President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is creating “woke climate programs” as the United States-Mexico border is stormed by border crossers and drug trafficking, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) warns.

Last week, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the creation of the “Climate Change Professionals Program” where the agency will “recruit recent graduates and current federal employees to support the department’s growing focus on adapting to climate change and improving resilience.”

“This program will develop the next generation of climate experts, improve climate literacy throughout the Department, and help us execute our Climate Action Plan to remain mission-resilient while reducing our own impacts on the environment,” Mayorkas said.

In a letter to Mayorkas on Thursday, Hawley asks how the DHS program will help curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking as well as how much federal funds will be used to carry out the initiative.

“Unfortunately, instead of focusing on the crisis at the southern border, you are prioritizing the creation of woke partisan government programs,” Hawley writes:

Meanwhile, the southern border is experiencing a surge in drug trafficking and illegal border crossings. For example, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) announced this month that southern Texas had experienced a 1,066% increase in fentanyl seizures in the past year. Agents at eight ports seized 87,652 pounds of narcotics, including 588 pounds of fentanyl. The surge in fentanyl has been so dramatic that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued its first public safety report in nearly six years. The report shows that four out of every ten pills containing fentanyl carry a lethal dose. [Emphasis added]

There is also a surge in illegal border crossing. According to CBP, there have been 1,734,686 encounters with migrants for FY 2021. This is the worst border crisis in American history, yet it seems that the message is not making it through. Despite a court order to enforce the Remain in Mexico Policy, there are reports that only 40 migrants per day were being returned to Mexico—compared to the approximately 5,000 illegal border crossing each day. [Emphasis added]

It is well past time to start prioritizing the border crisis. The American people are relying on you to do so. Prioritize the border, stop creating woke climate programs, and enforce the law. [Emphasis added]

Though official totals for the last month of 2021 have yet to be released by DHS, Breitbart News exclusively reported that unofficial totals indicate that about 1.9 million border crossers and illegal aliens were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border last year.

Hundreds of thousands of these border crossers and illegal aliens are only briefly detained before being released into the U.S. interior — including nearly 45,000 who were flown in on domestic commercial flights.

In addition, anywhere from 500,000 to 600,000 illegal aliens are suspected of having successfully crossed the border, undetected by Border Patrol agents.

At the same time, the Mexican drug cartels earned $1 billion solely from human smuggling illegal aliens into the U.S. in the month of December 2021, alone.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.