House GOP to hold Oversight hearings on Biden admin 'fueling' human smuggling, border drug cartels

The GOP-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee announced Thursday plans to hold a hearing early next month to investigate the Biden administration's policies that they say have "fueled human smuggling" and drug cartels at the southern U.S. border, factors in the record migration that has reached crisis level.

"President Biden’s radical open borders agenda has ignited the worst border crisis in American history," said committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican.

Record numbers of illegal migrants were encountered at the southern border last fiscal year, and migration is already on track to be significantly higher this year.

"The Biden Administration’s deliberate actions are fueling human smuggling, stimulating drug cartel operations, enabling deadly drugs such as fentanyl to flow into American communities, and encouraging illegal immigrants to flout U.S. immigration laws," Comer also said.

He vowed that Republicans will hold the White House accountable for the crisis, which he said, "has turned every town into a border town."

The hearing will be held the week of Feb. 6.

Comer invited the chief Border Patrol agents from four different southern border sectors to testify. He also requested for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to provide documents about his agency, including "any analysis of the factors contributing to historically low interior enforcement actions and resulting removals."