Top House committee subpoenas Biden admin for docs on faulty border cameras: 'National security threat'

FIRST ON FOX: The House Homeland Security Committee has subpoenaed the Biden administration for documents related to what it says is a failure to operate and maintain surveillance cameras at the southern border after it did not receive a response to its demands for answers.

Chairman Mark Green has issued a subpoena for documents and information requested on Oct. 16 relating to the working of Border Patrol's Integrated Fixed Towers and Remote Video Surveillance System-Upgrade (RVSS-U) camera programs. 

"The exigency of this national security threat demands solutions from the Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Congress," an accompanying letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says.

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Sources had told the committee that more than 66% of the RVSS-U cameras are inoperable, and maintenance is sometimes performed by non-U.S. citizens, which could be a violation of security policy. Whistleblowers had told the committee that some of the busiest Southwest border sectors have nearly 50 or more cameras offline with multiple towers that have been out of service for more than a year.

"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," Green said.

"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."