Immigration

FBI Director Contradicts Mayorkas’ Claim That Border Is ‘Secure’

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FBI Director Chris Wray contradicted Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by saying there’s a crime threat at the U.S.-Mexico border during a House Homeland Security committee hearing on “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland” Tuesday.

Wray highlighted that there’s “significant criminal threats” coming across the border after Mayorkas defended his earlier comments that the area is “secure.” Mayorkas said in July that the border is “secure” amid record illegal migration levels at the southern border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered a record of over 2.3 million migrants at the border in fiscal year 2022. Fiscal year 2023 has started with another record month of over 230,000 migrant encounters.

Mayorkas, however, continues to claim that the border is secure.

“Secretary Mayorkas, do you continue to maintain that the border is secure?” Republican North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop asked during the hearing on Capitol Hill.

“Yes, and we are working day in and day out to enhance its security, Congressman,” Mayorkas responded.

Bishop then asked Wray if he believes the border is secure.

“Well, I can only speak to border security from our narrow lane, but I can speak to it from that lane. What I would say is that we see significant criminal threats coming from south of the border, whether it’s guns, drugs, money, violence, we see transnational criminal organizations that are sending their drugs here and that are using street gangs here to distribute it, and that contributes to the violent crime crisis here. We’ve had takedowns just in the last few months that I could give you as an example,” Wray said.

“In Phoenix, we had a takedown working with CBP, who are phenomenal partners I should add, what we seized in one vehicle interdiction enough fentanyl the equivalent to kill the entire state of Pennsylvania,” he added.

DHS didn’t respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.