Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07), who is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, delivered opening remarks Wednesday during the committee’s full hearing to examine the current crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and how it has “devastated the lives and livelihoods of Americans and migrants alike.”
Chairman @RepMarkGreen: We must address the "tragedy and trauma" caused by the Biden-Mayorkas border crisis.
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— House Homeland GOP (@HomelandGOP) September 13, 2023
During the hearing, Chairman Green noted how it’s “easy to focus on the big picture” of the current border crisis – such as the policies, chaos, and Border Patrol apprehensions taking place – however, added, “these larger discussions often overlook the devastating human toll this crisis has taken on individuals and families across the country.”
“We’ve long said that this crisis has turned every state into a border state and every town into a border town. The consequences of the chaos at the Southwest border have spread throughout our country, impacting all Americans,” Green added. “The men and women of our panel bear witness to this tragic reality.”
Green detailed how fentanyl and drug overdoses, the exploitation and abuse of migrants by cartels, and the separation of families at the border have “created an environment in which [border patrol] agents face untold trauma, anxiety, and depression.”
“Those three words—trauma, anxiety, and depression—were words used by the wife of a Border Patrol agent earlier this year when telling us what agents experience today. They deserve so much better,” Green said.
Green also discussed crimes committed by migrants who cross the border illegally and noted that even “numerous Democrat state and local leaders have had enough.”
“I hope we inform the president and perhaps he will fire Mayorkas and replace him with someone who at least cares enough to understand the cartels’ strategies,” Green added. “Secretary Mayorkas admitted he did not, as you will recall. Holding this administration accountable for causing this humanitarian disaster is not a waste of time.”
“This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. We must deal with the human costs of this terrible crisis. And we must do so now,” Green concluded.
Wednesday’s hearing, entitled “An Unbearable Price: The Devastating Human Costs of the Biden-Mayorkas Border Crisis,” is phase three of the Committee’s five-phase investigation into the crisis at the border and Mayorkas’ “failure to do his duty to defend the homeland.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
