The House Homeland Security Committee has waited more than 100 days to hear back from the Department of Homeland Security about concerns related to a new phone app to streamline border processes.
Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) blasted DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for the "unacceptable" management of his office, which he said has failed to be transparent with members of Congress who have oversight authority over the department's activities.
PELOSI DODGES ENDORSING KAMALA HARRIS AS BIDEN'S RUNNING MATE
"The Department failed to produce any substantive response. The Department’s lack of transparency is disconcerting and unacceptable," Green wrote in the letter, co-signed by House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chairman Clay Higgins (R-LA).
Three months have passed since the panel first asked Mayorkas for information about U.S. Customs and Border Protection's CBP One app, which allows immigrants in northern Mexico to request appointments with customs officials.
The committee's June 15 deadline for a response passed with no new information, Green said.
The committee became even more concerned about the app in August, when the Washington Examiner's report detailed how smugglers have been able to bypass the app's geofencing measures and sell the appointment scheduling service to immigrants outside of northern Mexico, using the U.S. app to undermine itself.
"Since our June 1, 2023, letter, reporting suggests that cartels are exploiting CBP One," the Republicans wrote in the letter. "Mexican officials will not let a migrant coming from Guatemala cross the Mexican border unless the migrant has a CBP One appointment."
The ability of cartels to obtain appointments has given immigrants from anywhere in the world the ability to get an appointment and bypass Mexican immigration officials at its southern border with Guatemala.
Green reiterated the committee's authority to conduct oversight of the department and pushed Mayorkas to share the requested information as soon as possible.
“I have long warned that cartels could be empowered to use Secretary Mayorkas’ expanded and improper use of the CBP One app as yet another way to enhance their human smuggling operations. Recent reporting indicates those predictions were entirely accurate," Green said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
"Clearly, Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden administration are refusing to acknowledge reality and are opting for silence and willful ignorance instead," Green continued. "This secretary’s policy of open borders, particularly as enhanced by the CBP One app, has made it clear to violent cartels that our Southwest border is open for business — and he’s trying to hide from accountability for it.”
A DHS official wrote in an email that the department has received an "enormous" number of requests from Congress in recent months, has provided 50 witnesses for hearings, and 8,000 pages of documents in response to letter requests since January 2023. Under the Biden administration, the DHS has responded to more than 1,400 congressional letters.
But in the matter of the CBP One app, a DHS spokesperson would not comment on the department's response to that particular request, just that it will work with Congress through official channels.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Mexican government is allowing any immigrant who enters the country from Guatemala to continue traveling to the United States border if they have obtained an appointment on U.S. Customs and Border Protection's phone application.
Smugglers openly advertise their virtual private network services in southern Mexico and on social media, according to a DHS intelligence document and advertisements reviewed by the Washington Examiner.