On 11/17/2022, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) questioned national security officials in a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing entitled “Threats to the Homeland,” an annual hearing that seeks to address some of the most pressing issues facing US national security and the ways in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) work together to thwart potential threats. The panel consisted of FBI Director Christopher Wray, NCTC Director Christine Abizaid, and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Sen. Lankford challenged Mayorkas to explain the Biden administration’s plan to deal with up to 18,000 migrants per day, “Secretary Mayorkas, you and I have talked about Title 42 for about 18 months, and I’ve asked you the question, ‘What happens when Title 42 goes away?’ and for 18 months you’ve said ‘We’re working on it. What’s the plan for dealing with this massive migration, illegal immigration coming now post Title 42?” Lankford asked. “A lot of people counting on these numbers coming down, and they’re not. They’re going up. With the end of Title 42 coming in 35 days, we expect it’s going to accelerate even higher.”
Mayorkas claimed that his agency has “been executing on the plan” the administration has had in place since April, which he said included, surging resources such as personnel, technology, and transportation, to the border; increasing Customs and Border Protection’s processing efficiency … strengthening nonprofit organizations and police at the local and state levels …” “What we are doing is precisely what we announced we would do in April of this year,” Mayorkas told the committee. “And we have indeed been executing on the plan.”
“The plan you just articulated has led to the third-highest number [of apprehensions] for any single month in history,” Lanford pointed out, referring to October’s 230,678 migrant stops, the third-highest number on record after April and May of this year.
LANKFORD: What percentage of the individuals that are encountered at our southern border do we know their … history of the country they’re coming from. Do we know that history?
MAYORKAS: I will have to get back to you on that Senator whether we have the capability of identifying the percentage which is what you have…
LANKFORD: It is my understanding that we don’t know the … Can you give me an estimate on this … give me a guess.
MAYORKAS: I understand. I’m quite hesitant to guess on information that is so important to our mission but I will certainly get back to you with any information we can provide…
LANKFORD: It is incredibly important because I think there’s an assumption that the American people feel that the 2.4 million plus individuals that were encountered just in the last 12 months have been vetted in some way at our southern border and they’ve been checked. And we don’t know if these individuals are fleeing poverty or fleeing from the law. We don’t know.
MAYORKAS: … we conduct screening and vetting of individuals whom we encounter. We have a robust screening and vetting process. It actually is recurrent vetting …
LANKFORD: I’d like to get a good guess as to how many people we know their criminal history when they’re coming in.
MAYORKAS: As I mentioned Senator, I’ll get back to you to see if we have that data, if so, I will certainly provide it to you.
https://facebook.com/HygoNewsUSA/videos/676854824087249/
DHS: border secure, significant challenge; Lankford: Record-High Failed Border Strategy