Chairman Green Subpoenas DHS Secretary Mayorkas Over Failure to Produce Documents on Inoperable Surveillance Cameras Along the Southwest Border

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Yesterday, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) subpoenaed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for documents and information pertaining to the status of Remote Video Surveillance System (RVSS) towers deployed along the Southwest border. The subpoena demands a variety of documents and records from DHS, including daily availability reports for these systems.

The subpoena follows the department's refusal to sufficiently answer the Committee's October 16 document requests after sources informed the Committee of concerns regarding these systems, including claims from internal sources that the majority of cameras were currently inoperable, and unvetted individuals had been performing maintenance on them.

Read the full cover letter, subpoena, and subpoena schedule.

Read more from Adam Shaw via Fox News

In a cover letter to Secretary Mayorkas, Chairman Green wrote, "On October 16, the Committee requested specific documents and information relating to the operability of cameras in U.S. Border Patrol's (USBP) Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT) and Remote Video Surveillance System-Upgrade (RVSS-U) programs. The exigency of this national security threat demands solutions from the Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Congress.

"Multiple sources informed the Committee that more than 66 percent of cameras in the RVSS-U program are inoperable. These sources also informed the Committee that the maintenance and repair of the RVSS-U towers, including through an Interagency Agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration, is sometimes performed by non-U.S. citizens, possibly in violation of CBP security policy.

Chairman Green continued, "The failure to maintain camera operability in surveillance towers presents a grave national security threat. In the last four years, the Biden-Harris Administration's disastrous border security and immigration policies have resulted in CBP encountering more than 8.4 million individuals at the U.S.-Mexico border, more than 10.4 million nationwide, and the escape of more than two million known gotaways into the interior of the United States. The Committee is deeply concerned that if nearly two-thirds of USBP's remote surveillance tower cameras are inoperable, the total number of aliens that entered or will enter the United States without screening or vetting may be much greater than reported.

Chairman Green concluded, "The Department's delinquency in providing the Committee the specific documents and information requested on October 16 is therefore unacceptable. On October 25, Committee staff e-mailed the Department's Office of Legislative Affairs (DHS-OLA) staff, requesting immediate production of a narrowed scope of the requested documents and information. DHS-OLA responded that a briefing with Committee staff on October 30 would 'begin answering the Committee's informational needs,' while providing no further information on which of the Committee's October 16 requests the Department might satisfy in the briefing or if the briefing would be accompanied with a production of documents. Committee staff again e-mailed DHS-OLA inquiring whether the Department would produce the requested documents by October 28. The Department failed to respond to the Committee's e-mail. Further, in the October 30 briefing with Committee staff the Department stated that the briefing was 'not intended to be responsive' to the October 16 letter, and further provided no date that the Committee could expect production."

Background:

According to sources within DHS, the USBP relies on more than 200 RVSS towers to "enable the Border Patrol to survey large areas without having to commit hundreds of agents in vehicles to perform the same function." However, since June 2023, roughly two-thirds of those cameras have gone completely off-line and have not been repaired, preventing Border Patrol agents from making use of these important capabilities, limiting agents' ability to detect and respond to illegal entries, and likely contributing to an undercounting of known gotaways.

These sources also informed the Committee that per an interagency agreement between Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the FAA is responsible for maintaining these RVSS-U cameras, and those who work on the system must abide by specific security protocols, such as the equivalent of a background check. However, according to one internal source, dozens of contractors who worked on these cameras were not cleared to work on these law-enforcement sensitive assets. Even more shockingly, this source was unable to verify that several workers, in particular, were even U.S. citizens.

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