Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday that his own Border Patrol chief got it wrong when he told Congress that the border was not secure.
Mr. Mayorkas, facing yet another grilling on Capitol Hill, said he believes the border is secure.
“It is my testimony that the border is secure and we are working every day, day and night, to increase security,” he said.
Last month Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said the opposite, testifying that five of the nine sectors along the southern boundary were not secure, and neither was one sector of the northern border.
Asked by Rep. August Pfluger, Texas Republican, whether he disagreed with his top border expert, Mr. Mayorkas said he did.
“I respectfully do in that regard,” he said.
At the time of Chief Ortiz’s testimony, Homeland Security had insisted that there was no daylight between the two men.
But under repeated questioning in the House Homeland Security Committee, Mr. Mayorkas admitted he doesn’t agree with Chief Ortiz.
The secretary’s insistence that the border is secure despite record levels of illegal immigrant encounters, record levels of fentanyl and record numbers of terrorism suspects has spurred calls for Mr. Mayorkas to step down.
Rep. Clay Higgins, Louisiana Republican, suggested there were “graveyards filled from sea to shining sea with the bodies” attributable to the fentanyl that has been trafficked across the border in the last year years.
“You’ve brought generational trauma upon our country,” he said. “I believe history will witness your era of service as a transitional time in our country. What was America like before Secretary Mayorkas and what was America like after him? It’s stunning that you could sit there and smugly grin as if you’ve not miserably failed your country.”
Mr. Mayorkas declined to respond to that.
Committee Chairman Mark Green, Tennessee Republican, accused Mr. Mayorkas of having “lied” under oath when he told Congress last year that the border was secure, even under the exacting definition of the Secure Fence Act, which requires the ability to detect and deter all illegal entries.
By contrast, last month Mr. Mayorkas admitted to Congress that no administration has ever met the definition.
“That sounds like a lie under oath,” Mr. Green told the secretary.
Mr. Green also called Mr. Mayorkas “incompetent.”
Mr. Mayorkas said he wasn’t given a chance to explain himself in the 2022 testimony about operational control of the border. He said under his definition, which measures commitment and effort rather than outcomes, the border is secure.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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