Arizona takes center stage in border security showdown with McCarthy visit

HEREFORD, Ariz. — Rep. Kevin McCarthy brought the fight over border security to Arizona on Thursday as part of his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border since his election last month as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Arizona is featured prominently in the efforts by House Republican lawmakers to spotlight what they say are President Joe Biden’s failings on border security and the handling of record number of migrant encounters in the southern U.S. border with Mexico.

McCarthy, R-Calif., joined by four freshman Republican lawmakers, met with law enforcement, elected leaders and residents from Cochise County before concluding his visit with a tour of the border fence south of Sierra Vista.

McCarthy said the decision to visit Cochise County was strategic because of the large number of people attempting to cross through southeastern Arizona while trying to avoid detection from border officials.

“The sad part about what’s happening is, the country of Mexico does not know who’s leaving their country. America, we do not know who is entering the country,” McCarthy said. “But there is one entity who knows who is leaving Mexico and who is coming into America, the Sinaloa cartel, because nobody comes across this border without paying them.”

Since taking control of the House in January, Republicans have used their position in the majority to criticize Biden’s border policies, especially going after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who some have vowed to impeach.

“Our border, we don't even have operational control of it anymore. This is why I will continue to investigate what has gone wrong here,” McCarthy said. “And we will hold people accountable. And that includes Secretary Mayorkas. You cannot lie to the American people any longer and tell us this border is secure.”

McCarthy’s visit to Cochise County further reinforced the role that Arizona is expected to play in their efforts to discredit Biden’s border policies, while playing up their newly secured oversight authority.

Several House committees, now chaired by Republicans, have launched congressional hearings over the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Two held hearings last week on Capitol Hill that featured testimony from John Modlin, the chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, which includes Cochise County, as well as Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels. Dannels on Thursday led the tour of the border.

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On Wednesday, the House Committee of Energy and Finance held a field hearing in Texas on the public health impacts of the situation at the border. Next Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold another field hearing in Yuma that will focus on border security issues.

White House spokesperson Ian Sams responded Wednesday in a written statement to the border field hearings and McCarthy’s visit to Cochise County. He defended Biden’s record on border enforcement and called on Republicans to work with his administration.

“House Republicans should spend less time on partisan publicity stunts and more time working on solutions,” Sams said. “Solutions are what President Biden is focused on, and his plan is working. House Republicans would be wise to join him to work together to strengthen our immigration system and fund border security.”

Border security versus immigration reform

McCarthy’s visit included four freshman Republican lawmakers: Rep. Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, whose district covers most of Cochise County, plus Reps. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon, Jen Kiggans of Virginia and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin.

Ciscomani, who helped organize Thursday’s visit, was sworn in last month after he flipped the district's House seat from Democratic to Republican. Since then, his profile has begun to rise within Republican circles. Earlier this month he delivered the Spanish-language response to Biden’s State of the Union address.

“There are two people that can really have an immediate impact on the situation in this country, and that's President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas. And they both have failed and they have shown no interest in fixing this issue,” he said.

Ciscomani invited Biden and Mayorkas to visit Cochise County, adding that it was important for them to see the issues that he was familiar with having grown up in the area. Thursday’s visit did not include any Democratic lawmakers.

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When asked about that, Ciscomani said the issue was not about politics, but about finding solutions.

“We're not here talking about immigration reform. We're here talking about border security. These are two different issues and we need to deal with them separately,” he said.

One of the Democrats noticeably absent from the event was Rep. Raúl Grijalva, whose congressional district was modified in the latest round of redistricting to include the border communities in Cochise County. That includes the portions of unincorporated land south of Sierra Vista that McCarthy and the GOP congressional delegation visited.

Earlier in the day, Grijalva also was in Cochise County, where he met with the mayor of the border city of Douglas and toured the Raul H. Castro port of entry.

Last year, Congress allocated $200 million in funding for a long-sought expansion of the border crossing in Douglas as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The first steps toward modernizing the port would begin in the next few weeks.

Those actions were the types of results that border communities needed because they had a vital economic impact in the region and would also help with border security by stopping a greater number of drugs like fentanyl, which are largely smuggled through legal border crossings, Grijalva said.

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He said he hoped McCarthy and other Republicans who visit the border take away how complex border communities are, warning of the impact that alarmist rhetoric has in the region he has represented in Congress for decades.

“As long as it’s being slandered, as long as it’s demonized by people such as the speaker of the House of Representatives and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, then that’s the message that goes out to the rest of America,” Grijalva said. “Viewing this part of the world and this part of our nation as a deficit, and somehow outlaw land, different from the rest of the country. It’s not different.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona takes center stage in border security fight between Biden, GOP