By BETHANY BLANKLEY
THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR
(The Center Square) — Republican U.S. senators are keeping the pressure on the Biden administration over its immigration policies, demanding answers from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the number of Afghan evacuees in the U.S. and their vetting process, as well as information about foreign nationals in the country who have overstayed their visas.
They raise concerns about Mr. Mayorkas not providing information to Congress, suggesting his reason for not doing so is political and related to the Democrats’ plan to give amnesty to roughly 6.5 million illegal immigrants as the ongoing border crisis continues.
Republican Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Josh Hawley of Missouri are the latest to demand answers from the administration, after many others, including Sen. Hawley, called on Mr. Mayorkas to follow federal law in reporting back to Congress. Previous letters submitted to administration officials, including Mr. Mayorkas, demand answers related to the vetting process of Afghan evacuees in the U.S. and the number of immigrants crossing the U.S. border illegally.
One DHS report owed to Congress relates to the immigration status of Afghan evacuees, including the number of evacuees flagged as potential security risks or concerns. It was supposed to have been sent to Congress by Nov. 30. Congress didn’t receive it.
By Aug. 31 of this year, more than 120,000 individuals were airlifted out of Afghanistan. The U.S. government reportedly evacuated 80,000 people, of whom 5,500 were Americans and over 73,000 were Afghans or other foreign nationals. Roughly 44,000 of them are not housed at U.S. military bases but are living in the general population; fewer than 29,000 remain at military bases in the U.S., Politico reported.
Congress still has not received another DHS report, the Entry/Exit Overstay Report that was due Sept. 30, and which Sens. Lankford and Hawley are asking Mayorkas to provide. Among other things, it includes information about the number of foreign individuals living in the U.S. whose visas have lapsed.
Sens. Lankford and Hawley, who sit on the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, wrote in a letter to Mr. Mayorkas that “the FY 2021 funding package mandated that this report be sent to our Committee, which has oversight over DHS and over the Entry/Exit system.” They also point out that “DHS also failed to meet a November 30 deadline to submit a congressionally mandated report over its vetting of Afghan evacuees.”
The reports hold vital information for congressional oversight, they argue, and Mr. Mayorkas’ failure to provide them “violates the law and raises significant questions about your commitment to uphold the laws Congress enacts,” they told Mr. Mayorkas.
They also expressed concern about the DHS secretary potentially withholding the report for political reasons because it might include information that could end any chance that the Build Back Better Act is revived. The partisan budget reconciliation package didn’t receive the support it needed from all 50 Senate Democrats after Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he couldn’t support it. The bill passed the House on a party-line vote.
Among other things, the BBBA includes an amnesty provision for foreign nationals living illegally in the U.S., known as “Plan C.”
Plan C “would offer parole to illegal immigrants who have continuously resided in the United States since January 1, 2011,” the senators write. “This parole would put these illegal immigrants on the path to citizenship. The bill passed by the House and currently under consideration in the Senate would offer this parole benefit to illegal border crossers and to visa overstays — the same population included in the Department’s missing report.”
The senators also note that the Plan C parole provision of the bill “is at the center of controversy within the Senate as the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled it cannot be included in a version of BBB that may yet be considered by the Senate because it does not satisfy Senate rules for budget reconciliation legislation.”
A Congressional Budget Office report estimates that more than 6.5 million people living in the U.S. illegally would receive amnesty under the BBBA, and amnesty would cost taxpayers $483 billion over 20 years.
