Mayorkas Turns a Blind Eye to the Bad Optics in El Paso
Migrants are entering El Paso, Texas, at a crushing rate of 2,500 a day, but Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas managed to miss them during his visit to the beleaguered border city this week.
The surge of illegal aliens is spilling onto the streets of El Paso, taxing already strained social services. Frustrated city officials report that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is releasing migrants into the community en masse.
But Mayorkas didn’t witness any of this for himself. In a tightly choreographed stop on Tuesday, the secretary met with Border Patrol agents at headquarters but did not tour any CBP processing centers, and he skirted around streets and alleys where migrants are dumped.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, wasn’t impressed with Mayorkas’ myopic itinerary, or the Biden administration’s approach generally.
“I don’t know why they keep avoiding the border and saying there’s other things more important than investing in the border. If there is a crisis — show up. Just show up.”
As matters stand, El Paso, like countless other border towns, is in crisis and paying a heavy price. The city has expended $9.5 million assisting illegal aliens this year. One of the big-ticket items is a charter bus program that transported nearly 12,000 of them up to New York and Chicago.
Reimbursements from Washington have amounted to dimes on El Paso’s dollars while mounting local costs for law enforcement, schools and sundry social services run the tab still higher.
During a congressional hearing in April, Mayorkas assured Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, that the U.S. had “operational control” of the southern border. The secretary hasn’t walked back that risible assertion. After all, the view was just fine as he jetted out of El Paso to his customary cruising altitude of 30,000 feet.
This article was originally published by FAIR.
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