Comer calls on border officials to testify on Biden policies ‘fueling’ migrant crisis

The House Oversight Committee announced it will hold a border crisis hearing in early February to address President Biden’s policies that are ‘fueling’ the migrant crisis.

Oversight Republicans are calling on a handful of Biden administration career officials to testify, including Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agents Jason Owens, Gregory Bovino and Gloria Chavez and Acting Chief Border Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel.

‘President Biden’s radical open borders agenda has ignited the worst border crisis in American history,’ Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital.

‘The Biden administration’s deliberate actions are fueling human smuggling, stimulating drug cartel operations, enabling deadly drugs such as fentanyl to flow into American communities, and encouraging illegal immigrants to flout U.S. immigration laws,’ he said. ‘Republicans will hold the Biden administration accountable for this ongoing humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis that has turned every town into a border town.’

Comer also sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding documents and communications related to the surge at the border and the administration’s handling of the massive influx of migrants.

‘The American people deserve answers about the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) role in undermining Customs and Border Protection agents’ efforts to secure the southern border,’ Comer wrote to Mayorkas.

‘The Committee requests documents and information to understand DHS’s policies, the costs of the emergency measures needed to respond to the worsening crisis, and the national security risks created by these policies,’ the letter said.

‘Instead of working to resolve the situation, the Biden administration is lying to the American people that the border is secure – despite thousands of illegal aliens and massive quantities of deadly fentanyl evading apprehension every day – and persisting in its ultimate goal to enact a massive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens,’ Comer wrote.

A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘DHS will respond to Members of Congress through official channels.’

There were more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in FY 2022 and the first months of FY23 have outpaced the same time period from the prior year. Customs and Border Protection sources told Fox News this week that encounters for December are set to exceed 250,000, a new record.

The first House Judiciary Committee hearing of the 118th Congress will also be border related and is likely to happen at the end of January or beginning of February, according to a congressional source.

Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.