This post originally appeared at https://wisconsindailystar.com/news/u-s-reps-grothman-and-biggs-to-hold-joint-committee-field-hearing-on-humanitarian-crisis-at-southern-border/mkittle/2023/08/08/

U.S. Representative Glenn Grothman (R-WI-06) will hear from real Americans impacted by President Joe Biden’s border policies at a congressional field hearing on Tuesday in Arizona.

Grothman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, is teaming up with U.S. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, in holding the joint-committee hearing in Sierra Vista, AZ.

The joint subcommittee field hearing, titled “Biden’s Border Crisis and its Effect on American Communities,” begins at 4 p.m. Tuesday. It will include testimony from a local rancher, a law enforcement official, and an immigration expert, among others.

Grothman said the goal is to shine light on the influence of Mexican drug Cartels, educate Americans on specifics of the crisis, and explore ways Congress can assist local border communities and law enforcement.

“President Biden’s policies have ignited a crisis at the southern border and harmed the lives of residents both local and across the country,” the lawmakers said in a press release. “We have seen firsthand on past committee trips to the border how illegal border crossing surges, incentivized by the radical policies coming out of this Administration, have wreaked havoc on local communities and negatively affected the lives of residents and law enforcement.”

At least 164,753 foreign nationals were apprehended or reported evading capture after illegally entering the southwest border in July, according to preliminary Border Patrol data obtained by The Center Square.

The swell of illegal immigrants includes 137,593 apprehensions and 27,160 gotaways. “Gotaways” is the official U.S. Customs and Border Protection term that refers to the number of people who are known and reported to illegally enter the U.S. between ports of entry who intentionally try to evade capture and don’t return to Mexico. In July, the most gotaways were reported in El Paso and Tucson sectors, as they have been nearly every month this year.

Tucson Sector agents posted 34,000 apprehensions in July, according to the sector’s Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin of the U.S. Border Patrol. He noted 11,000 apprehensions, 15 human smuggling events, and 10 narcotics seizures last week alone.

“Several Tucson Sector stations encountered several large groups of migrants over the weekend. The largest group, 533, was encountered west of Lukeville, AZ, Sunday. The group consisted of single adults, unaccompanied children, and family units from seventeen different countries,” Modlin wrote in a recent tweet.

The threat is spreading well beyond the border.

As Grothman noted, the crisis at the Southern border has a direct effect on Wisconsin families as deadly drugs, primarily fentanyl, have infiltrated local communities. From 2021 to 2022, fentanyl was found in over 90 percent of opioid overdose deaths and 73 percent of all drug overdose deaths in Wisconsin, the congressman noted in a press release.

“Our joint field hearing will be a unique opportunity to see firsthand the devastating impacts of the Biden Administration’s failed policies at the border and explore ways that Congress can assist,” Grothman and Biggs said in the statement.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Humanitarian Crisis” by Tucson Sector Chief John Modlin.

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