PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Blocks from the U.S.-Mexico border, the House Homeland Security Committee heard the country does not have operational control of the border.
Republican South Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez was there, but why weren’t any Democrats?
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told a different story than the Homeland Security secretary has been reporting.
“There’s got to be another way to solve some of the issues we’re faced (with) right now,” said Ortiz.
Democrats boycotted the hearing, with their ranking member saying, “…Republicans planned to politicize this event from the start, breaking with the Committee’s proud history of bipartisanship.”
“Has the Biden administration gotten the word to fix it -- what they need to do to fix the problem at the border?” asked Gimenez.
The leaders on the ground at the border told the committee they need more technology and more money to match drug cartels’ sophisticated operations, and for illegal crossers, more capacity and more prosecutors.
“I think it’s going to be a real challenge for us to repatriate some from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, so we have to make sure we have to just have a tool for those populations,” said Ortiz.
Title 42, which provided health emergency deportations during the pandemic, is set to end.
One member called 70,000 overdoses from fentanyl smuggled in a health emergency, too.