Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified in a Senate hearing today on the Homeland Security budget, as well as issues of immigration and border security. Spoiler: the border is very much *not* secure.

Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas introduced a resolution to trigger a vote of no confidence on Mayorkas and floated a potential impeachment. The resolution cited "more than 5,500,000 illegal aliens crossing the United States southern border during Secretary Mayorkas’ term in office, including 20 consecutive months with more than 150,000 illegal border crossings and a 180 percent increase in encounters at the southern border compared to the previous administration." It also noted the growing deadly problem of fentanyl trafficked across the border.

Senator Josh Hawley also grilled Mayorkas over his disastrous border policies, specifically those that have forced migrant children into indentured servitude. Hawley asked Mayorkas about a New York Times report that claims the Biden administration ignored signs of a recent explosion in forced child labor. According to the report, more than 250,000 unaccompanied migrant children have entered the country in the past two years, though Hawley cited a larger figure of 345,000. Many have been forced into indentured servitude to pay back smugglers. Hawley attributed this explosion to the Biden administration's decision not to apply Title 42 expulsions to unaccompanied migrant children.

Mayorkas responded by criticizing the Trump administration. In 2023. After over two years since Trump has been in office.

Hawley did not like that.

"A moment ago you were crowing about the fact that you treated children so well, and yet we find tens of thousands of children who are forced to work as slaves because of your policies and you turn around and blame a prior administration."

This whole debacle serves as a good reminder that having a chaotic open border is not actually the kind response to a huge influx of refugees. It creates massive issues of human trafficking, drug trafficking, and more. But our politicians have been hemming and hawing about our "broken immigration system" for years now, so I wouldn't expect an overnight fix.

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Lily is a Zoomer college dropout who somehow landed a writing gig here at LwC.com. In her spare time, she enjoys going for runs, touching grass, and occasionally tweeting tweets for fellow tweeters.

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