(The Center Square) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has sued the Biden administration more than a dozen times over border security and immigration issues, expressed his support for Republican-led House committees investigating the Biden administration’s border policies.
Paxton on Tuesday sent a letter to U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comers, chairs of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, respectively, expressing support for their efforts and offering to aid their respective committees’ investigations.
Both committees are holding hearings on border security and immigration issues beginning this week.
On Wednesday, Terrell County, Texas, Judge Dale Carruthers will testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the impact Biden administration policies have had on her tiny west Texas border county. She was one of the first judges to declare an invasion on July 5, 2022. A longtime Democrat, she also switched parties to become a Republican in response to Biden administration policies.
Wednesday’s hearing is the first of two. The second will be in Yuma, Arizona, next month, a committee member staffer told The Center Square. The House Oversight committee’s hearing is scheduled for Feb. 7.
“Over the past two years, the Biden Administration has systematically undermined border security on a scale never before seen in our nation’s history,” Paxton wrote the congressmen. “The resulting influx at our southern border – over 5.5 million border crossings since President Biden implemented his policies on inauguration day – has not only had a devastating impact in Texas, but it has imposed intolerable costs and chaos on communities across the country.”
The letter doesn’t reference the more than 1 million gotaways reported by Border Patrol agents, those who’ve illegally entered the U.S. and evaded capture by law enforcement, or a record number of known terrorists Border Patrol agents have apprehended. Texas has been the hardest hit by Biden administration policies, sharing the largest stretch of the border with Mexico and reporting the greatest number of apprehensions and gotaways of nearly 1.8 million foreign nationals illegally entering Texas in fiscal 2022.
Paxton has sued the administration 15 times over border security and immigration issues. The latest was over the administration’s “illegal” visa parole program.
“Texas – and my office in particular – has served in many ways as the last safeguard against the lawlessness of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Alejandro Mayorkas, Xavier Becerra, and others,” Paxton wrote. “In multiple legal battles, we have successfully slowed or altogether halted the implementation of open-borders policies promoted by the current Administration. However, our national security and the safety of all American citizens will remain at risk until our border is fully secured.”
In a statement accompanying the letter, Paxton said, “There are no words that can fully capture the devastating impact that Biden’s border crisis has had on American citizens – and Texans in particula. An increase in violent crime rates, the deterioration of public health systems, all-time high border crossings and drug overdose deaths, and the empowerment of vile Mexican drug cartels and human traffickers are all direct consequences of this Administration’s decision to abandon virtually every form of border security.”
The Texas attorney general said he hopes Congress will hold the Biden administration accountable and his office will provide whatever assistance it can to help them.
