This Issue: In a sometimes contentious first hearing, the House Judiciary Committee took up the ongoing border crisis.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on the border crisis. Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said that this was the beginning of a series of immigration hearings, which will include calling DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to answer for his implementation of policies that have led to historic levels of illegal immigration.

"It seems deliberate, it seems premeditated, it seems intentional," House Rep. Jordan said about the porous U.S. border in his opening remarks.

The White House issued a statement saying that Republicans should help President Biden pass "comprehensive immigration reform" (amnesty and increases in immigration without effective enforcement) instead of "simply holding political stunts."

A good deal of attention was paid to the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. from Mexico directed by powerful and dangerous, and increasingly wealthy, cartels. The cartels control the Mexican side of the border and coordinate human smuggling and drug trafficking. With so many individuals crossing illegally into the United States, the Border Patrol is unable to gain operation control of the border, often left to do little more than process and release most illegal aliens in the country.

Brandon Dunn, whose son died of fentanyl poisoning last year along with two other teenagers in Hays County, Texas testified before the committee. While Democrats expressed sympathy for Mr. Dunn and others who have experienced personal tragedies because of preponderance of fentanyl throughout American communities, none argued that gaining operational control of the border --stopping the flow of illegal immigration and drugs -- should be a priority of the Biden Administration or Congress. For House, Democrats on the Committee, the immigration system is "broken" because Congress won't grant blanket amnesty to all illegal aliens and open up the borders to anyone who makes an asylum claim, no matter how frivolous or fraudulent that claim may be.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Cali.) even made the case that the smuggling of fentanyl into the U.S. isn't related to the unsecured U.S. border because most fentanyl is seized at ports of entry. Rep. Lieu's logic is that because Border Patrol isn't encountering as many drug smugglers outside ports of entry, this means drugs aren't being smuggled across the border undetected. This ignores what CBP agents have told both Congress and the media, what Congress’s own nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has reported, and contradicts what illegal aliens themselves have said. It also downplays the among of fentanyl that is passing through point of entry undetected.

Chip Roy pushed back on this narrative by stating a simple truth.

The Border Patrol can't possibly catch all of the fentanyl at the ports of entry, nor catch the fentanyl between the ports of entry. --Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas)

Commenting on the hearing, The Washington Post reporter Nick Miroff tweeted "[I] just saw Rep. Chip Roy claiming fentanyl is 'pouring in' between ports of entry. That is NOT TRUE, and frankly, a rather insidious falsehood."

There was nothing controversial in what Rep. Roy said, and it is outrageous for Miroff to call characterize it as an "insidious falsehood." When there was pushback against Mirrof's position, with commentators pointing out that the amount of fentanyl seized doesn't equal the amount that smugglers attempt to pass through port of entry at the border, or the amount that is "pouring in" to the U.S.

Miroff attempted to deflect criticisms but pointing out that the Border Patrol agents do not man port of entry. That is true. That is done by the Office of Field Operations, which, along with Customs and Border Patrol, is under the agency of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). This is not in any way a refutation of Rep. Roy's point.

NumbersUSA supports border security because illegal immigration hurts American workers and it undermines the rule of law and American sovereignty. An open border also allows other criminality. Right now it is allowing for massive quantities of fentanyl to flow into the U.S. It's impossible to know why one would downplay the direct relationship between the border crisis and the fentanyl crisis. In any case, it's a very sad situation. The heartbreak suffered by Mr. Dunn is being repeated daily across this country and very few politicians seem to want to even acknowledge it is occurring.

Eric Ruark, director of research