WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), senior member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today questioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the administration’s failure to establish control over the southern border, various threats to national security posed by foreign nationals—especially those affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, the department’s contact with social media companies as part of so-called disinformation efforts, and the stonewalling of documents related to an ongoing congressional investigation.
 
 
There are several reports of foreign nations—like China—purchasing large swaths of U.S. land for farming and agricultural purposes. Some of these tracts of lands are suspiciously close to American military bases or critical infrastructure sites.
 
How’s Homeland Security working with the Department of Agriculture and law enforcement entities to track these types of suspicious land purchases?
 
Is Homeland Security notifying relevant parties that may be targets of possible espionage from these tracts of foreign-owned land?
 

Over two years ago, on February 11, 2021, I wrote to you and asked 1) whether the Department of Homeland Security considers Confucius Institutes and their affiliates to be an extension of the communist Chinese government, and 2) if the Department believed them to be purveyors of communist Chinese government propaganda. The answers should be obvious to the Biden administration. We all know the national security threats that Confucius Institutes pose based on the Chinese government’s own words about them. And many educational institutions have already rightly shut down their Confucius Institutes. Yet, on July 29, 2021, you personally responded and failed to answer those critical questions.
 
So, with respect to those two questions, what’s your answer today?

For any college, university or other educational institution in the United States that maintains a Confucius Institute connected with China, would you advise those educational institutions to close them based on national security reasons? If not, why not?
 
 
Multiple Inspectors General have found that the Department of Homeland Security failed to fully vet and screen Afghan evacuees before entry into the United States. In one report, the Defense Department Inspector General said at least 50 evacuees in the United States posed potentially significant national security concerns.

How many Afghan evacuees are currently in the country who pose potential or actual national security concerns?
 
Does the Department of Homeland Security know the location of every Afghan evacuee in the United States who poses a potential national security concern? If not, why not?

What are you doing to coordinate with the FBI’s ongoing assessment and investigation of Afghan evacuees in the United States who pose potential national security risks?
 
 
On January 23, 2023, Senator Johnson and I sent a letter to the Secret Service requesting visitor logs for President Biden’s residences. Our letter is part of a review that we began in 2021 of President Biden’s compliance with federal records laws dating back to his time as vice president. Our request was also based on a news report that the Secret Service was prepared to turn those records over to Congress pursuant to a request. Since then, my and Senator Johnson’s staff have been told that the DHS Office of General Counsel is the barrier to the Secret Service producing the relevant material to Congress. It appears that the Office of General Counsel is being used as a shield to frustrate and obstruct congressional oversight.
 
What steps have you instructed the Office of General Counsel to take to produce the requested material to me and Senator Johnson? What legal barriers exist to producing these Secret Service visitor logs to Congress?

See the full exchange here: 


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