McCaul to Sec. Johnson: Executive Actions Open DHS to Fraud, Surge of Illegal Immigration

Press Release

Today, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, held a hearing entitled "Open Borders: The Impact of Presidential Amnesty on Border Security," which focused on the president's unilateral action on immigration and its impact on border security.

Jeh Johnson, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), testified on the impact of this action on homeland security, the steps DHS will take to prepare for a potential surge of illegal immigration and the challenging task of identifying those who would be eligible for deferred action.

McCaul stated his concern that 20% of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applications are denied as fraudulent. "We saw [fraud] after 1986 - the 1993 World Trade Center bomber, one of them, had fraudulent documentations exploiting the 1986 amnesty law. What are you going to do to verify that these people are not fraudulently entering the country, including what could be security threats to the country?" McCaul asked.

Sec. Johnson agreed abuse of deferred action programs is a problem. "Fraudulent applications have the potential to undermine the whole process," Johnson said. "In the implementation, I want to make sure we take a hard look at best practices to avoid fraudulent applications and fraudulent misuses of the program. That is a priority of mine."

McCaul also noted that President Obama previously stated that "such an indiscriminate approach would be both unwise and unfair… and this could lead to a surge in more illegal immigration." Today, Johnson disagreed with the president saying, "no, in fact we prioritize recent illegal migrants."

However, DHS's statistics suggest otherwise. This year alone, less than half of the 479,000 individuals apprehended along the southern border were removed by ICE. The other half were given notices to appear before an immigration judge, with a court date years away, and released into the United States.

"Again, I just look at history. In 1986 the amnesty law was passed and it led to a wave of illegal immigration," McCaul said. "I look at DACA. I had 60,000 children unaccompanied crossing my border in Texas through the Rio Grande Valley sector as a result of DACA. You can't deny that the traffickers are going to message this, now this executive action, and exploit it."

Moreover, McCaul expressed his concerns about the flip-flop of the administration's narrative on the use of unilateral action on immigration. "There is a right way to do this and a wrong way. Obviously, I disagree with the president's approach in this case…. the president said over 20 times that he did not have the legal authority to do this, to take this executive action, and that this is not how democracy works." McCaul said.

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