WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, as House Republicans and the Trump administration work to undo the damage of the Biden-Harris administration’s unprecedented border crisis, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, led by Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS), examined how Biden and Harris’ open-borders policies sparked that crisis, in an effort to ensure policymakers prevent such abuse from ever happening again.
 
Testimony was provided by Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation; Ammon Blair, senior fellow for the Secure and Sovereign Texas Initiative at the Texas Public Policy Foundation; Jon Anfinsen, executive vice president at the National Border Patrol Council; and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.  

In his opening statement, Chairman Guest condemned the crisis created by the Biden-Harris administration:
 
“In the course of four years, the Biden-Harris administration introduced sweeping policy changes that prioritized rapid processing and release over enforcement. Thereby dismantling border security policies meant to deter illegal immigration and protect Americans from foreign threats abroad. The consequences were devastating as we saw record levels of illegal immigration, a surge in crime committed by transnational criminal organizations, and a weakening of national security. The administration also ended key deterrent measures, such as Remain in Mexico and Safe Third Country Asylum Agreements. It expanded the CBP One app and created mass parole programs to facilitate the illegal entry of inadmissible aliens into the United States. As a result, every state in America has now become a border state. Violent criminal gangs infiltrated American communities and carried out heinous crimes. Crimes such as murder, assault, robbery, and rape.”
 
Chairman Guest asked Anfinsen to describe the shift in Border Patrol morale under the Trump administration: 
 
“Let me ask you about the current morale. There was a statement issued in one of the opening statements…that the morale of the Border Patrol agents was low. How would you contrast the morale of the Border Patrol agents today versus the morale under the Biden administration?”
 
Anfinsen answered:
 
“Complete 180-degree change. We’re able to do our job again. We want to work.” 

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) asked witnesses to detail how the failed border security policies of the Biden-Harris administration led to the disappearance of tens of thousands of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) after they crossed the border and were released, to which Ries answered:
 
“550,000 came in unaccompanied during the last administration and HHS was so overwhelmed, treated them basically like widgets on an assembly line and turned them over to unvetted sponsors, and so then HHS lost track of so many of them. Unfortunately, some were subjected to sex trafficking, child labor, and God knows what else, but they need to be found. 
 
“I agree with you, and I think this is an area that the president, working with Congress, we’re going to have to work really hard to find these children. No one else is going to advocate for them. I saw during the last administration as their policies were eroded, where they would at one time, would vet everyone in the household before they would turn a child over––to now, they were just turning children over as quickly as they possibly could just because of the sheer numbers. I think that is an area that we absolutely need to focus on.”
  
Rep. Gonzales asked Blair how to maximize immigration enforcement against criminal illegal aliens under the Trump administration: 
 
“How can President Trump and Congress best tackle rounding up and deporting the hundreds of thousands of convicted criminal illegal aliens loose in our country?”
 
Blair answered:
 
“The best way to do so is working as a multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency plan through your local, state, and county law enforcement. It’s those law enforcement agents or officers that are in the communities; they know the communities, they know the criminality or the criminal elements within their communities. So, the only way that President Trump and also Tom Homan are going be able to go after all those hundreds of thousands that are currently on the non-disclosed docket for ICE that have criminal records is by going through a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional plan led by the federal government. The federal government is just not big enough. Federal agencies are not large enough, and so they’re going to have to go through that all the way down to the local level.”
 
Rep. Gonzales concluded:
 
“I think you’re spot on––we have to do more…Last year, I sent a letter to ICE asking how many convicted criminal illegal aliens are in our country. One, I was shocked I got a response back, but even more shocking was the fact that it was 662,000. That is a large number. And to your point, the only way we’re going to accomplish this is if we all are in the same boat, paddling in the same direction.”

Rep. Sheri Biggs (R-SC) asked witnesses to describe the strain on state and local resources caused by the Biden-Harris border crisis:
 
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are already seeing a return to law and order and national sovereignty. In just one month back in office, border encounters dropped to just 11,000, proving that strong leadership, not luck, solves crises…. We’ve talked about a lot here today, but what impact did this have on average American families? And I’m talking about housing costs or strained school systems, longer wait times for healthcare—when the last administration put illegal immigrants ahead of our U.S. citizens.” 
 
Ries answered:
 
“Communities were very strained, and they weren’t notified in advance that large populations were coming to their communities, so they didn’t have time to prepare for more teachers or expanded classrooms. So, schools were overcrowded, hospital rooms, emergency rooms were overcrowded––not enough shelters, so the prices of housing went up. And that is why this was a number one issue for Americans voting last fall.”
 

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