House GOP leaders visited the southern border in Texas this Tuesday, where they called for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign for failing to secure the border.
The latest effort for calls to secure the border is following a record number of arrests of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in the last fiscal year ending in September, a story The Dallas Express has been following. Last month’s detention numbers were the highest ever for any October.
GOP minority leader Kevin McCarthy and a delegation of House Republicans in El Paso toured the busiest section across the border and met with frontline border patrol agents.
At one point in their tour, a makeshift camp of Venezuelan migrants yelled to them across the river in Mexico.
“Today, I am calling on the secretary to resign,” McCarthy said in a press conference after the tour.
“If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action, and every failure to determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiries,” he continued.
Mayorkas maintains the stance that the border is secure and has no intention to resign. In a statement released on Tuesday, he responded, “Members of Congress can do better than point the finger at someone else; they should come to the table and work on solutions for our broken system and outdated laws, which have not been overhauled in over 40 years.”
The tour also caught the attention of the White House, prompting its Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to respond, “McCarthy has no plan. The Republican Party has no plan. They do nothing except do political stunts.”
U.S. Representative for Texas’ 16th district in El Paso, Veronica Escobar (D-TX), echoed her sentiment.
“Republicans are doing what they always do. They parachute in, they throw temper tantrums, and they offer zero solutions.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, El Paso saw 53,284 illegal crossings in October alone, a 280% year-over-year increase.
McCarthy told Fox News that if he is elected speaker when Republicans take control of the House in January, he plans to hold congressional border hearings at the southern border “to force Democrats to come here and see the border crisis for themselves.”
