Republicans’ first hearing at southern border descends into partisan bickering
Anna Giaritelli
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The House’s first committee hearing at the U.S.-Mexico border descended into infighting among Democrats and Republicans who accused each other of hijacking the fentanyl epidemic for political purposes.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), who is not a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce but represents the border region where the meeting was held Wednesday evening, blasted the committee’s surprise arrival in Weslaco, Texas. Gonzalez said he was not informed or consulted by Republican leadership on the committee and that the GOP only came down to “use the Rio Grande Valley as a political backdrop.”
“This partisan hearing was organized in secret and undercuts any meaningful bipartisan conversations. Rather than take any meaningful action to improve the lives of the American people, Congressional Republicans are wasting government resources to air their grievances against the Biden Administration,” Gonzalez said in a statement issued late Wednesday. “Despite the Rio Grande Valley continuing to be one of the safest regions in the country, House Republicans continue to paint it as dangerous.”
Republicans in the hearing painted the border as a dangerous place where fentanyl was seeping into the U.S. between the ports of entry, while Democrats touted how the vast majority of fentanyl seizures were at the ports, not from immigrants apprehended while crossing illegally.
Democratic witness Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, accused Republicans of “villainizing” communities on the border.
“I don’t understand why we’re here at the border because there is really no connection between what is happening with the opioid crisis in this country and immigrants that are just seeking refuge in our country that are seeking protection,” said Garza.
Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Kat Cammack (R-FL) went after Garza in their questioning and attempted to discredit her point of view for her lack of interaction with law enforcement at the border.
“You can’t understand why we’re having a field hearing on the southern border relating to fentanyl? It’s because it comes across the southern border, Ms. Garza,” said Crenshaw. “It is indeed related to the immigration crisis because both crises have a common factor, and that is the Mexican drug cartels. That is a common enemy. We are not enemies here. This should not be a partisan issue.”
Cammack pushed Garza to state the last time she had been on a “ride-along” with federal Border Patrol agents or Texas Department of Public Safety officers. Garza said she had done so in 2017 and 2018, which Cammack noted was not during the Biden administration’s first two years.
Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the number of noncitizens encountered attempting to enter the U.S. illegally has soared to the highest monthly numbers in history, topping 301,000 in December 2022.
Cammack also contested Garza’s earlier statement that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border initiative Operation Lone Star had not reduced the number of fentanyl-induced deaths in lawmakers’ districts across the country.
“How do you explain the 361 million lethal doses that have been confiscated [under Operation Lone Star]?” Cammack said. “In your opinion, what is the price of a life then?”
Garza protested that the billions of dollars the GOP governor and state legislature had approved for border security initiatives, including sending military soldiers and vehicles to various parts of the border statewide, was “illegal and a waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Cammack flashed a picture of what he described as 956 grams of fentanyl that police had recovered in one incident in Marion County, Florida, as evidence of the 90% to 95% of fentanyl that is smuggled over the border and not caught by authorities. The Drug Enforcement Administration has previously estimated that 5% to 10% of illicit fentanyl coming into the country from Mexico is seized by police.
Garza, who unsuccessfully ran for Texas attorney general last November, said the Republican Party’s focus on the border as the core of the opioid addiction issue was misdirected and that lawmakers should focus on the demand for fentanyl within the country.
“If we decrease the demand, we’ll decrease the supply. The supply is meeting the demand that we have,” said Garza.
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The congressman for the Weslaco community did not attend the hearing. Gonzalez told Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers that her concern over crime in his community “would be better spent helping her constituents figure out” why the rate of crime in her Spokane, Washington, district was higher than other comparably sized cities.
“Spokane, Washington, has a reported crime rate of 53 per every 1,000 residents compared to Brownsville, Texas, at 22.3 per every 1,000 and McAllen, Texas, at 20.09 per every 1,000,” said Gonzalez. “I urge the chairwoman and Republican leadership to stop using South Texas for political theater and engage in meaningful conversations on how to adequately address the fentanyl crisis, fix our immigration system, and deliver actual results.”