House subpoenas Mayorkas for more info on 'record number' of suspected terrorists at border

The House Committee on Homeland Security on Friday subpoenaed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after waiting about a year for the agency to provide requested information about the "record number of inadmissible aliens on the Terrorist Screening Data Set" who have crossed the southern border in between ports of entry.

The subpoena was issued by the committee's Chairman Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican. 

“President Biden and his now-impeached DHS secretary’s refusal to secure our borders or comply with our laws is putting our country in rapidly growing peril,” said Greene, referring the GOP-led House having impeached Mayorkas this past winter over the southern border crisis. 

“The Biden administration has utterly failed to safeguard the American people by allowing millions of otherwise inadmissible aliens into the country with limited screening and vetting, including tens of thousands of special interest aliens," he added.

 

Green said that Mayorkas and Biden have also allowed nearly 2 million "gotaways" to "evade an overwhelmed Border Patrol and roam free in American communities, presenting an almost impossible challenge for the dedicated federal law enforcement who are working tirelessly to find a growing number of needles in an ever-expanding haystack."

Green said enemies of the U.S. know that the border is mismanaged and "they are taking advantage" of the situation.

"Secretary Mayorkas has continued to stonewall congressional oversight and clearly will not comply unless compelled to do so – because he knows this information places the blame squarely at his and President Biden’s feet," he also said.

Green and other GOP committee chairmen previously requested more information on the background and status of the individuals on the terrorist watchlist who have been encountered at the southern border.

"Terrorists and other bad actors will attempt to exploit weaknesses in border security and vetting procedures to infiltrate the United States. We fear these known gotaways could also include illegal aliens with terrorist ties,” he wrote, referencing those who evaded law enforcement at the border and could be on the terrorist watchlist.

"It is unclear the extent to which actual legal impediments exist to prevent detention and removal of aliens with terrorist ties, as opposed to impediments imposed by the Biden Administration’s misguided policies,” the chairman also wrote, referencing those with terrorist ties who are caught at the border.