House Oversight Republicans demand hearing in New Mexico on border crisis

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Republican members of the House Oversight Committee are demanding a field hearing in New Mexico to examine the impact of the border crisis in the state.

"Every single GOP member of the House Oversight Committee has signed on to my letter calling for a field hearing on the New Mexico border to address the Biden Border Crisis," announced New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell on Twitter. "By end of FY2021, a population the size of New Mexico will have illegally entered the US."

The letter argues that it is the Oversight Committee's "duty" to "provide oversight of the crises that face our country," specifically pointing to the how the border crisis could potentially exacerbate the COVID-19 pandemic.

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"We are unable to properly determine the infection status of those that have entered illegally and have been apprehended, let alone those those that have escaped," the letter reads. "What we do know is that a recent report indicates a 900 percent increase in the COVID-19 positive testing rate for illegal immigrants in custody in the Rio Grand Valley Sector for the first two weeks of July."

The letter – which GOP Reps. James Comer, Clay Higgins, Andrew S. Clyde, Glenn Grothmam, and Byron Donalds signed – argues the U.S. is "on pace to have nearly 2 million people cross the border by the end of this fiscal year, the approximate size of New Mexico's population."

The lawmakers call on testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins.

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"Additionally, we ask that his hearing be a field hearing held in New Mexico near the southern border," the letter concludes. "This will give some of the medical professionals their first exposure to the porous border with Mexico and help them better understand the threat of viral spread occurring."