U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz admitted Wednesday at a special congressional hearing in Texas that the U.S. does not have “operational control” of the southern border, contrary to the Biden administration’s claims.
Ortiz testified before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security during a field hearing in McAllen, Texas. The committee’s Democratic members boycotted the hearing — though Democrats traveled often to McAllen to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy toward illegal migrants in 2018.
The empty seats where Democrats were to have sat were notable during the two-part hearing, which took place at South Texas College and featured both federal and local law enforcement officials as witnesses.
Julio Rosas on Twitter: “To emphasize Democrats’ absence from the border crisis hearing in Texas, seats to Chairman Mark Green’s left where Dems were supposed to sit are empty. pic.twitter.com/lSVaQTsnes / Twitter”
To emphasize Democrats’ absence from the border crisis hearing in Texas, seats to Chairman Mark Green’s left where Dems were supposed to sit are empty. pic.twitter.com/lSVaQTsnes
Committee chair Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) pressed Ortiz on whether the U.S. had “operational control” of the border, as Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas had previously testified before the committee.
Ortiz said, plainly, “No.” He would not, however, state directly that Mayorkas — to whom he reports in the department — had lied to Congress. Later in the hearing, Ortiz also admitted to Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) that five of the nine southwest border sectors were not secure, contradicting claims by President Joe Biden.
While Ortiz said that he did not agree with the idea of building a border wall “from sea to shining sea,” he told Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK) that he disagreed with the Biden administration’s decision to stop building the wall that President Donald Trump had begun, and that it was a mistake to tear down existing wall infrastructure.
