MTG blasts ‘failure’ to screen passengers at border under Biden
During a recent congressional hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) criticized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for what she called a “complete failure” in national security protocols regarding passenger screening at U.S. land ports of entry. She referenced a 2024 report by the Office of Inspector General, which revealed that U.S.Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers occasionally suspended screening for passengers in vehicles, allowing indiscriminate entry. Greene equated this lapse to leaving one’s home open without checking who enters, emphasizing the risks associated with unscreened individuals being allowed into the country. The hearing highlighted operational inconsistencies at ports of entry, with officers reportedly waiving screenings during high traffic periods. This issue is notably concerning given the notable number of undocumented immigrants encountered by CBP under the Biden administration.
Marjorie Taylor Greene blasts ‘complete failure’ to screen vehicle passengers at border under Biden
A House Republican was outraged to learn that customs officers at land ports of entry did not always screen passengers in vehicles at the height of the Biden-era border crisis and said the decision not to do so represented a “complete failure” in national security.
During a congressional hearing Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) asked an official from the Department of Homeland Security‘s Office of Inspector General about its 2024 investigation that found U.S. Customs and Border Protection had allowed officers to suspend screening protocols for people seeking admission to the United States, which is permitted on rare occasions.
“In a 2024 OIG report, CBP could not biometrically confirm the identity of all persons seeking entry in vehicles at land ports of entry,” Greene said in a House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability hearing on waste and abuse at the DHS under former President Joe Biden.
“We knew that CBP wasn’t verifying the identities of people crossing the border in between ports of entry, but they weren’t even able to fully identify people at ports of entry in cars,” said Greene. “That would be like us opening up our doors to our house, opening up our windows, and not checking to see who’s coming in with our children in our house.”
In a June 2024 audit by the DHS OIG, investigators found that ports of entry had “inconsistent” practices when choosing whether to ask passengers in vehicles for identification or personal information, allowing a countless number of unscreened people to enter the country at more than 100 land ports of entry nationwide.
“On occasion, [U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations officers] would forego screening passengers,” testified Kristen Bernard, the deputy inspector general within the Office of Audits at the DHS OIG.
“So if there was a backlog of high volume of travelers coming across the port of entry, they may waive the screening of the passenger and only do the driver,” Bernard said.
“So to increase people coming, let’s move the traffic along,” Greene said. “Yeah, that’s a complete failure.”
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During Biden’s single term, CBP officers encountered 11 million immigrants attempting to enter the country without authorization, including at ports of entry. CBP officers at the ports of entry were frequently pulled from their booths to help Border Patrol agents between the ports of entry.
That figure does not include illegal immigrants who entered between the ports of entry and managed to slip past law enforcement and make it into the interior of the U.S.
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