House Judiciary GOP Readies for Multi-Part Immigration Probe

The House Judiciary Committee will hold its first immigration hearing Wednesday as illegal crossings at the southern border continue to break records under President Joe Biden.

The committee’s hearing, called “Biden’s Border Crisis — Part One,” will kick off what is expected to be a series of hearings as the committee ramps up its scrutiny of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and works toward immigration reform legislation.

Locals impacted by the border crisis, including the stepfather of a 15-year-old boy who died from fentanyl and a county sheriff from southeastern Arizona, will testify at the hearing on Wednesday.

“You tell the people story, the human story about what’s happened now,” Judiciary chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Breitbart News.

The “human story” is the first step for the committee in what is expected to be a three-pronged approach to addressing immigration problems, which have led to well over four million migrants flooding over the border illegally since Biden took office.

“We’ve had members talk about the implications on healthcare systems, education systems, on and on it goes in communities in their districts, which are not on the border,” Jordan observed.

The chairman said he was struck by a comment Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) made during last year’s annual consultation that the top Judiciary members in the House and Senate have with cabinet officials to assess refugee admission caps.

“First thing Durbin says is — he goes first on the question portion — and he says, ‘Last weekend I was at a shelter in Chicago where I saw 150 migrants from Texas because that governor sent people up here,’ and I’m like, holy cow, now the rest of the country is seeing what Texas and Arizona have been dealing with,” Jordan said.

In addition to highlighting how the border crisis is affecting everyday Americans — not just those in border states but those in states like Durbin’s in the Midwest — the other two prongs of the committee’s plan are to examine how the crisis is happening and to assess how to fix it.

Immigration reform, whether it comes in piecemeal or as an overhaul bill, typically must pass through the Judiciary Committee before the full House can consider it.

“We do anticipate passing immigration enforcement legislation out of our committee,” Jordan said. “It needs to pass if we’re actually going to fix the problem. Now, whether the Senate can pass it and Joe Biden would ever sign it, that’s a different story,” he added, alluding to the potentially insurmountable obstacle Republicans will face as they attempt to effectively legislate under a Democrat-controlled Senate and White House.

Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) said, “I do indeed,” when asked by Breitbart News if he saw the Judiciary Committee passing an immigration bill.

In contrast to Jordan, a 16-year veteran of the committee, Moore is brand new to the panel this year and hoping its first hearing sheds light on the “humanitarian crisis” at the border.

“I’ve always believed a closed border is a compassionate border,” Moore said. “We’ve lost nearly 1,000 people crossing that border. We’ve had people left in vans. We’ve had people drown, and so it’s to bring attention to what we believe is a humanitarian crisis.”

In addition to legislative solutions, some on the committee, such as Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), are thirsting to hold DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s top border official, accountable for the crisis through impeachment, a rare move that would also fall under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee.

Biggs has long sought to impeach Mayorkas and announced this week he plans to introduce impeachment articles against the border chief on Wednesday after the committee hearing.

Biggs’s articles will follow Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) introducing articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in early January and now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) calling on Mayorkas to resign in November while hinting at considering impeachment.

Mayorkas, for his part, has appeared unfazed by Republican pressure.

In response to McCarthy’s resignation calls, Mayorkas said in early January during an appearance on ABC’s This Week that he has no intention of leaving his role.

He said, “I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m proud to do it, alongside 250,000 incredibly dedicated and talented individuals in the Department of Homeland Security, and I’m going to continue to do my work.”

Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.