Grassley, Cornyn push for Senate border hearing

Two Republican senators are pushing for the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on the border and call a slew of Biden administration officials to testify.

The request is a further sign of the GOP seeking to emphasize problems on the border and associate the Biden administration with the issue.

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the committee, and John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote in a letter to Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that the committee should call Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to testify, along with the acting heads of the various agencies that patrol the border.

“Our recent visit to the Rio Grande Valley Sector of the southern border only served to reaffirm our view that the situation has gotten exponentially worse in the last three months, becoming a crisis, and that the Judiciary Committee should hold hearings on this topic,” the two wrote in their letter.

The letter follows a similar effort by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee who last month asked for a border hearing.

“The subcommittee should hear directly from officials from the Department of State, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security [DHS] about what the Biden Administration is doing to address the criminal activity caused by the Biden Administration’s radical policies,” Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in a letter.

Grassley and Cornyn’s call comes as an increasing number of lawmakers have made trips to the Southern border with DHS officials.

Cornyn previously drew criticism for tweeting that Biden has “emphasized the humane treatment of immigrants, regardless of their legal status,” suggesting Biden’s stance was in contrast to attempting to halt illegal immigration.