When Republicans take charge of the Senate next term, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will be led by Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, who said he plans to immediately take up President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to reinstate a policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, the Associated Press reports. The new role will put Paul — a limited-government advocate and longtime skeptic of surveillance programs — in charge of a committee with broad jurisdiction over government operations, including the Department of Homeland Security. Paul has been the committee’s ranking Republican during Democratic control of the Senate. “I chose to chair this committee over another because I believe that, for the health of our republic, Congress must stand up once again for its constitutional role,” Paul said in a statement. “This committee’s mission of oversight and investigations is critical to Congress reasserting itself.”
Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 scrapped the Trump administration policy of forcing asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for immigration court hearings in the United States. Critics said the policy was inhumane for exposing migrants to extreme violence in Mexico and making access to attorneys far more difficult. “Our first hearing will examine reinstating the successful ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy from the first Trump administration,” Paul said. “We will also expeditiously move President Trump’s critical nominees, including Governor Kristi Noem, in time for Inauguration Day.” Trump selected Noem, South Dakota’s governor, to head the Department of Homeland Security, an agency that’s integral to his vow to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation operation. Paul consistently rails against federal spending as he warns about the nation’s soaring debt. He signaled that his chairmanship will be guided by his views on spending as well as on government regulations that he often sees as burdensome on the economy.
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