House Democrats are not interested in border security. That point is clear as they chicken out from participating in a field hearing in McAllen, Texas scheduled on Wednesday, March 15. Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) said that all Democrat members of the committee pulled out of attending the hearing. This is even though an important person in the Biden border crisis is set to testify – U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.

As usual, it was Fox News Channel’s reporter on the southern border, Bill Melugin, who broke the news Monday night that the Democrats would be no-shows for the field hearing.

BREAKING: House Homeland Security Committee Chairman @RepMarkGreen tells us he has just learned all Democrats on the committee are pulling out from attending a field hearing about the border crisis in Texas on Wednesday. He says that’s despite several Dems confirming attendance,… https://t.co/S16d1fHWiT pic.twitter.com/valGznpVp7

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) March 13, 2023

“It’s deeply disappointing that the minority members of the Committee have chosen to bail on this week’s full committee field hearing in Texas, only after they invited and confirmed a minority witness for one of the panels,” Green said. “The only message their absence sends is that they are uninterested in coming to the table to have a conversation about the devastation that this border crisis is having on Americans and their communities across the country.”

Democrats claim they never agreed to make the trip to McAllen. They now say they will not because Republicans are going to politicize the hearing.

STATEMENT from Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D):

“After careful consideration, Committee Democrats have decided not to participate in the Republicans’ field hearing this week. Unfortunately, it has become clear that Republicans planned to politicize this event from the start,… https://t.co/Z07ZtiGJ4U

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) March 13, 2023

You can’t make this stuff up. Thompson says Republicans will politicize the hearing then he calls out Republicans for not voting for Biden’s bloated Inflation Reduction Act. Thompson is the king of politicizing hearings – he chaired the House J6 committee and shut out any rebuttals from Republicans during testimonies from witnesses. He ran the committee – assisted by Liz Cheney – as a one-sided exercise in partisan politics. What a shameful hack.

Riddle me this, Rep. Thompson – if Democrats never agreed to participate in the field hearing, why did you invite a witness to testify for the minority? Is your witness left in limbo now?

Democrats were given a month’s notice about the location and date of the field hearing. Biden will be held accountable for the chaos on the border because he is the president and it is his policies that have caused the border crisis. The buck stops at his desk. Republicans are fulfilling a campaign promise to focus on the Biden border crisis, which includes holding field hearings on the border to see the problems created by bad policy decisions up-close.

Last month, the committee held a “border boot camp” in El Paso, Texas. It also held a full committee hearing on border security.

There is no substitute for going to border communities and seeing how they are affected by the chaos on the southern border as legislation is being put forward in Congress. The Biden border crisis has only gotten worse each year he has been in office. The numbers don’t lie – over 1.7 million migrant encounters in FY2021. More than 2.3 million in FY2022. FY2023 is on track for higher numbers than last year. If not now to act, then when? To continue to ignore the porous border and lie that it is secure is not a sustainable plan.

Thompson claims that Democrats will make their own trips to the border soon. Where have they been since Biden took office and did away with all of the policies and agreements to secure the border on his very first day in the office? Like it or not, the previous administration had succeeded in securing the border, at least more so than past administrations. Democrats are unable to admit that, though, so they continue to demagogue the issue.

Hyper-partisan House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries admits he was “enlightened” during his first trip to the border.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he was “enlightened” on his first trip to the border, and he invited his colleagues in Washington, D.C., to make the effort and also take a trip to see the U.S. border with Mexico for themselves.

“I’m going to continue to encourage my colleagues in Washington — as part of trying to arrive at a comprehensive solution — to take a field trip and come down to the border communities, and speak to the people who experience life on the border,” Jeffries told reporters after touring the World Trade Bridge — the largest inland commercial port on the Southwest border — with U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.

The timing is interesting, given the fact that more than 1,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, stormed a port of entry bridge at El Paso on Sunday. That story illustrates the crisis is nowhere near over and migrants are emboldened to ignore proper channels to cross into the United States. Joe Biden told them to come three years ago and they believed him. Now drug cartels and human traffickers are in charge of large parts of the southern border. They coordinate groups of migrants through social media and help them cross the border. The flood of migrants on Sunday was the result of a Facebook post, allegedly posted by a cartel, that instructed migrants to get to the bridge at the port of entry and they would be allowed into the United States.

And on it goes. Look for both sides of the aisle to play politics with illegal immigration as the 2024 presidential election cycle heats up. They always do.