(CNSNews.com) - In an often-heated hearing on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was challenged over his management -- or failure to manage -- the overrun southwest border.
In one of those contentious moments, Rep. Jim Jordan asked Mayorkas about a Fox News report that 42 people on the terror watch list or no-fly list have been apprehended trying to sneak into the country since Joe Biden became president.
"Secretary, have any of the 42 illegal migrants on the terrorist watch list or no-fly list encountered on our southwest border been released into the United States?" Jordan asked Mayorkas.
"Ranking Member Jordan, as I mentioned before, I will provide that data to you with respect to the disposition of each one. I do not know the answer to your question," the secretary said.
Jordan responded: "The Secretary of Homeland Security does not know the answer to the status of 42 individuals who came to our southern border illegally, are on the no fly list, and the -- and the no -- and the terrorist watch list. You do not -- do not know whether they have been released or not into the country. That's your testimony."
"Ranking Member Jordan, as I've said before, I will provide you the data. I do want to --"
Jordan interrupted him: "I yield back to the gentleman. That's amazing. I yield back."
Fox News first reported that 23 people on the terror watch list or no-fly list had been apprehended at the southern border between Jan. 20 and the end of December.
Of course, as various Republicans have noted, no one knows how many dangerous people have entered the country undetected.
Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (R) vowed during an interview with Breitbart News Saturday to put more police officers on the streets of Wisconsin to help combat a rise in drug overdoses if she is elected governor.
Kleefisch spoke specifically about fentanyl, a highly potent opioid that is manufactured illegally, primarily in Mexico and China, and is a leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States.
“Fentanyl is coming across our border in a way we have never seen in our lifetimes,” said Kleefisch, who served as lieutenant governor of Wisconsin alongside Gov. Scott Walker (R) for two terms until 2019. During that time, Kleefisch was appointed cochair of the governor’s task force on opioid abuse.
“Fentanyl is one of the most dangerous drugs, and it is a killer,” Kleefisch asserted. “The epidemic number of overdoses that we see across Wisconsin is owed directly to the crisis at our border.”
Listen:
Drug overdoses are on the rise in the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. More than 100,000 overdose deaths occurred in a 12-month period through November of last year, and synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl, contributed to most of those deaths, or about 80,000 of them.
In another indication of the growing danger of fentanyl, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 11,201 pounds of the powerful drug at the border in fiscal year (FY) 2021, which is more than double the amount seized in FY 2020 and about four times the amount seized in FY 2019. FY 2022 is on pace with last year’s surge, showing seizures of 5,310 pounds in its first six months.
A display of the fentanyl and meth that was seized by CBP officers over the weekend at the Nogales Port of Entry is shown during a press conference, January 31, 2019, in Nogales, Arizona. (Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star via AP)
Law enforcement officials, Kleefisch said, have informed her “that 95 percent of our illicit drugs in Wisconsin are coming up over that border, and those drugs are killing our friends and neighbors. … Our cities all have a problem with drugs, and those drug cartels pass those drugs up over the Mexican border to our American drug gangs, go through our freeway systems, which leads directly to the people of Wisconsin. We’ve got to shut this down.”
Kleefisch, who is hoping to unseat Gov. Tony Evers (D) in this year’s midterms, said she is “law enforcement’s choice for governor.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers addresses a joint session of the legislature in the Assembly chambers during the governor’s State of the State speech in Madison. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)
The Wisconsin Republican noted the weighty endorsements she has received from the law enforcement sector, including from the Milwaukee Police Association, the Kenosha Police Association, the Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police, and more than half of the state’s sheriffs.
In terms of her action plan, Kleefisch said southern border control is a priority. “You do it by just going around the federal government, by doing what the Republican governors are doing,” she said, adding she would join onto the newly formed American Governor’s Border Strike Force with most other Republican governors if she were elected to office.
Kleefisch said she would also bolster police presence in the Badger State by adding 1,000 more officers to the state’s police force.
“Even after you shut down that type of drug trade, you need to shut down the selling of drugs. You need to shut down the human trafficking where it’s already happening and where it’s spreading,” Kleefisch said. “That means we need more cops on the streets.”
Kleefisch’s comments on tackling drug abuse come as she has made the broader issue of crime a focus of her campaign. Her positions stand in contrast to those of Evers, who gained a reputation in 2020 for sympathizing with Black Lives Matter protesters and rioters, some of whom pushed aggressive anti-police sentiments and ravaged Wisconsin’s small city of Kenosha.
“Tony Evers’ rhetoric has discouraged people who stand on the thin blue line every single day,” Kleefisch said. She added that Evers “would rather pander to far fringes of the woke left than he would protect the communities of the state of Wisconsin.”
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
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