(Border Report) — Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee will hold a field hearing on border security Thursday afternoon at Yuma City Hall.
According to the committee’s website, the hearing titled “The Biden Border Crisis: Part II,” will examine the Department of Homeland Security’s operations at the southwest border.
Committee members will hear testimony about the effects of illegal immigration on the Yuma community.
The witnesses expected to testify are Jonathan Lines, Yuma County Supervisor District 2; Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot; and Dr. Robert Trenschel, president and CEO of Yuma Regional Medical Center.
On Thursday morning, committee members visited the Yuma Community Food Bank to discuss the impact that illegal immigration has on community resources.
The committee will hold a hearing at 2 p.m. MST.
Earlier this month, 18 members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, including three Democrats, took part in the joint field hearing of the Health Subcommittee, and the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee in Weslaco, Texas.
The nearly three-hour hearing primarily focused on fentanyl coming across the U.S.-Mexico. Republican members repeatedly tied the illegal drugs to illegal immigration, which drew the ire of the three Democrats, a civil rights advocate who testified, and the local congressman who is not a member of the committee and wasn’t invited.
The House Committee on Oversight held a hearing on border security, and two Border Patrol sector chiefs testified on Feb. 7 in Washington.
Last week, a GOP delegation led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy visited the Arizona-Mexico border before blaming the Biden administration for not doing enough to prevent fentanyl smuggling that claims thousands of Americans every year.
Last Friday, the Democratic leader of the House toured the South Texas border for the first time and “dared” Republicans to come up with “real solutions” to immigration reform rather than political attention.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he was “enlightened” by his first trip to the border, and he invited his colleagues in Washington, D.C., to make the effort and also take a trip to see the U.S. border with Mexico for themselves.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego on Feb. 2 testified before the House Judiciary Committee about El Paso’s strategies for handling the influx of migrants along the border in the past months.
The hearing was called “Biden’s Border Crisis-Part One,” which was to examine border security, national security, and the impact of fentanyl on Americans.
Samaniego was invited by U.S. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, to testify at the hearing.
U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tennessee, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, will lead new and returning members on a “border boot camp” on Friday in El Paso. Lawmakers will get a firsthand look at and be briefed on the daily operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, and Texas State law enforcement partners “during President Biden’s current border crisis,” the committee website says.
According to Fox News, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold its first field hearing on the “border crisis” on March 15 in McAllen, Texas.
