In an open confrontation, Republican Mike Garcia of California informed FBI Director Christopher Wray that he doesn’t trust him. Garcia accused Wray of being secretive and doing little to affect policy on the southern border, particularly as it concerns national security.
While the meeting did touch on next year’s budget and the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the director of the FBI was present to discuss the fight against terrorist attacks and the illegal entry of violent gangs into the United States through the southern border, a problem that is heavily linked to the fentanyl epidemic.
Garcia told Wray that the issue is not one of money but of secrecy and the politicization of national security matters to target individuals and organizations, such as churches. Wray was competent in managing the courageous agents working under him, but the director has been mostly quiet and inactive on the southern border, which is the greatest danger to U.S. national security.
Garcia said he would argue that our current predicament is far more dire than it was on September 10, 2001, due to your failure to effectively lead and influence decisions inside the Department of Justice and the White House.
Wray voiced his worries about the open border and its impact on the cartels, including the fentanyl influx into the United States, during his testimony. He informed the panel that the recovery of fentanyl is a common occurrence when officers dismantle violent groups. Wray said that the narcotics originating from China are reaching the cartels. And more funding will be required for the FBI to deal with them.
Garcia informed Wray that the director of the FBI had only brought up the southern border four times before he could ask questions, circling back to the idea that seven million people have crossed the border illegally, three hundred fifty of them are listed on an FBI terror watch list, and one and a half million managed to evade border patrols before they were caught.
According to U.S. authorities, Border Patrol officers arrested and released an Afghan migrant who was on the terrorist watchlist last year, but he remained in the country for almost another year. An immigration court first detained the individual in February, but he was freed from custody again last month.
