House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has demanded Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas secure the northern border following reports of an 846 percent increase since October and more illegal crossings in January than the previous 12 Januarys.
Speaking outside the Capitol Building on Tuesday as cochair of the northern border caucus, Stefanik slammed the Biden administration for not securing the southern border, which she says has impacted the nation’s ability to defend the northern border.
“There have been forced no-notice Border Patrol deployments over and over again to our Southern Border to try to address the surge of illegal crossings on our Southern Border,” Stefanik said. “That has left the Northern Border without the personnel, without the border patrol that we need.”
According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Swanton border sector in New York state, which is in Stefanik’s district, has been overrun by an approximate 846 percent increase in encounters and apprehensions from October 1 to January 31, compared to the same period in fiscal year (FY) 2022. Moreover, approximately 300,000 illegal migrants have slipped past U.S. border patrol and into the interior since the beginning of fiscal 2023.
Stefanik explained her office has had contact with many families along the northern border who are documenting the invasion through their own properties. “In just the first four months of this fiscal year, illegal encounters in the Swanton Sector, which includes six counties in my district, increased by over 800 percent,” she said.
Stefanik sent a letter to Mayorkas on Tuesday asking for a “full account of what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will do to mitigate the flow of illegal migrants and illicit drugs into the U.S. across our Northern Border.”
“This recent influx is… yet another troubling example of your failure to protect and secure the homeland,” she said.
The challenges for Mayorkas on both the northern and southern border come as some Republicans have demanded he be impeached, citing “high crimes and misdemeanors” for failing to secure the border.
“Every day Secretary Mayorkas remains in office America becomes less safe,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AR) said in a statement. “Secretary Mayorkas is the chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border.”
“His policies have incentivized more than 5 million illegal aliens to show up at our southern border — an all-time figure. Instead of enforcing the laws on the books and deporting or detaining these illegal aliens, the vast majority of them are released into the interior and never heard from again.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
