Britt questions Mayorkas

On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Alabama) questioned embattled U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on the Biden Administration's Fiscal Year 2025 budget request for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Despite the ongoing border crisis, the Administration's FY25 DHS budget request represents a cut of 2% to DHS' base budget as compared to FY24 levels. Britt said that the small request fails to make the strategic investments to secure the border and keep Americans safe.

Sen. Britt also questioned Secretary Mayorkas about the 1.3 million illegal aliens who currently remain in the United States, despite having been given full due process and final orders of removal.

Secretary Mayorkas agreed with Senator Britt that these individuals should be removed from the country. Secretary Mayorkas additionally expressed that he was "very concerned" about the more than 1.8 million known gotaways who have illegally entered the United States, but evaded apprehension, since President Biden took office. Senator Britt also outlined the alarming number of previously convicted violent criminals who have been released into the nation's interior under President Biden's watch, while stressing the risk to public safety resulting from the current border crisis.

Britt later also referenced the 41,500 ICE detention beds funded by the recently enacted FY24 Appropriations legislation. She asked Secretary Mayorkas if that detention bed funding level should be continued in FY25, and he responded affirmatively, despite the Administration requesting 7,500 fewer detention beds in President Biden's FY25 DHS budget proposal.

"At a time when our country undoubtedly faces a national security and humanitarian crisis of historic proportions at the southern border, this is completely nonsensical," Britt said of the administration's apparent disregard for border security. "Considering that President Biden has proposed increasing the EPA budget by roughly 20%, it clearly shows where this Administration's priorities are. It is clear that this Administration's budget requests in recent years are designed to merely manage the border crisis it created and will not actually solve the problem. Nor will border policy legislation that does not take away President Biden's ability to continue to abuse tools and loopholes that fuel and facilitate the entry of inadmissible aliens into the United States, including his unprecedented abuse of presidential parole authority."

The House of Representatives has impeached Mayorkas; but at this point it seems unlikely that he will be removed from his post by the Democratic Party controlled U.S. Senate.

Katie Britt is the Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations. She was elected to the Senate in 2022.

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