Washington, D.C. (January 22, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, led Committee Democrats in debunking Republican mistruths on immigration enforcement under the Biden Administration and outlining the harms of President Donald Trump’s day one executive orders that demonize immigrants, reduce legal immigration, reverse immigration policies that were proven effective, and create chaos in our immigration system.
“The Chairman began by saying the point here is to restore the rule of law, restore the rule of law. Can you even pretend to do that, if you stand by and support Donald Trump, who on day one—as the Chairman of the Committee just said, day one of his presidency—pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists, including hundreds of people who violently assaulted and attacked American police officers?” said Ranking Member Raskin in his opening statement.
“The frustration with our immigration and border problem has also led the president to engage in a direct attack on the Constitution. […] There’s never been a question uh about if you’re born here, you’re an American, but there’s a direct assault on that. And the idea that this is being done in the effort to preserve public safety I think is belied by the other executive action taken by the president just yesterday, where President Trump pardoned hundreds of felons who violently attacked police officers on January 6th. The decision to release violent criminals into our community makes America less safe,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren in her opening statement.
The hearing included testimony from: David Bier, Director of Immigration Studies, Cato Institute; John Fabbricatore, Former ICE Field Office Director, Visiting Fellow, The Heritage Foundation; Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies; and Grant Newman, Director of Government Relations, Immigration Accountability Project.
Judiciary Democrats pointed out that President Trump is inheriting a border with fewer unlawful crossings today than when he left office in 2021, thanks to the actions of the Biden Administration.
- Ranking Member Raskin said, “Today, unlawful crossings at the border are much lower than they were when President Trump left office, we made progress. Now is the time for us to tackle the daunting task of finding compromise and pragmatic solutions to fix the system that has not been updated in decades.”
- Democratic witness David Bier explained, “Biden’s approach was working. Yes, overall crossings increased during the economic recovery, but Border Patrol encounters were down 33% in Biden’s final months compared to Trump’s final months. Criminal crossings had fallen 57%. Evasions of Border Patrol were down 42% following immediately after President Biden reversed Trump’s expulsion to Mexico policy. For the first time ever, most immigrants coming to the U.S. border were applying to enter legally through a regulated and screened lawful pathway.”
- Rep. Steve Cohen asked Mr. Bier to explain how the bipartisan border deal, which Republicans killed at Trump’s behest, would have made needed reforms to our immigration system. Mr. Bier said the bill was “a modest step in the right direction.” Rep. Cohen emphasized the need for bipartisan “legislation that is thought out, not just common sense, but logical, thought out and planned.”
Judiciary Democrats explained that executive orders from President Trump this week will do nothing to fix our immigration system. Instead, they will cut off lawful pathways to immigration and create chaos at the border.
- Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon said: “The new President signed more than 200 divisive and politically motivated executive actions that don’t further the process of reforming and fixing our border or our immigration system. Included among those orders were several that seemed destined to create more chaos in our immigration system and at our southern border, not less, because these orders aren’t solutions, but political posturing. What do they do? They eliminate pathways that had been successfully lowering border crossings. They reinstate failed programs of the past. They make it harder to prioritize serious national security threats for enforcement. They have blocked the resettlement of Afghan allies who have been thoroughly vetted and have been waiting years for entry into this country. And there’s an attempt to overturn the Constitutional right to birthright citizenship […] These actions do not make our country safer.”
- Ranking Member Raskin asked Mr. Bier: “The new Trump Administration inherits a situation that’s better in terms of unlawful crossings. What is going to be the effect of all of these executive orders at this point, it seems almost like they’re calculated to produce more chaos? Mr. Bier responded: “He’s trying to get rid of the legal channels by which people come into the country. He got rid of the refugee program on day one. He got rid of the parole processes that allow people to enter legally on day one. He said, we’re not going to do any kind of asylum, even for people who are entering the country legally. If you do that, what’s the alternative? It’s illegal immigration.”
- Rep. Jerrold Nadler asked Mr. Bier to explain how President Trump’s executive order that purports to end birthright citizenship would work in practice, and to explain the chaos that would ensue if this order is implemented. Mr. Bier responded: “This is the insanity of this order from an administrative perspective: it’s going to burden every single American, it’s going to call into question all of our citizenship. And, looking forward, it’s going to create a lot of people who are in stateless situations where they don’t have citizenship of any country and can be subject to removal even though they were born here, they grew up here. They are Americans. This is an attack on Americans and our rights.”
Judiciary Democrats called out President Trump’s extreme plan to conduct mass deportations, which would divert resources away from actual public safety in order to round-up and deport law-abiding, tax-paying individuals who have been here for decades.
- Rep. Deborah Ross said: “We must consider the humanitarian and economic consequences of mass deportations. Deporting every undocumented immigrant in the country would destroy families, devastate industries’ and make our economy less secure. I represent North Carolina. Without immigrant labor we would have no agriculture industry. We would not have a food service industry. Many of our tech industry executives beg for more lawful pathways to immigration. Our hospitality industry, our construction industry, I hear from them every single day.”
- Rep. Chuy Garcia asked Mr. Bier: “President Trump signed an executive order to use the Alien Enemies Act to do mass deportations without due process, raising significant constitutional questions. How this align with the 5th Amendment, which guarantees due process to all individuals within the United States?” Mr. Bier responded: “If he invokes the Alien Enemies Act, it would give him power to use the military to detain, arrest, and remove people without proving that they’re in the country illegally or are removable from the United States. That’s an incredibly dangerous power that threatens the rights of all Americans. It also could apply even to legal permanent residents and other non-citizens who could be removed.”
- Rep. Jasmine Crockett said: “My colleagues from across the aisle have decided that they are going to make immigrants the boogeyman, it’s insanity to me. […] They have no compassion for people that are contributing to making us great in this country.”
