House GOP presses DHS on border officials cutting razor wire in Texas

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chairman Tom McClintock on Monday wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding that he account for the Biden administration cutting razor wire at the southern border installed by Texas.

Amid an unprecedented surge in illegal border crossings, the Lone Star State has pursued its own efforts to secure the Mexican frontier in the perceived absence of federal assistance on the issue. Those efforts included the installation of a concertina wire fence in Eagle Pass, Texas, a pivotal crossing point. The Biden administration, however, attempted to dismantle the barrier, using bolt cutters and later a forklift to that end. The move, however, prompted a lawsuit from Texas and resulted in a court order barring the administration from dismantling the state's border barriers.

The Republican lawmakers began their letter by highlighting the severity and volume of the migrant arrivals, noting that "[t]he Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released nearly 2.9 million illegal aliens into U.S. communities, and more than 1.7 million known 'gotaways' have evaded Border Patrol and escaped into the interior since January 20, 2021."

"At the same time, the Biden Administration, rather than deterring illegal aliens attempting to cross the southwest border, chose to cut and remove Concertina wire and fencing installed by state and local governments in Eagle Pass, Texas," they continued. "In fact, as encounters continued to surge in Eagle Pass, and while a lawsuit challenging the practice was pending, the Biden Administration 'escalated matters, trading bolt cutters for an industrial-strength telehandler forklift to dismantle Texas’s border fence…'"

The pair specifically demanded that Mayorkas provide them records on the influx of new arrivals at Eagle Pass and their transport into the U.S. interior. Moreover, they asked that DHS provide them with any materials related to the cutting on the Concertina wire fencing and explain whether there existed any administration policy directing them to do so.

They further sought a litany of records related to asylum and parole programs for select Latin American nations and gave Mayorkas a Nov. 20 deadline to provide the materials.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.