Michael Guest Grills Alejandro Mayorkas On His Department's Budget Request And Border Security

8 months ago

At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) questioned Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas about the Department of Homeland Security's budget request.

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Transcript

00:00 Thank you. Mr. Newhouse, we now recognize Mr. Guest.

00:03 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, the discretionary budget this year is $62.2 billion.

00:13 Is that correct? I believe that's correct.

00:16 And the request last year was $60.4 billion as it relates to discretionary spending. Is that correct?

00:22 I believe so, Congressman. You stated in your opening statement that

00:26 there was an insufficient budget, that we were not giving you the funds necessary for you to

00:31 be able to carry out your job and the men and women who serve under you. Last year, you requested

00:36 $60.4 billion, and Congress appropriated $61.8 billion. So we actually appropriated more money

00:45 than you asked for. When you look at what you're asking for this year versus what we appropriated

00:50 last year, those numbers are very similar. There is not a huge discrepancy between $62.2 and $61.8

00:57 billion. And as I look through the individual items that you requested, one of the things that

01:02 Ms. Henson brought up were detention beds. Congress this year funded 41,500 detention beds,

01:11 but yet you're only requesting 34,000 detention beds. And you also referenced the Senate bill.

01:16 In the Senate bill, you said the Senate bill, which never passed out of the Senate, but was

01:21 a bill in which they were debating as part of the overall funding package, you said would have

01:25 funded 50,000 detention beds. And I'm assuming you supported the Senate bill, did you not?

01:32 Oh, I hope you would have as well. Well, if it would have come over here,

01:36 I would have been happy to have looked at it, but unfortunately, it never made it out of the

01:40 Senate. So the House did not have a chance to review the legislation. So do you support then

01:45 the 50,000 detention beds that would have been in the Senate bill?

01:48 In the context of the bipartisan Senate bill, yes.

01:51 All right. But yet you're asking for some 16,000 less detention beds and actually 7,500 less

01:59 detention beds than we currently fund. And you talk about expedited removal, and you say that

02:04 people who are in detention often have expedited removal. And so if the intent is to those

02:10 individuals who don't need to be here to remove them from the country sooner rather than later,

02:15 and we know about the immigration courts and the backlog and all the problems that we face,

02:20 putting people in detention expedites their removal from the country generally, does it not?

02:26 Congressman, a few things. Number one, remember that when we fund detention beds,

02:33 we also have to fund personnel. It is part of a...

02:38 Do you need more money for personnel? I want to know what you need to fund more detention beds,

02:42 because to me, it seems asinine, Mr. Secretary, that we're going to ask for less detention beds

02:48 when we see a record surge in immigration, when we see a record number of orders of removal

02:53 that have been issued by the court. But yet we're saying that we don't need detention beds

02:59 if we're going to, one, prevent people from coming into the country, or if we're not going

03:03 to prevent them once they're here and once there is a final disposition of their case,

03:08 if we're going to seek to remove them. And I'm very concerned about that fact. I'm very concerned

03:14 that you're asking not only for less than we funded this year, but you're asking for a substantial...

03:18 As I articulated earlier, our fiscal year '25 budget request was submitted before Congress

03:27 passed the fiscal year 2024 budget. What number do you need? Is $34,000,

03:33 is that the number that you need right now? We are committed to working with Congress

03:39 to sustain the 41,500 beds that Congress funded. Well, if that's the number, why didn't you put

03:44 that in your budget? Why are you substantially underselling the number of detention beds and

03:49 then making Congress come in and bump those numbers up? If those are the numbers you need,

03:53 if those are the appropriate numbers, Mr. Secretary, I would ask that you put those numbers

03:58 actually in your budget and that you ask Congress to fund that and that you don't expect us that

04:04 we're just going to plus up those numbers and so you leave those numbers artificially low.

04:08 Now, one last thing, and I know my time is running short, so in an effort to make sure that I save

04:13 time for other members, Fox News is reporting that there is going to be a possible executive order

04:20 issued by the president. This says to shut down the border by the end of the month. Are you aware,

04:25 are you in any discussions with the president about executive orders that would relate to

04:30 border security and or immigration? Congressman, we are consistently evaluating what options

04:37 are available to us. We do that on a regular basis. I will share with you that executive action,

04:44 which is inevitably challenged in the courts, is no substitute for enduring solution, if I may,

04:52 for the enduring solution of legislation that will fix what everyone agrees is a broken

04:58 immigration system. And as a secretary, do you believe that the president has the power to issue

05:03 executive orders that would deal with border security and or immigration? We have actually

05:12 implemented executive orders by way of very critical and effective regulations,

05:17 and I would be pleased to speak with you about those. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

05:20 Thank you, sir. We now recognize Dr. Harris. Thank you very much. And first at the top,

05:28 I want to make sure that you convey.

Michael Guest Grills Alejandro Mayorkas On His Department's Budget Request And Border Security

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