House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) issued a subpoena on Friday to Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for failing to provide documents and information pertaining to criminal aliens who were either released into the U.S. or crossed the southern border illegally.
In a letter dated Friday, Jordan asked Mayorkas to hand over 14 alien files, or A-files — an urgent request that has largely been left unanswered for months. The immigrants in question have been charged with various crimes such as theft, assault, murder, and terrorism-related offenses after entering the U.S., according to the committee chairman.
“The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of the Biden Administration’s lax enforcement of federal immigration law, which has resulted in the mass catch-and-release of illegal aliens encountered along the southwest border,” Jordan wrote. “We have asked for alien files (A-files) and related immigration case information for several aliens allowed entry by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who went on to commit heinous criminal acts while in the United States and for aliens who otherwise entered the U.S. illegally.”
“Your response without compulsory process has, to date, been woefully inadequate,” he added.
The congressional panel initially requested the 14 files in May and has followed up numerous times to no avail. Incomplete summaries for two of the documents were received, while the rest were not mentioned by the DHS. The deadline for compliance has since passed, leading the Ohio congressman to dole out a subpoena to the DHS chief.
Mayorkas must produce the documents to Jordan and the House Judiciary by January 8.
This is one of many inquiries in the House GOP’s oversight into the Biden administration’s ineffective handling of the border crisis. In conjunction with the reiterated request, Representatives Tom McClintock (R., Calif.) and Ben Cline (R., Va.), as well as Jordan, followed up with Mayorkas on documents and information related to a mass influx of illegal aliens in Eagle Pass, Texas, where border authorities encountered about 11,000 illegals on September 20. That day was described as the “single highest day in recent memory” in migrant encounters at the southern border, according to a second letter.
The three House Republicans also inquired about reports of DHS officials cutting and removing razor fencing, or concertina wire, outside of Eagle Pass along the U.S.–Mexico border. Texas installed the wire as part of its 2021 border-security initiative, Operation Lone Star, which seeks to deter migrant crossings and divert the flow of illegal immigration toward state-recognized ports of entry. Last week, a federal judge rejected Texas’s request to bar the DHS and Customs and Border Protection from cutting the wire. Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly appealed the ruling, which led to an appeals court temporarily pausing the decision earlier this week.
Both requests in the second letter were not answered adequately, either. Mayorkas has until December 22 to provide that batch of information.