Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., lambasted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a Senate hearing Thursday, highlighting Americans killed as a direct result of the administration's open borders policies.
Hawley began by pressing Mayorkas about the case of Jose Ibarra, who was arrested in February and charged with felonies related to the murder of Laken Hope Riley.
“You know what he did?” Hawley asked.
“I know what he's accused of doing,” the secretary responded.
“And that wasn't the first crime that he committed in this country, was it?” Hawley questioned.
Mayorkas cited the ongoing criminal investigation related to Ibarra's alleged crime as his reason not to comment. Hawley went on to ask Mayorkas whether the Homeland Security secretary had read Ibarra's parole file.
“I do not want to speak to the particulars of the case,” Mayorkas said.
“It looks like to me, you just don't want to answer the question,” Hawley replied. The Missouri senator brought up the secretary's answers to the same question asked in a House hearing earlier this week. “You were asked the same question,” Hawley said. “'Jose Ibarra, why was he paroled?' You said, 'I don't know!'” After recounting the DHS chief's previous non-answers to lawmakers regarding the Ibarra case, Hawley outlined details from the suspect's parole file.
“Now we do have the parole file, and now we all know that the reason he was paroled into this country was because lack of detention capacity, which, as you and I both know, is not a valid reason under the statute,” Hawley said. “And now that we know that for sure … you don't want to talk about it. This is extraordinary. It's also a pattern with you.”
Hawley accused Mayorkas of lying to Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., in earlier testimony this month when lawmakers asked why Ibarra was given parole. Mayorkas told Britt there was no “derogatory information” known to federal law enforcement to warrant detention and claimed this week in a House hearing that parole was applied legally. Hawley clarified the circumstances surrounding Ibarra's case with the Homeland Security secretary Thursday, however, emphasizing that Ibarra was paroled into the country because of lack of detention space, despite having a criminal arrest record.
On Sept. 8, Hawley said, “[Ibarra] was encountered by United States Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, and was paroled into the United States due to lack of detention capacity. … You and I both know you know this. You knew it when you were talking to Congressman Bishop. You knew it when you were testifying to Sen. Britt.”
Hawley went on to highlight another American killed under this administration's border negligence. Travis Wolfe was 12 when he died after a head-on collision with an illegal immigrant from Venezuela named Endrina Bracho, who was driving double the speed limit in the wrong direction.
“Local law enforcement tell me that she was detained briefly at the border in 2023 and then released,” Hawley said. “And then she commits this crime.”
“Multiple people have been stabbed in O'Fallon, Missouri, by illegal migrants,” Hawley added. An illegal migrant was arrested in March after allegedly stabbing two people at a laundromat.
“Mr. Secretary, I know that you think your policies are a success,” Hawley said. “But they're not working for Laken Riley or Travis Wolfe or the people of my state. They are, in fact, a travesty.”
The House of Representatives impeached Mayorkas in February, but he escaped a trial in the Senate after the upper chamber voted Wednesday to forfeit lawmakers' constitutional obligation to consider the charges.
More than 7.2 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States since President Biden took office, “a number greater than the population of 36 individual states,” according to Fox News. That number exceeds a whopping 10 million when accounting for “gotaways.”
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