Thread by @ReichlinMelnick

This morning @AliMayorkas is appearing in front of the House Homeland Security Committee for the first time as Secretary.

I'll be following along here for the first hour or so! Like the last four years, expect almost everything to be about the border.

homeland.house.gov/activities/hea…

There appears to be a major sound problem with the hearing, and we can't hear a thing from Chairman Thompson as he gives his opening statement. No sound on either the Youtube livestream or the C-Span livestream. Not an auspicious start to things!

Anyway, even though we can't hear Chairman @BennieGThompson give his opening statement, here's a link to the prepared remarks. Still unclear if this is a tech issue or if he just forgot to unmute himself? homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/…

Congressional hearings in the pandemic era!

Alright, we're back, and Chairman Thompson is giving his statement again. But this time we can hear it!

Here's the full statement he's reading out now.

We now move to Rep. Katko, the ranking Republican member of the committee, who begins by wishing everyone a "Happy St. Pattie's Day."

Katko begins by discussing non-immigration aspects of DHS. "I truly believe that cybersecurity is a preeminent threat to national security."

Katko turns to the border and begins with the "crisis" rhetoric we've seen recently, saying he believes "there is just no question" that Biden's policies are causing it.

There's very little evidence of this, of course; the main driver is what smugglers say, not what Biden does.

Katko falsely claims that the border is "open" right now at the time that schools remain closed.

Remember; 72% of all people encountered at the border last month were expelled, and less than 30% of people were allowed in.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1371531232232767491

Katko is now reading out statistics on percent increases in apprehensions at the border in February 2021, claiming that Biden's policies are the main reason for it.

Once again, the increase in apprehensions at the border began spiking in April-May 2020.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1370753546048700417

Katko offers his "solutions" to what's going on, and they include, no surprise, building more walls, going back to Remain in Mexico (which btw only had 5,500 people subject to it from April 2020 to January 2021), and in every way start being harsher and crueler again.

Now we hear Secretary @AliMayorkas's opening statement. He begins by acknowledging the horrific murders of 8 Asian women in Atlanta yesterday and says DHS is working with local law enforcement to support them.

He then pivots to praising the DHS workforce.

Mayorkas makes a point to discuss FEMA's role in the COVID vaccination process first, saying that's the issue top of mind for Americans right now, a tacit rebuke of those who would try to focus all attention on the border. He then moves second to cybersecurity.

Mayorkas moves third to terrorism, noting we're nearing the 20 year anniversary of 9/11 but saying that domestic terrorism is the "most lethal threat" of terrorism that the United States faces today. He says DHS is expanding its efforts to combat domestic extremism.

Finally, Mayorkas moves to the border, acknowledging a "surge" and noting that the vast majority of single adults are expelled and so are families, unless Mexican rejects their expulsions. As for unaccompanied children, Mayorkas emphasizes their vulnerability first.

Mayorkas notes that the Biden administration "ended the practice" of expelling unaccompanied children, "some as young as 12," back to Mexico.

That is not accurate. A federal judge ordered Trump to stop doing it in November, and when Biden took office kids weren't being expelled.

Mayorkas' main theme is "the situation is undoubtedly difficult" but "we will not waver in our commitment to succeed" and "we will not waver in our values." He makes clear that he thinks this is a challenge that the administration will rise to meet, not a time to abandon values.

Chairman @BennieGThompson now begins questioning by asking Mayorkas about what DHS is doing to investigate the events of January 6.

Mayorkas begins by saying that "I was brought to this country" as a child "because of what this Capitol represents."

Thompson now asks "What is the status of children who were separated from their parents at the border?"

Mayorkas says there is "an intense effort, an all-of-government effort directed by President Biden to find the parents and reunite the families."

Mayorkas praises @MichelleBrane, who was recently appointed to lead the Family Reunification Task Force, emphasizes that the whole government is working on this along with NGOs, and says "We have an obligation to find the parents and to reunite the families."

Chairman Thompson asks about vaccine equities, and Mayorkas says that FEMA is using a "social vulnerability index" to ensure that the placement of community vaccination centers addresses the issue of "equity and equality of access to the vaccines."

We now move to questions from @RepJohnKatko, the ranking GOP member of the Committee. He jumps right into the border, talking about his visit to El Paso last week (which was a weird choice to visit because things are much quieter in El Paso than elsewhere along the border).

Katko asks Mayorkas to answer yes or no about whether Biden signed specific executive orders on immigration on his first day, like ending the asylum cooperative agreements. Mayorkas says yes... but he shouldn't have, the ACAs were ended by EO and the EO on ACAs came days later.

Katko just asking Mayorkas to confirm things about numbers that he already mentioned in his opening statement. Very clearly not actually trying to get any meaningful questions in, just basically yes/no questions on widely-reported numbers and policies.

Katko asks Mayorkas to confirm whether a border supplemental might be needed from Congress. Mayorkas says that's *not* necessarily true yet, the financial situation is still unclear, and commits to working with Congress on that in the future.

Katko just comes out and asks Mayorkas whether there's a "crisis at the border."

Mayorkas gives a great response: "I'm not spending any time on the language you use, I'm spending my time on the operational response to the situation at the border."

Now we move to Rep. @JacksonLeeTX18 who begins by saying that "I'm outraged by the shooting in Atlanta," asks what DHS is doing to investigate "what may be domestic terrorism" against Asian-Americans.

Mayorkas says DHS is focused on combatting "domestic violent extremism."

Rep. Lee asks Mayorkas to "succinctly explain" (good luck) the situation at the border.

Mayorkas: "The border is secure, and the border is not open." He emphasizes that most people still being expelled (under the illegal Title 42 process, I'd note) except for unaccompanied kids.

A brief typo correction to this tweet below. Should have said the ACAs "weren't ended" by executive order, not "were ended."

They were technically ended by Secretary of State Blinken following an EO-mandated review of the agreements.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1372191932600946688

Rep. Lee ends by asking about cybersecurity, and Mayorkas again emphasizes that the Department thinks cybersecurity is one of the most important things the Department is working to address going forward.

We now move to @RepMcCaul, who begins by saying that "we've seen this movie before" and notes Obama's claim that there was a crisis in 2014.

He emphasizes his belief that DHS should focus on "deterrence" not messaging that people should come in the future.

Rep McCaul says that Remain in Mexico/MPP was ended by "a stroke of a pen" by Biden on inauguration day, which is also false (like the ACA thing before), because MPP was ended by Acting Secretary Pekoske and Biden's EOs didn't mention it at all.

Rep. McCaul falsely claims that the humanitarian catastrophe of MPP, where thousands of people were subjected to kidnappings, rapes, assaults, and sometimes murders, was a "foreign policy success."

They were disastrous. Horrific. Inhumane. Unamerican. And truly a failure.

Mayorkas responds to McCaul on MPP. "Sometimes, the tools of deterrence defy values and principles for which we stand. And one of those tools of deterrence that the Trump administration employed was deplorable and absolutely unacceptable."

Mayorkas on language: "A crisis is when an administration is willing to rip a 9-year-old child from the arms of his or her parents" with the goal of deterring them from coming.

McCaul says he thinks it was "a blunder" to rescind MPP and asylum cooperative agreements, and says that doing so caused what's happening now.

In reality, the ACAs had been suspended since March 2020, and MPP was only used on 5,500 people since then as well.

Mayorkas says "The bottom line is ... the immigration system is broken."

I really think Mayorkas missed a major opportunity here to forcefully discuss the horrors of MPP, the ways in which it destroyed lives, made a mockery of American values, and enriched the cartels.

Moving now to Rep. @JimLangevin, who pivots back to cybersecurity. Mayorkas discusses the threats posed to critical infrastructure from cyber attacks and says Biden has identified this as a "critical mission" for the Department. "This too, is an all-of-government effort."

Some more technical questions from Rep. Langevin on cybersecurity, and since I don't really know much about this, I'm not going to get into the details. But very clear that all agree a good DHS response here is vital.

Moving now to @RepClayHiggins, who says the hearing so far is "nauseating" to Americans and attacks Mayorkas for reading "carefully prepared statements." So, anyway, a pretty confrontational response immediately. "My colleagues against the aisles not even mentioning the cartels!"

Hilariously, @RepClayHiggins blames the huge numbers of people arriving at the border in 2019 on... Democrats, for winning the House in 2018. He claims Trump shouldn't be blamed.

In Higgins' view everything that happens at the border is Democrats fault no matter who's in charge.

Mayorkas responds diplomatically by saying that despite their differences in views, he looks forward to working.

Higgins now talking about "massive surges of illegals crossing our border" and spreads fear about COVID from migrants.

Mayorkas says people are indeed being tested.

Mayorkas very reasonably offers to explain to @RepClayHiggins in four ways how migrants are being tested for COVID, and Higgins refuses to let him answer (presumably because it'd make him look bad for fearmongering about something that isn't happening)

Higgins trying to get Mayorkas to say that Biden is causing a surge at the border.

Mayorkas refuses to say yes or no immediately and Higgins interrupts and accuses him of being too prepared (that's a bad thing?) and says he'll submit his questions in writing.

Moving now to @RepDonaldPayne, who begins by saying he doesn't like seeing witnesses shouted over, then asks Mayorkas about January 6 and asks if "extremist groups see President Trump as the leader of their movement."

Mayorkas says he won't comment on open investigations.

Continuing on January 6, @RepDonaldPayne asks Mayorkas about ongoing claims from Trump and others that the election was not secure.

Mayorkas responds and very forcefully repeats DHS's repeated rejections of any problems with the election, bringing up Chris Krebs' assessment.

Moving now to @RepMichaelGuest, who begins by claiming that "The American people are deeply disturbed by the crisis at our borders." He repeats the numbers given by Katko earlier and says "This is not a political issue," bringing up Rep. Cuellar's comments earlier this week.

Rep. Guest continues to repeat his claim that there is a crisis, reading off of a letter that 50 GOP members of Congress sent to Biden a few weeks ago. No questions for Secretary Mayorkas so far.

Anyway, unfortunately, I have to stop livetweeting now (other work calls!), so if anyone else is livetweeting the hearing please feel free to comment in response to this and leave a link to your thread!