This week, House Republicans are hosting yet another transparent stunt hearing focused on the southern border. This time, they are re-using two former Trump administration officials who already testified to Congress last week, including an unlawfully appointed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official currently serving as executive director of Trump’s MAGA think tank and an anti-immigration hardliner who ignored a court order to administer the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and restricted legal immigration during his tenure at DHS Citizenship & Immigration Services. They are also recycling a right-wing mainstay belonging to a Koch-funded think tank who testified to Congress just a few weeks ago and was ousted by the Biden administration amidst allegations of covering-up investigations and ethics violations.
MAGA Republicans are growing desperate because they know they do not have any evidence to support their claims. Instead of actually addressing immigration reform and other issues Americans care most about, the House GOP is only working to push the same old talking points. As border crossings continue to fall, they are using the same old witnesses over and over again. This is just another predictable partisan stunt, a tiresome exercise in repetition.
Chad Wolf is a former Trump official who unlawfully served as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security for over a year during the Trump administration. He now serves as Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer for the hard-right America First Policy Institute, a think tank focused on pushing Trump’s MAGA policy agenda, and has launched his own consulting firm by explicitly promoting his experience at DHS. Wolf is a repeat GOP witness — in fact, far-right Republicans on the Jim Jordan-led House Judiciary committee invited Wolf to testify at yet another partisan stunt border hearing held last week.
- Wolf Protected Extremists While Serving In Office Unlawfully. While serving as Acting Secretary of DHS, Wolf reportedly directed a top DHS official to downplay threats from “violent white supremacy and Russian election interference because they ‘made the [President Trump] look bad.’” Other officials also expressed concern that Wolf was downplaying other violent extremist groups, including questioning whether one group pressing for “civil war” could be characterized as “far-right.” During his tenure, DHS also maintained a focus on Antifa rather than investigating threats of right-wing domestic terrorism.
- Wolf Lied Under Oath About His Role In Developing Trump’s Inhumane Immigration Policies. In June 2019, Wolf lied under oath during a Congressional hearing by claiming that he did not have a hand in developing the immigrant family separation policy, a deliberately cruel measure intended to deter potential migrants. In reality, Wolf was one of the early architects of Trump’s family separation policy.
- Wolf Led Anti-Democratic Crackdowns on Protesters & Erased Texts From January 6. While serving as DHS Acting Secretary, Wolf faced criticism for placing DHS agents in the streets of Portland, Oregon in response to racial justice protests. He refused to remove federal officials for weeks as they engaged in a policy characterized as “like stop and frisk meets Guantanamo Bay,” resorting to “abduction” and “kidnapping” in unmarked vans in a move Portland’s mayor called “an attack on our democracy.” Months later, after the violent insurrection at the Capitol, it came to light that DHS, under Wolf’s direction, reset their government phones in January 2021, erasing text messages and communications from January 6.
- Wolf Is Part of A Hardline Anti-Immigration Coalition Spearheaded By A Hate Group. Wolf recently joined a coalition of hardline immigration groups — including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an SPLC-designated hate group — in calling on House Republicans to commit to a far-right border agenda. As the SPLC concluded, “Although FAIR maintains a veneer of legitimacy that has allowed its principals to testify in Congress and lobby the federal government, this veneer hides much ugliness.” The coalition consists of groups with ties to white supremacists, eugenicists, and “great replacement” theorists.
Joseph Edlow is a former acting director of U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) who served during the Trump administration, ignoring a court order to administer the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. After leaving his post, Edlow founded his own consulting firm and now works as a visiting fellow for the Heritage Foundation. Edlow currently serves — alongside a handful of other former Homeland Security officials and right-wing policy wonks from organizations like the Heritage Foundation — on the advisory board of a new nonprofit known as the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE), which launched in June 2023.
- Edlow Ignored A Court Order & Illegally Undermined The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program Protecting Millions of Residents. While serving as head of the USCIS, Edlow ignored a Supreme Court ruling ordering the Trump administration to continue to administer the DACA program, refusing to accept new applications to the program for over a month after the court order. Edlow has long been opposed to DACA, and after the Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s efforts to end the program in June 2020, Edlow released a statement denouncing the ruling: “hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens continue to remain in our country in violation of the laws passed by Congress and to take jobs Americans need now more than ever.”
- Edlow Is Part of A Hardline Anti-Immigration Coalition Spearheaded By A Hate Group. Edlow recently joined a coalition of hardline immigration groups — including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an SPLC-designated hate group — in calling on House Republicans to commit to a far-right border agenda. As the SPLC concluded, “Although FAIR maintains a veneer of legitimacy that has allowed its principals to testify in Congress and lobby the federal government, this veneer hides much ugliness.” The coalition consists of groups with ties to white supremacists, eugenicists, and “great replacement” theorists.
- Edlow Is A Visiting Fellow At A Right-Wing Think Tank That Shaped The Trump Administration and Anti-Immigration Policy. The Heritage Foundation was deeply influential in the Trump administration, helping select his staffers and even members of his cabinet — including former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who Edlow worked directly under as deputy assistant attorney general. Edlow has produced a steady stream of articles opposing the Biden administration’s immigration policies, most recently accusing the executive branch of prioritizing “illegal aliens’ applications over those who came here lawfully,” pointing to rising caseloads that first spiked during Edlow’s own tenure.
- Edlow Has A History Of Working With House Republicans, and Testified To Judiciary Republicans Just Last Week. Before he was appointed to the Trump administration, Edlow spent more than three years working in the House of Representatives, and served as counsel to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee for the subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security between 2017 and 2018. During that time, he even testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as well as the House Judiciary Committee. In fact, just last week, far-right Republicans on the Jim Jordan-led House Judiciary committee invited Edlow to testify at yet another partisan stunt border hearing.
- Edlow, Who Ran Citizenship & Immigration Services During the Trump Administration, Oversaw Efforts To Severely Restrict Legal Immigration. Edlow was installed by Trump-era acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf to run daily operations at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in 2020 after serving as chief counsel since July 2019. Edlow has since boasted about running “the day-to-day operations of the federal agency responsible for administering the legal immigration system of the United States […] successfully managed an agency-wide fiscal crisis, staved off a potentially devastating furlough of federal employees, and worked to reform the corporate governance structure of the agency.” In reality, however, the agency worked feverishly to restrict legal immigration. During his tenure, the USCIS worked to reduce applications by rejecting all forms with blank spaces — even if a question didn’t apply. Processing times for employment-based green cards jumped to 14.5 months from 6.8 months in just over a year, and for citizenship, processing times rose to 9.1 months from 5.6 months.
Rodney Scott is a retired chief of the U.S. Border Patrol who was ousted by the Biden administration amidst allegations of covering-up investigations and ethics violations. He is currently serving as a distinguished Senior Fellow of the right-wing Texas Public Policy Foundation. Scott is a repeat GOP witness — in fact, far-right Republicans on the Jim Jordan-led House Judiciary committee invited Wolf to testify at yet another partisan stunt border hearing held less than a month ago.
- Rodney Scott Was Under Investigation For Burying Investigations Into Border Patrol Agents Under His Command. “CBP also went to great lengths to protect its own, shielding agents who faced serious discipline for their participation in the vulgar group, the House Oversight Committee’s report revealed. Heads should have rolled—yet only four of the nearly 140 agents investigated were ultimately fired. ‘The high-ranking male officers tend to get away with these crimes,’ former Senior Border Patrol agent turned whistleblower Jenn Budd told The New York Times. Budd was raped while training at its academy in the 1990s. In 2021, now-former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott made a judge later described as a ‘classic’ rape threat to Budd over social media, mocking her claims and instructing her to ‘lean back,’ close her eyes, ‘and just enjoy the show.’ Scott had left his post earlier that year after he was asked to resign by the Biden administration.” [Daily Kos, 1/23/23]
- Rodney Scott Frequently Attacks the Biden Administration On Fox News. A former U.S. border patrol chief and a staunch supporter of the Trump administration’s inhumane approach to immigration who was ousted by the Biden administration, Scott has become a frequent face on right-wing media, attacking the Biden administration and echoing right-wing talking points.
- Rodney Scott, Whose Work Was Endorsed By A Hate Group, Is Part Of A Koch-Funded Right-Wing Think Tank. Scott is a distinguished senior fellow for a right-wing think tank known as the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), an organization that is, reportedly, partially responsible for the Texas GOP’s far-right shift. TPPF is fueled by climate change skepticism and anti-trans sentiment, and is closely affiliated with a grab-bag of right-wing think tanks and legislative networks like the State Policy Network, and the massive right-wing model legislation farm American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Scott himself has also been endorsed by anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies.