“All I can say is, I don’t know what they have to hide,” Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) told investigative reporter Sara Carter. Babin was referring to the physical blocking of 12 Republican lawmakers from inspecting the El Paso border intelligence center.
“For some reason, we were not allowed in. I can only imagine what is it that they want to hide and not show the very representatives of the American people that have oversight over this facility that fund it and that authorize it. What don’t they want us to see?” added Babin.
The GOP members had been denied access to the facility for weeks, so they just showed up demanding entry.
“This is not something we surprised them with,” Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) said. “We’ve been trying to get in there for a couple of weeks and it’s coming from the top. It’s Coming from the White House. They don’t want us to see what it is. You can make a conjecture about why they won’t let us in there. In my opinion, they have data they are gathering at this intelligence center which clearly indicates that our open borders are actually a more serious than the average American understands right now.”
“In the first five months we’ve seized more than the entire year for those for 2019 and 2020, so that’s concerning for us and that’s all drugs across the board, that is methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine. The only drug is marijuana. We haven’t seized quite that much,” Kyle Williamson, DEA special agent in charge for the El Paso Division, told Fox News.
Meanwhile, Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says “significant changes” are coming to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Those are on top of the changes already ordered by Biden.
After the Biden administration’s attempt to impose a radical 100-day moratorium on deportations was shut down by a judge in response to a Texas lawsuit, the administration issued new guidance dramatically narrowing the illegal immigrants that ICE officers can target for arrest and deportation.
The new rules limit ICE officers to targeting on recent border crossers, national security threats and “aggravated felons.” While officials note that technically no one is ruled out of being deported, ICE officers who want to arrest someone outside of those categories need preapproval from a superior. Separately, DHS has also now barred ICE from making arrests at or near courthouses.
The border patrol personnel are taking their orders from the White House, so there is definitely a political element to the denial of entry to GOP members. But the White House would have a pretty good argument that any leaks of ongoing operations at the border would place our own people and assets in danger. One blabby congressman might lead to a tragedy.
So why didn’t they set up a show-and-tell for congressmen as every other federal agency does? If the congressmen had been asking to see the facility for weeks, why the foot-dragging?
I suspect the border is far more open than has been reported and the Biden administration is trying to limit the political fallout.