by Kaylee Greenlee
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich grilled the Biden administration over the mismanagement of the southern border, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation on Tuesday.
Brnovich asked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for a list of every official and agent who was “given the options of retirement or reassignment” since President Joe Biden took office, according to the letter. Brnovich was concerned that top DHS officials were forced out of their positions just as border officials encountered a record number of migrants illegally entering the U.S. at the southern border.
“At a time when we need them most, DHS seems to be purging qualified leaders who have attempted to uphold the rule of law,” Brnovich said. “These actions only lead to more chaos and further empower the cartels who now control both sides of the border.”
Brnovich referenced Mayorkas’ comment, “if our borders are the first line of defense, we’re going to lose and this is unsustainable” in relation to former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott’s retirement after 30 years with the agency, according to the letter.
“In the midst of this historic surge in migration, our most experienced law enforcement agents should not be held hostage to leadership changes for simply providing the American people with the truth,” Brnovich wrote.
Former Acting Executive Associate Director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Removal Operations Enrique Lucero was reassigned after he reported that new DHS directives to temporarily stop deportations would reduce ICE arrests by around 50%, according to the letter.
Border officials encountered more than 1.3 million migrants at the border between January and August, according to Customs and Border Protection data. However, several migrants attempted to illegally enter the U.S. after having already been expelled by border officials under Title 42, a Trump-era public health order, causing the number of reported encounters to be somewhat overstated.
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Kaylee Greenlee is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Mark Brnovich” by Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
There is no sanctuary for peopel who enter the our Country illegally, how many times is this guy allowed to lie to Congress? Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a policy memorandum this week to further prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers from initiating immigration enforcement actions in certain locations, calling these locations “protected areas.” Specifically, the policy prohibits ICE and CBP officers from enforcing the law at or even near an area where people engage in essential activities.”By issuing this policy in tandem with the Department’s narrow enforcement priorities and the Oct. 12 policy restricting immigration enforcement at employment locations, the Biden administration is ensuring the enforcement of immigration laws nearly impossible to initiate. “[ICE] still exists, but it has been stripped of all of its functions with regard to the enforcement of immigration laws. Nearly all illegal aliens are already off-limits to enforcement due to a Sep. 30 memo, and as a result of Mayorkas’ ‘expanded and non-exhaustive list of protected areas,’ where ICE agents are permitted to do their work, the secretary has essentially nullified an entire body of constitutionally enacted laws,” said FAIR President Dan Stein. In the midst of the largest border surge in U.S. history, the Biden administration is demonstrating its commitment to prioritizing open borders advocates’ wishes to allow aliens to live in the United States without concern of immigration law enforcement over the American people’s interest to have their laws faithfully executed by their government. To date, CBP reports apprehending over 1,734,686 aliens at the southern border in fiscal year 2021, the highest apprehension total on record. This number does not include the high rate of “got-aways,” or aliens that officers detected at the border but were unable to apprehend.“Section 236 (c) of the immigration and Nationality Act requires Federal agents to quote: “Detain and hold any alien who is released from criminal custody if the alien entered illegally and is removable on any of the criminal grounds of admissibility or if the alien entered legally and is removable on most all of the criminal deportation grounds.