House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan issued a subpoena Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding he turn over the case files of more than a dozen immigrants Congress is investigating.
Among them are rape and murder suspects, including the illegal immigrant accused of two rapes on a jogging trail in Silver Spring, Maryland, and others accused of taking part in killing a teenager in Frederick County, Maryland.
Many of the 14 files include illegal immigrants caught and released at the border, which goes to the heart of the migrant surge.
Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, said his panel has repeatedly prodded the department for the documents the past seven months but has met with resistance. Only two partial summaries have been turned over to Congress.
The chairman said he was forced to turn to the subpoena.
“Your response without compulsory process has, to date, been woefully inadequate,” he wrote in a letter to Mr. Mayorkas announcing the subpoena.
He gave Mr. Mayorkas until Jan. 8 to produce the files.
The subpoena is an escalation in a tug-of-war between Congress and the Biden administration, particularly Homeland Security, over access to information.
Mr. Jordan said his committee is probing the nexus between lax immigration enforcement and violent crime, and seeing the files could give lawmakers a better sense for how migrants who commit serious offenses ended up in the U.S. in the first place.
The documents Mr. Jordan seeks are known as A-Files, or Alien Files, which contain the immigration history of a person, including any border encounters, further spats in the interior, past deportations and immigration court proceedings.
Homeland Security said requests for A-Files are time-consuming since the documents can span thousands of pages. That’s why the department offers summaries instead.
The department said it has strained to brief Congress and provide formal witnesses for hearings as a show of its willingness to work with lawmakers on information. That includes responding to more than 1,400 congressional letters since the start of the Biden administration in 2021.
“DHS has worked hard to accommodate the committee’s request, including providing briefings and responsive materials. The department also communicated to the committee that we will provide additional files as they become available. Instead of working with us, they have escalated to a subpoena, yet again,” said Naree Ketudat, a DHS spokeswoman.
One of the cases Mr. Jordan is digging into involves Hermanio Joseph, a Haitian illegal immigrant caught and released at the border who authorities say was driving on an invalid license when he veered his vehicle into oncoming traffic, crashing into a bus carrying students. One was killed and dozens were injured.
Another is Jose Roberto Hernandez-Espinal, accused of raping a 15-year-old girl and a woman in two incidents on a trail in Silver Spring’s Burnt Mills East Special Park. He is from El Salvador and entered the U.S. in 2013.
Other cases alerting Mr. Jordan involve illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as Unaccompanied Alien Children and now stand accused of slaying a 15-year-old student in Frederick County. Public reports have linked some of those migrants to MS-13, the violent street gang comprised primarily of immigrants from Central America.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.