FIRST ON FOX: A prime Home committee is doubling down on its efforts to get paperwork from the Biden administration about Vice President Kamala Harris’ position in what lawmakers name “the worst border disaster in American historical past.”
Home Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., wrote to appearing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Troy Miller following up on a request final month for paperwork and communications between Harris’ workplace and CBP.
“It will be important the Committee and the American folks perceive Vice President Harris’s position because the border czar within the ongoing border disaster,” Comer mentioned within the letter obtained by Fox Information Digital.
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Rep. James Comer speaks throughout a information convention on the U.S. Capitol Guests Middle on April 30, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs)
“The mass unlawful entry and launch of illegal aliens into the US underneath the Biden-Harris Administration has contributed to murders, sexual assaults, and severe bodily accidents dedicated towards quite a few People by the hands of unlawful aliens. These crimes ought to have by no means occurred.”
The letter notes numerous crimes extra just lately dedicated allegedly by unlawful immigrants, together with one by an MS-13 gang member and a rape in New York City, allegedly by two migrants.
Comer says the committee set an Aug 20., deadline, reiterating the request on Aug. 20 and Sept. 6. It now units a deadline of Oct. 1 and Comer threatens extra motion if the request is just not met.
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“If CBP continues to withhold paperwork and communications on this matter, the Committee will contemplate various measures to acquire this data, together with by way of the obligatory course of,” he says.
The combat over the paperwork comes amid an ongoing debate about who’s liable for the border disaster and which presidential candidate is greatest suited to repair it. Republicans have blamed the disaster on the insurance policies of the Biden-Harris administration, saying that the historic three-year disaster got here as a direct results of the rolling again of Trump-era insurance policies and the implementation of what they are saying are “open borders” insurance policies by the administration.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on the Congressional Black Caucus Foundations Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C., Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Picture/Mark Schiefelbein)
They’ve targeted on Harris as a result of her position tackling “root causes” of migration, which she was given in 2021. It led to her being dubbed the “border czar,” however it’s a title the White Home rejected.
The Biden administration has argued it’s coping with a historic hemisphere-wide disaster that wants extra funding and immigration reform from Congress to repair a “damaged” system. It has pointed to a pointy lower in numbers since Biden signed an government order limiting arrivals in June.
Officers say there was a greater than 50% decrease in encounters since then, together with August encounters that had been 68% decrease than August 2023.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
Harris, in the meantime, has been crucial of former President Trump for not supporting bipartisan laws launched earlier this yr that conservatives mentioned would regularize excessive numbers, however supporters mentioned would enhance funding to the border and restrict entries into the U.S.
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“Final yr, Joe and I introduced collectively Democrats and conservative Republicans to put in writing the strongest border invoice in many years. The Border Patrol endorsed it. However Donald Trump believes a border deal would harm his marketing campaign, so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal. Effectively, I refuse to play politics with our safety, and right here is my pledge to you: As president, I’ll deliver again the bipartisan border safety invoice that he killed, and I’ll signal it into legislation,” she mentioned on the Democratic Nationwide Conference final month.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the vice chairman mentioned Republicans “proceed to dam a bipartisan border safety invoice supported by the Biden-Harris Administration and a bipartisan group of Senators.”
“This Administration has delivered report border safety funding, and continues to combat to make sure the border is correctly resourced, together with by deploying cutting-edge fentanyl-detection machines. The Administration’s government actions have introduced unauthorized crossings to a decrease degree than when Trump left workplace,” spokesperson Ernesto Apreza informed Fox Information Digital. “President Biden and Vice President Harris are main on border safety options whereas congressional Republicans proceed to use the difficulty to attain political factors.”
