U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has recently stressed that the United States will use a whole-of-government approach to ready the southern border after Title 42 ends in late May.
However, many lawmakers, including Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), aren’t convinced that Mayorkas has the political will to stop the unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants.
“We can fix the border. I’m telling you, in two weeks, we can fix the border crisis if we had an executive branch that was willing to embrace the policies that we developed during the Trump administration over the course of 2017 and 2018,” said Higgins, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security.
With a current 1.2 million apprehensions, 2022 is set to see border apprehensions exceed the fiscal year 1986 record of 1.69 million, and many experts are saying that with Title 42 ending soon, the number of illegal entries will far exceed the 1986 number, as five months remain in the year.
Meanwhile, Mayorkas said his department is preparing to make processing illegal immigrants more efficient when Title 42 ends.
“We are increasing our capacity to process new arrivals, evaluate asylum requests, and quickly remove those who do not qualify for protection. We will increase personnel and resources as needed and have already redeployed more than 600 law enforcement officers to the border,” Mayorkas said in an April 1 statement, adding that they will also ramp up vaccinations of illegals.
Mayorkas’s office didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for further comment.
Higgins said, “despite [Mayorkas’s] unquestionable service” to this country, “he has allowed himself to be used as the instrument of the executive branch to destroy the sovereignty of our nation at the southern border.”
Many Republican lawmakers have called on Mayorkas to resign over his handling of illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border and have warned if they take control of the Congress after the November mid-term elections, they will begin proceedings to impeach him.
Higgins cites the increase in overdose deaths in America, a crime wave that’s surging across the country, and the millions of illegals who have crossed over since President Joe Biden and Mayorkas took office.
“So he’s to be held accountable for his actions. Therefore, he must be impeached.”
Higgins said that control of the southern border can be achieved without increasing manpower or adding more border wall if the leadership wants to.
The congressman said he believes the Biden administration wants more illegal immigrants to get into the country because that’s part of their “agenda.”
