WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) released the following statement after announcing a full Committee hearing next Tuesday, April 16, 2024, to examine the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget request. The Committee will hear testimony from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who will make his first appearance before the Committee following his historic impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors in February:

“Three years into this administration, the threats to the homeland are growing by the day, in many cases as a result of President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas’ utter refusal to secure our borders. The crisis at our borders is not one of resources but one caused by Secretary Mayorkas’ clear refusal to enforce the law and his breach of the public trust. This historic chaos has exposed our country to grave security risks––from unprecedented cartel control of the Southwest border and the fentanyl epidemic to suspected terrorists being released into our communities.

“Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party continues to target sectors of our critical infrastructure with cyber intrusions, the Iranian regime and its ‘Axis of Resistance’ have been emboldened against Israel and its allies, and dissidents of both authoritarian regimes face threats and retaliation on U.S. soil. As a co-equal branch of government, we will continue conducting rigorous oversight over the executive branch to ensure DHS is accountable to American taxpayers and not only properly equipped with, but properly utilizing, the resources we give them to combat these threats.”

Read more in Bloomberg via Ellen Gilmer here.

Notable shortcomings in Secretary Mayorkas’ FY2025 budget request: 

• $1.4 billion cut to Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) budget compared to the annualized amount in the FY2024 continuing resolution, including a cut of roughly $250 million to the Border Security Operations budget. 
• $4.7 billion slush fund euphemistically called the “Southwest Border Contingency Fund,” which will be funded by taking from CBP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) baseline budgets. This money will go to facilitating the border crisis through funding processing centers and coordinators, illegal alien transportation, and more. 
• The budget for CBP once again requested a mere $7.1M for the Southwest border wall system program.
• Funding for just 34,000 ICE detention beds, barely half of the 60,000 beds requested by the Trump administration in its FY2021 budget. Southwest border encounters in FY2020 totaled around 460,000, while CBP is on pace to record 2.7 million this fiscal year. 
• Funding for a mere 350 new Border Patrol agents, compared to the roughly 3,000 funded by H.R. 2, the “Secure the Border Act.”
• Zero dollars to restart widespread DNA testing of family units at the Southwest border, which is vital to eliminating asylum fraud and the cartels’ use of “fake families” to smuggle individuals into the country—often exploiting unaccompanied children in the process.

DETAILS:

What: A House Committee on Homeland Security hearing entitled “A Review of the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request for the Department of Homeland Security.”

When: Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at 10:00 AM ET

Where: 310 Cannon House Office Building

WITNESSES:

The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas
Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security 

Witness testimony will be added here. The hearing will be livestreamed on YouTube and will be open to the public and press. Press must be congressionally credentialed and must RSVP by Monday, April 15 at 6:00 PM ET.

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