US homeland security chief to face hostile Republicans over border policies

Republican lawmakers are set to throw fire at Alejandro Mayorkas, the embattled US secretary of Homeland Security, during a House judiciary committee oversight hearing Wednesday.

Mayorkas, who has been the target of a GOP-led congressional investigation over his handling of the US-Mexico border, is expected to face a series of tough questions regarding his tenure as head of the department, which broadly oversees US immigration and border policies. The hearing could also be a precursor to an impeachment process that some House Republicans have threatened over the past few months.

A refugee from Cuba, Mayorkas is the first Latino and immigrant to head the Department of Homeland Security and has faced backlash for being soft on undocumented immigrants entering the country.

Florida ocean records ‘unprecedented’ temperaturessimilar to a hot tub

But the Wednesday oversight hearing is largely seen as a chance for Republicans to gain political capital on a major election issue as they hammer Biden’s top domestic security official. It likely won’t address the conditions in which a record number of undocumented people are dying attempting to enter the US, due to drownings and increasingly, extreme heat.