,000 convicted of murder, 15,000 of sexual assault and more than 62,000 of assault.

The consequences of this policy of non-enforcement were deadly. Just ask the families of Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray and many others whose lives have been taken or irrevocably shattered by those here illegally.

It’s not just criminal aliens in their communities that should be keeping Americans up at night. A historic number of individuals on the terrorist watch list (392) have been arrested illegally crossing our borders since FY 2021, compared to just 14 between FY 2017 and 2020.

Worse, the Biden-Harris administration actually released at least 99 of these individuals into the interior. Last year, Mayorkas refused to answer direct questions from a member of my committee when asked whether DHS had a policy of detaining an illegal alien on the terrorist watch list until that he be sent back.

Last year, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray told my committee, “I think greater fidelity in who comes into this country and how they come into this country is essential. » Unfortunately, this is not happening under Biden and Harris. In the haunting words of a Border Patrol agent: “I wanted to go into the Border Patrol and protect myself from terrorists. And it’s like I probably let the terrorists into the country.

These numbers only reflect those the Border Patrol was able to catch. We have no idea how many potential criminals or terrorists are among the estimated 2 million known escapades under Biden and Harris’ watch.

And as we learned earlier this month after the arrest of an Afghan national accused of planning an Election Day terrorist attack in Oklahoma, insufficiently vetted noncitizens are actively plotting harm against Americans – from within our own borders.

America simply cannot afford more of these things.

Representative Mark E. Green, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, represents Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District.

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