Once again, Judiciary Republicans are hosting yet another blatant political stunt, this time laying the groundwork for impeachment by pretending to care about reforming our immigration system. Jim Jordan is rolling out the red carpet for a group of extreme witnesses composed of former Trump administration officials now working for right-wing think tanks and anti-immigration nonprofits, 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 pushed to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and restrict legal immigration during his tenure at DHS Citizenship & Immigration Services. Jordan also invited a Trump appointee and MAGA loyalist who joined his administration only after Bush-era nominations stalled six times due to his series of Department of Justice (DOJ) memos authorizing torture.
Judiciary Republicans already know they don’t have evidence or expertise backing impeachment. Instead of actually addressing immigration reform and other issues Americans care most about, the House GOP is only working to push the MAGA agenda and appease the most right-wing members of his caucus by hand-picking former Trump officials to target the Biden administration.
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 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 who served during the Trump administration. 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 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 Judiciary Republicans. 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.
- 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.
- Edlow Has Long Supported Ending The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program Protecting Millions of Residents. Edlow has long been opposed to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In June 2020, after the Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s efforts to end DACA, 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.”
Steven G. Bradbury is a former acting Secretary of Transportation who served during the Trump administration and a former DOJ official who penned legal opinions justifying waterboarding and other tortuous “enhanced interrogation tactics” during the Bush administration. After leaving his post, Bradbury joined the Heritage Foundation, as a distinguished fellow.
- Despite His Lack Of Immigration Expertise, Bradbury Published A Report Pushing House Republicans To Impeach Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas In February. In December 2022, Bradbury joined the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank that has worked to push right-wing grievances about immigration policy and has a history of publishing false and misleading information about immigration. Shortly after joining the Heritage Foundation, and despite his lack of policy expertise with immigration and border security, Bradbury published a report strongly advocating for House Republicans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
- Bradbury Served As A Top Political Appointee Throughout Trump’s Presidency, Becoming An Acting Cabinet Official After The January 6 Insurrection. Bradbury is a Trump loyalist who served as a top political appointee in the Department of Transportation (DOT) for much of Trump’s presidency. Two Republican Senators voted against his appointment, and he was narrowly confirmed 50-47. Bradbury served from November 2017 to January 2021 in roles ranging from general counsel to Acting Secretary of DOT after Secretary Elaine Chao resigned in the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
- Bradbury Worked In the Bush-Era DOJ & Penned Legal Opinions Justifying Torture. In 2004, Bradbury joined the Bush-era Department of Justice as a Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General. During his tenure in the second Bush administration, Bradbury authored a number of significant classified opinions known as “Torture Memos” providing legal authorization for waterboarding and other forms of torturous “enhanced” interrogation tactics employed by the CIA and U.S. armed forced against terrorism suspects without due process. After Bradbury’s departure from the DOJ, Obama administration officials rescinded several of his torture memos.
- Bradbury’s Bush-Era DOJ Nomination Stalled Out Six Times Due To His “Torture Memos.” Bradbury was nominated by former president G.W. Bush to be an assistant attorney general was rejected six times throughout Bush’s second term. Each time, Bradbury’s nomination was stalled by extreme concerns over his torture memos. In 2008, Bradbury testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his legal justifications for waterboarding and faced strong backlash from civil rights advocates and legal scholars alike. Bradbury’s final recess nomination stalled in 2009 and he left the federal government.
- Bradbury Clerked For Right-Wing SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas. “Mr. Bradbury’s biography had a Horatio Alger element that appealed to a succession of bosses, including Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court and Mr. Gonzales, the son of poor immigrants. […] Mr. Bradbury belonged to the same circle as his predecessors: young, conservative lawyers with sterling credentials, often with clerkships for prominent conservative judges and ties to the Federalist Society, a powerhouse of the legal right.” [New York Times, 10/4/07]