Florida Congressman Demands DHS Allow Senior Border Patrols Officials to Testify Before Congress

Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) (R) speaks as House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) listens during McCarthy’s weekly news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on May 20, 2021. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

A Florida Republican congressman urged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to allow senior border patrols officials to testify before Congress.

Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, urging him to reconsider allowing four senior border officials to testify before Congress over the migrant crisis after they were denied permission, reported a Fox News Digital exclusive.

Since President Joe Biden took office, the United States is facing the largest incursion of illegal aliens in history, as millions cross the Mexico-U.S. border with almost no opposition from federal authorities.

“As a member of the Committee on Homeland Security and chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, my priority is protecting the safety and territorial integrity of our truly exceptional country,” wrote Giménez, a former mayor of Miami-Dade County, who is now representing his state in the House of Representatives.

“Over the past two years, the American people have witnessed the largest migratory and border crisis in recent memory. Over five million people have crossed the border, including several dozen on the Terrorist Watch List. The ongoing crisis endangers American citizens and migrants alike.”

“This crisis is absolutely unsustainable and is a direct result of the failed open-border policies [the Biden Administration] has pursued,” Giménez added.

DHS Secretary Meets With GOP Florida Congressional Delegation

The DHS secretary met with the South Florida congressional delegation on Jan. 29 to discuss the department’s parole process for migrants after President Biden targeted the expiration of Title 42, a public health order signed by former president Donald Trump that allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants to stop the spread of COVID-19. However, the U.S. Supreme Court put a hold on Title 42 and remains subject for review.

Giménez wrote to Mayorkas following their special meeting in Miami, which included his colleagues, Reps. Maria Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida.

It was the first time that the DHS secretary has held an in-person meeting with Republican congressmen over the crisis, according to Fox News.

Mayorkas was not able to answer basic questions posed during the meeting by the House representatives, such as questions regarding the current number of illegal migrants residing in the United States, reported Fox News Digital.

The Florida congressman told Mayorkas in his letter that the American people were “horrified” for denying chief patrol agents Jason Owens, Gregory Bovino, Gloria Chavez, and Patricia McGurk-Daniel “the right to testify at a congressional hearing about how U.S. Border Patrol agents are managing the crisis and the impact of the crisis on their mission to secure the border.”

“I urge you to reconsider this decision and allow your chief patrol agents and honorable law enforcement officers the right to share their experiences with the American people,” Giménez continued.

He said that it was important for the American people to hear directly from these officials “on the protocols in place, processes, and the actual day-to-day enforcement priorities from those on the ground, protecting our country.”

Illegals Crossing Border, Republicans Launch Lawsuits

The Biden administration attempted to end Title 42 last year, but was blocked by a federal judge in response to a lawsuit led by Republican lawmakers.

The White House is facing a different lawsuit calling for the expulsions to stop, calling the order unlawful and is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is likely to be ruled on later this year.

Meanwhile, 20 states have sued the Biden administration after the White House unveiled a new parole program for foreign migrants.

The lawsuit, filed by Texas and America First Legal in the Southern District of Texas, was joined by 19 additional states seeking to block the parole program.

Biden created the program back in October 2022, which allowed for a limited number of migrants Venezuelans to fly directly into the country as long as they had not entered illegally, had a U.S.-based sponsor, and passed certain security checks.

However, the White House vastly expanded the program in early January to include Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Cubans, and increased incoming numbers by 30,000 a month, alongside an expansion of Title 42 expulsions to include those nationalities.

Biden’s importation program allows the foreign aliens to receive work permits and a two-year authorization to live in the United States.

Attorneys for the 20 states argued that the program was illegal given the “exceptionally limited” parole power available to the federal government, noting that it would allow the entry of up to 360,000 migrants into the United States every year.

The lawsuit focuses on the limits placed on parole by Congress, which restricts the use of federal authority to a “case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” a standard which the plaintiffs have argued has not been met.

“The parole program established by the department fails each of the law’s three limiting factors. It is not case-by-case, is not for urgent humanitarian reasons, and advances no significant public benefit. Instead, it amounts to the creation of a new visa program that allows hundreds of thousands of aliens to enter the United States who otherwise have no basis for doing so. This flouts, rather than follows, the clear limits imposed by Congress,” wrote the plaintiffs.

GOP Accuses DHS of Violating Federal Law to Encourage Migrant Wave

The lawsuit also said that DHS violated the standards set by the Administrative Procedure Act, which has led to a number of Biden administration immigration policies being temporality struck down in recent years.

The states argue that they “face substantial irreparable harms from the department’s abuse of its parole authority, which allow potentially hundreds of thousands of additional aliens to enter each of their already overwhelmed territories,” and that they face additional costs for health care, education and other social services.

An additional lawsuit filed by Republican lawmakers to end the Biden administration’s limits on interior immigration enforcement.

Texan legislators are also taking action by introducing a bill earlier this month that would keep Title 42 in place at the state level until the Biden administration ended its nationwide emergency over the pandemic, including related public health mandates and travel warnings, reported Fox News.