‘House Democrats should start listening to their own party’s concerns instead of attempting to keep on distracting from what everyone realizes is a catastrophic failure.’

January 30, 2024

[The following Statement and Fact Sheet were published earlier today by the Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives]

BACKGROUND: This afternoon, House Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Committee on Homeland Security Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, will yet again try to distract members of the press and the public from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ refusal to comply with the laws passed by Congress and his breach of the public trust.

They will not and cannot deny the central charges of the articles of impeachment released yesterday by the Committee, but instead will no doubt repeat the same tired and debunked talking points we’ve heard for months now—including those recently awarded 3 Pinocchios by the Washington Post. 

The facts are clear—Americans are suffering from the worst border crisis in our history.

And increasingly, Democrats across the country are growing tired of it.

Perhaps House Democrats should start listening to their own party’s concerns instead of attempting to keep distracting from what everyone realizes is a catastrophic failure at our borders.

Below are numerous examples of Democrats at various levels of government blasting the ongoing crisis.

“WE HAVE REACHED A BREAKING POINT” – DEMOCRATS ON THE RECORD:

• “There is a crisis. We have a crisis at our border, and it can’t be controversial that we should have a secure border.” – Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, January 2024
• “Do we have a crisis at the border? Yes.” – Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, Jan. 3, 2024
• “The problem has been foisted on the city of New York, the state of New York, and other states by the federal government because they failed to address this issue for such a long period of time…It is just reaching epic proportions now…” – Former New York Rep. Tom Souzzi, Jan. 2, 2024
• “We’re hitting a breaking point…we cannot support this volume [of migrants]” – Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, Jan. 2, 2024
• “We need to raise the credible fear standard at the border, and we need to have expedited hearings, and we need to have expedited removals, and we need to enforce American immigration laws in a humane way… But we do need to enforce American immigration laws at the border…Simply said, we need to enforce our laws. We need to scrutinize asylum-seekers further.” – Texas Rep. Vincente Gonzalez, Dec. 28, 2023
• “For many months, we were able to keep the visualization of this crisis from hitting our streets, but we have reached a breaking point and can no longer do that.” – New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Dec. 27, 2023
• “It’s the entire country that is now at stake.” – Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Dec. 27, 2023
• “This is an unsustainable crisis that is manmade. … This is not sustainable. … This should not be happening to the city of New York.” – Mayor Adams, Nov. 1, 2023
• “Obviously the border is not secure and I’ve been saying this for many years.” – Rep. Cuellar, Sept. 27, 2023
• “The city of El Paso only has so many resources and we have come to…a breaking point right now.” – El Paso, Texas Mayor Oscar Leeser, Sept. 24, 2023
• “You’ve got to have a policy where you actually return people back. You’ve got to do that. Otherwise, people are going to keep coming. If you don’t detain people, if you don’t send people back, then the border becomes a speedbump.” – Rep. Cuellar, Sept. 22, 2023
• “It is disappointing to see all these people coming in without a consequence…it is very disheartening to see this happening…Whoever says there is not a crisis going on…that is 100% not true.” – Eagle Pass, Texas Mayor Rolando Salinas, Sept. 22, 2023
• “Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this. I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City.” – Mayor Adams, Sept. 6, 2023
• “This crisis originated with the federal government and must be resolved by the federal government.” – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Aug. 24, 2023
• “And truly, we are here in the city in the midst of a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions…” – Gov. Hochul, August 16, 2023
• “The cartels are incredibly well-resourced and they’re very strategic, so they’re pushing people through different parts of the border at different times with different prices for different purposes, and they’re controlling what’s happening on the southern border, not the United States government.” – Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I), May 11, 2023
• “The growing number of migrants arriving daily in El Paso has overwhelmed our federal workforce and shelter system and has strained our local governments.” – Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar, May 8, 2023
• “The city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis.” – Mayor Adams, April 21, 2023
• The mayor of San Luis says the steady flow of undocumented immigrants is putting a strain on the city’s emergency services: “We only have three ambulances, and we depend on help from Somerton and the Cocopah Tribe, they have two.” – San Luis, Arizona Mayor Nieves Riedel, Dec. 21, 2022
• “The fire chief recently told us that three of his five ambulances are used solely for transporting migrants in need, leaving only two ambulances for the entire local community on any given night.” – Sen. Sinema, Dec. 21, 2022
• “Although the vast majority of undocumented immigrants who come to the United States are decent people, this situation is ripe for terrorists and criminals to simply walk across our border and do harm to our citizens.” – Former El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles, Sept. 15, 2022 ###