U.S. Sen. Johnson: Demands DHS Secretary Mayorkas turn over records on inadmissible travelers at U.S. airports

WASHINGTON – On Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding records relating to the threat posed by the Biden administration’s inability to detain and remove inadmissible travelers from U.S. airports.

The DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently published a report providing further evidence of the Biden administration’s disastrous handling of border security and blatant disregard for immigration laws.  The OIG report found that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) identified 66,491 inadmissible non-citizen travelers at U.S. airports during an 18-month period.

The OIG found that between 2021 and 2023, almost 400 inadmissible non-citizen travelers from a single undisclosed U.S. international airport were released into the U.S. with verbal instructions to return for their removal flights.  At least 168 of those travelers failed to return for their removal flights. 

“This security lapse must be fixed so that American airports do not become yet another easily exploited avenue for illegal immigration and terrorism,” Sen. Johnson wrote.

The senator is requesting that Sec. Mayorkas provide information related to this lapse in security by July 22, 2024.

Read more about the senator’s July 8, 2024 letter to Sec. Mayorkas in Breitbart.