‘I Couldn’t Disagree With You More!’ Alejandro Mayorkas Loses Patience With Matt Gaetz in Heated House Confrontation
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lost patience with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Thursday during a contentious congressional hearing about the border crisis.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Gaetz asked Mayorkas whether he was willing to acknowledge that DHS has “the lowest deportation rate of the history of the department.”
Mayorkas said that claim was “misleading.”
Gaetz fired back:
No, it’s your data. This is actually what your own agency is reporting, so do you think this might just be the case that one reason that we will encounter the highest number of illegal immigrations in our nation’s history, this month and next month, because everybody knows that even if they come here, even if they go through the removal procedures, even if a judge issued a final order, you still think there might be more due process, and you have no plan to remove them, and then when I ask you what the plan is, you say “oh well, resources, I got to make finite decisions.”
I go back to my first question, how many [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents have remove the 1.2 million?
Mayorkas responded that he’d “be pleased to provide the resource data” following the hearing.
“I think it’s telling that you got plans for pronouns and you got plans for misinformation,” blasted Gaetz. “But when it comes to the plan to remove the people that have had due process, you don’t have one at all. Now 800,000 people, have encountered your [Customs and Border Protection] agents. and those folks have been released into the country. Like, some of those people commit crimes, aren’t they?”
Mayorkas, after a brief intense back and forth, admitted that is “undoubtedly” the case.
“And so the Americans who are the victims of the crimes for the people that you release in that country are collateral damage, that you are willing to accept in order to have our border function as a turnstile,” said Gaetz. “And you’re willing to accept that collateral damage.”
“Congressman, I couldn’t disagree with you more,” replied Mayorkas.
Watch above, via CSPAN 3.
