Amid an “overwhelming” surge of illegal immigration at the southwest border a group of Republican lawmakers on Thursday cautioned the Department of Homeland Security against limiting its contact with Congress before the election.
“[I]t has come to light through information provided to our Committees that the Department may have issued a directive to limit engagement with Congress until immediately before the election,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson. “Any such directive, if issued, would be an unacceptable political ploy and a serious infringement of Congress’ oversight authority under the Constitution.”
“We fully expect that such a directive, if issued, would be immediately rescinded,” they added.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, House Immigration and Border Security Chairman Trey Gowdy, and Senate Immigration and The National Interest Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Sessions signed the letter to Johnson. They are demanding that the administration take “immediate action” to stop the ongoing surge of illegal immigration and brief Congress about its efforts.
“Numerous media reports indicate that this surge is a large-scale effort to enter the United States before this year’s presidential election,” they wrote. “The onslaught of illegal immigration reflects continued efforts by aliens from Central America—El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala—to overwhelm our limited resources at the border, which inevitably results in the release of tens of thousands of removable aliens within the United States.”
It is not just Central Americans seeking entry into the U.S., as the lawmakers detailed. Other foreign nationals, including thousands of Africans and Haitians, are assembling at the border “asserting dubious claims of asylum.”
“This group of ‘Other Than Mexicans’ at the southwest border comprises 70-75 percent of all border crossings,” they wrote.
As the four Republicans detailed, in Fiscal Year 2016, 408,870 illegal immigrants were apprehended at the southern border — 23 percent more than previous fiscal year — and Immigration and Customs Enforcement is currently holding a record 40,000 aliens in detention.
“Without additional funding, ICE likely will release thousands of those detained into the United States, many of whom are criminals, who will abscond and hide from authorities,” they wrote. “We have been made aware through media reports and whistleblowers that ICE faces imminent budgetary shortfalls because the border crisis is driving so many additional foreign nationals into ICE detention.”
Against this backdrop the four Republicans expressed further concern about DHS’ apparent delay in briefing Congress. According to lawmakers, DHS experts were slated to brief their staffs on November 1. However, the agency “abruptly cancelled the scheduled briefing, citing unspecified scheduling conflicts” late in the afternoon on Oct. 31.
“Efforts by our staffs to have the available experts provide a briefing were rejected,” they wrote. “With this pressing issue at hand, it is irresponsible to delay efforts to provide information about the surge as quickly and transparently as possible to Congress.”
They concluded the letter by demanding a staff briefing “on these critical issues this week.”