Joint Field Hearing & Border Tour Wrap Up: Biden Border Crisis Creating Rampant Criminal Activity in Communities Across the U.S.

WASHINGTON—The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance traveled to the Tucson sector of the U.S. southern border to hold a joint field hearing titled, “Biden’s Border Crisis and its Effect on American Communities.” At the joint field hearing, members from both subcommittees learned from local law enforcement, a subject matter expert, and a local rancher how failed policies from the Biden Administration have caused a national security and humanitarian catastrophe along our southwest border and harmed communities both locally and across the country. During the visit to the Tucson sector, members saw firsthand how local law enforcement is overworked, underfunded, and under siege from a wave of illegal immigration, crime, and narcotics.

Border Trip Highlights:

On Monday, Oversight and Judiciary subcommittee members were briefed by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) on the oversight work done by the IG’s office, including criminal investigations that caught a corrupt Border Patrol agent turned drug smuggler, and audits and inspections that have revealed faults in DHS’s border security efforts and failures of strategic planning.

their community. They also discussed unique initiatives spearheaded by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office to enhance public safety in the county and beyond.

Following the briefing, the Cochise County Sheriff’s office took members to sections of the border wall where pallets of materials already paid for by U.S. taxpayers lay rusting after construction was halted under the Biden Administration. In addition, members saw areas along the wall where dates are marked showing the number of times smugglers have cut through the wall.

Joint Field Hearing Takeaways:

The Biden Administration’s border crisis is the worst in American history with record encounters of illegal border crossers—many of whom are released into the interior of the United States through “catch and release” policies.

• Andrew Arthur—Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies—testified that the Biden Administration is ignoring the law: “The Biden Administration has made a choice at the southwest border to ignore the laws Congress has written. And the only ones benefitting are the smugglers and the cartels. By any definition, that’s a bad choice and a worse deal for the American people and the rule of law.”

Counter to what the Biden Administration insists, encounters at the southern border remain at critical levels, particularly in the Tucson Sector where encounters are increasing, actively harming local communities. In addition, thousands of inadmissible aliens are being funneled through the Ports of Entry (POEs) using unlawful categorical parole programs.

• Mark Dannels—Cochise County Sheriff—spoke firsthand on how his sheriffs often encounter border crossers who will do anything not to be caught, including endangering the lives of law enforcement officers and locals: “My citizens and law enforcement address mostly gotaways ‘fight or flight’ in my county verses those giving up. One hundred percent camouflaged migrants being illegally smuggled by cartels. These smugglers include juveniles being recruited on social media by the criminal cartels. Border-related crime is at an all-time high: death and murder investigations, aggravated acts against my citizens, and assaults against law enforcement officers. My deputies and law enforcement continue to be placed in life threatening scenarios as the cartels show no regard for my citizens and those that wear a badge.”

The Biden border crisis is overwhelming communities across the country, leading several jurisdictions to declare states of emergency as agents who patrol the border are stretched too thin with not enough resources to keep up with the surge of illicit activity.

• John W. Ladd—a local Rancher in Cochise County—described firsthand the impact that cartel activity has had on his property and livelihood: “The impact on me is that I’m on call 24 hours a day because of cut fences and damaged water lines. The lack of Border Patrol has contributed to an open border with illegal aliens coming at will. This has put a strain on our sheriff’s department’s manpower which has resulted in lack of our home security, high speed chases on the highway as well as increased crime on our ranch as well as the surrounding community.”

Joint Field Hearing Member Highlights:

Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) discussed the increase in violent crimes on the southern border.

Rep. Grothman: “Given the severity of the crimes that you’re describing now, have things changed over the last five years? Can you tell me how you view the world today versus if we had this hearing five years ago?”

Sheriff Dannels: “Four years ago I was bragging during presentations around the country to include my own state and my own community that we had collectively made Cochise County one of the safest places on the southwest border. The cartels did not want to play in our backyard because we were ready for them collectively. I can’t say that honestly to my citizens today or those when I present. We’ve seen what I call the ‘new normal’ of the border. And that is the fact that crime is rampant as a result of the border, crime all the way up to murder and we’ve lost citizens in this county.”

House Committee on Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance Chairman Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) discussed how word has spread around the world that the border is open. He also discussed the monetary cost that citizens face from illegal crossings.

Rep. Biggs: “Just quickly, the number of nations represented in the cohort of people illegally entering the country this year?”

Mr. Arthur: “Pretty much every nation on the face of the earth. You’ll hear numbers running from 150 to 186 different nationalities. We’ve gotten people from Nepal to Nigeria down to Nicaragua…the door is wide open to anybody in the world to come here.”

Rep. Biggs: “And Sheriff Dannels, what is the dollar amount that you have had to incur to incarcerate criminal illegal aliens?”

Sheriff Dannels: “We have a captain from the Sheriff’s office that addresses all of our grant and special programs to include this billing and oversight, he told me just this week that we put a bill in the last 18 month of over $6 million dollars for border related incarceration costs.”

Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) discussed how the Biden Administration removed deterrents, which incentives illegal immigration along the southern border.

Rep. Timmons: “Mr. Arthur my question to you is why? Why has the Biden Administration done this? It’s very clear what has caused this, it’s clear that we have a problem, why have they done this?”

Mr. Arthur: “Congressman, that’s probably the biggest question that I get and I don’t know because they don’t say. [The Biden Administration] pits this as a ‘Trump was bad, Trump did this, we’re going to be good’…The Biden Administration has removed all deterrents for individuals entering the United States illegally. No Presidency in history has ever done that.”

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) discussed how the Biden Administration has shown no desire to engage with local law enforcement leaders to solve the crisis ongoing at the southern border.

Rep. Edwards: “Sheriff, have you met with President Biden and discussed your concerns?”

Sheriff Dannels: “We have attempted, on behalf of National Sheriffs, Western Sheriffs, Major County Sheriffs, and Southwest Border Sheriffs, I was told during a recent summit in Cochise County and beyond as Sheriffs came together to find reasonable and balanced methods to secure our border and secure our communities we represent. I was told that President Biden is the first President in history to not meet with one of America’s Sheriffs.”

Rep. Edwards: “So to your knowledge, President Biden has not met with one Sheriff in America to talk about border security?” 

Sheriff Dannels: “I just got back from another meeting in Florida with Sheriffs and to the best of my knowledge, he still has not met with any Sheriff in America.”

Rep. Edwards: “Has anyone in the Administration given you any encouragement or told you that they were behind the Sheriffs in America to partner with dealing with this crisis?”

Sheriff Dannels: “To answer that question Congressman, the answer is no.”

Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), who represents Sierra Vista, Arizona, discussed the methods that cartels are using to recruit people, many of whom are U.S. citizens, to come to the border and run narcotics, weapons, and people across the border.

Rep. Ciscomani: “Sheriff, could you please speak to the tactics that you’re seeing that the cartels use now to recruit young people?”

Sheriff Dannels: “The biggest tactic, and it’s no secret, is social media. Teenagers today spend a lot of time on social media, we know that it’s no secret, and that’s why we see children from the ages of 13 to 17 and then we’ve had them all way up to 72 years of age, coming from all over the country [to the border to drive migrants into the U.S.] and you look at almost 2300 as stated earlier in my opening statement only 131 were foreign born or illegally in the country. The rest were all U.S. citizens coming from Florida to Chicago…the bottom line is this is long as social media fails to govern that and control that, when you can buy fentanyl off social media for 10 bucks a pill and it gets delivered at your house, that that’s a social media drug dealer. There’s no other way to put it.”

CLICK HERE to watch the hearing.