Homeland Security secretary set to testify as immigration takes center stage in midterms
CNN
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas faces off Wednesday with Congress in a series of high-profile hearings that will put the secretary and the administration's immigration policies in the spotlight ahead of the midterm election.
Mayorkas will meet Wednesday with both the House Homeland Security Committee and a subcommittee on House Appropriations. On Thursday, he will sit before the House Judiciary Committee. The hearings are part of Mayorkas' routine efforts to request funding for his agency and for Congress to provide oversight.
Yet the hearings come as the administration is facing increasing criticism from Republicans and some Democrats about its approach to ending a Trump-era pandemic restriction, known as Title 42, on the US-Mexico border. That authority allows border officials to immediately send migrants back to their home country citing a public health emergency. The Biden administration announced in April it was ending the practice on May 23.