by The head of the US Border Patrol on Wednesday told lawmakers that the agency has no operational control of the southern US border — as he also said immigration levels were at “crisis” levels along parts of the border.
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz was speaking at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in McAllen, Texas, and was asked about Chairman Mark Green about Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorka’s earlier claims last year that the Department of Homeland Security has operational control of the border.
“Does DHS have operational control of all our borders?”
“No sir,” Ortiz replied.
Green argued for a definition of operational control in the US Code as “the prevention of all illegal entry into the United States, including the entry of terrorists, other illegal aliens, terrorist organizations, narcotics, and other contraband.”
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March 15, 2023: Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz testifies at Homeland Security hearing. (Screenshot)
He then played video of Mayorkas telling Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, last year that DHS has operational control of the border and asked Ortiz if he thought Mayorkas was lying.
“About ten years ago, we used operational control as a measure of our effectiveness along the southwest border. My new strategy is geared toward mission advantage,” Ortiz replied.
Green then referred back to Mallorca’s remarks.
“You heard the secretary, he said we have operational control,” he said, before pointing to the definition. “That’s the definition.”
Ortiz replied, “Based on your definition sir, up there, no.”
“Don’t we have operational control?” asked Green.
“No sir,” Ortiz said.
In his opening statement, Ortiz had praised the Border Patrol agents who worked under him, saying that wearing the uniform “fills me with tremendous pride and will remain my greatest honor.”
He then explained the challenges agents face and even used the word “crisis” — a phrase the administration has often dismissed when describing the situation at the border — when describing the massive amounts of migrants he has encountered at the border in recent years.
“The migratory flow represents challenges and in some areas a crisis situation,” he said.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on “Global Threats to the Homeland” on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 15, 2022. (REUTERS/Michael A. McCoy)
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The hearing is being held “to examine the direct link between the reckless border policies of President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas and the unprecedented crisis on our southwest border,” and is one of several hearings and visits being held at the border itself since the pledge of Republicans to hold in-person border hearings.
Democrats chose not to attend the hearing, while the White House accused Republicans of playing “partisan games” with the hearing.
Meanwhile, DHS said the hearing “highlights the vital work the Department of Homeland Security does every day to enforce our laws, secure our borders, and fight cartels and smugglers,” and pointed to the testimony of Ortiz and of other witnesses who showed “new programs, technology and investments have a real impact”.
“Despite inheriting a broken immigration system and facing unprecedented immigration affecting nations across the Western Hemisphere, this administration has increased resources at the border, reducing the number of encounters between ports of entry, disrupting more smuggling operations than ever before and intercepting more drugs in the past two years than had been intercepted in the previous five years,” a spokesman said.
“The Department welcomes input from Congress and looks forward to working with members on legislative solutions to the broken immigration system, which Congress has failed to reform in more than forty years,” they said.
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Republicans have accused the administration of reversing Trump-era policies and scaling back domestic enforcement while expanding catch-and-release. The administration accused Republicans of not approving adequate funding and failing to pass solutions in Congress, including a day-one immigration reform bill rejected by Republicans for including a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
Mayorkas recently said in an interview that the goal “is to achieve operational border control, to do everything we can to support our personnel with the resources, the technology, the policies that really advance border security and not come to the detriment of the values of our country”.
On Wednesday, Ortiz was asked by Rep. Dan Bishop, RN.C., whether the Biden administration’s policy changes to release immigrants domestically instead of detaining and releasing them were the driving force behind the crisis.
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 02: Representative Dan Bishop (R-NC) listens during a House Judiciary Committee hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 2, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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Ortiz responded by saying “you have to have ability and you have to have consequences.” He also said he had warned as acting chief in 2014 that there was a “policy crisis”.
“And I’m still true that we have certain policies in place where we have to make sure that the men and women out there who patrol the border, who investigate these criminal cartels, are allowed to do their jobs every day,” he said.
“And their job is to detain or remove illegal immigrants,” Bishop asked.
“Yes sir,” Ortiz replied.
