House Judiciary Committee hearing in Milwaukee discusses border security, fentanyl
MILWAUKEE - Usually, congressional hearings are at the U.S. Capitol. But on Thursday, Oct. 24, one came to battleground Wisconsin.
It comes as early voting is underway and ballots are due in just 11 days.
Milwaukee is nearly 800 miles from Washington, D.C., and 1,500 from the southern border. At the Milwaukee Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse, the U.S. Judiciary Committee hosted a hearing titled "The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Wisconsin Perspectives."
The only lawmakers who came to the taxpayer-funded event were Republicans.
Democrat Congressman Mark Pocan called it a "campaign rally." Democrat Congresswoman Gwen Moore referred to it as a "political stunt."
But, despite the politics, there was also some emotional testimony.
Rick Rachwal of Pewaukee testified about his 19-year-old son.
"Logan was full of life, he had an infectious smile and was very passionate," he said.
But now that smile is a memory captured in photos and cherished by his loved ones. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student died on Valentine's Day, 2021.
"I will never get the image out of my head of our family walking into his dorm room and seeing his lifeless body on his bed," Rachwal said. "There was a stuffed animal next to him, he was just a child. If there's anything as painful as the loss of a child, I cannot begin to imagine what they would be."
His parents say he took what he thought was oxycodone, but they say it was counterfeit and laced with deadly fentanyl. His was one of a surge of deaths in Milwaukee and around the country.
"These are all avoidable deaths if we just had control of the southern border to prevent the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States," testified Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney.
Republican members of Congress attending the hearing hammered the Biden administration on the border.
"President Biden and Border Czar VP Kamala Harris created this crisis by systematically dismantling border measures and their refusal to enforce our immigration laws in the interior of the United States," said Congressman Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.). "The fact of the matter is the president has the authority to stop this. Trump did, Biden did not and Harris will not."
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Democrats blame the former president for blocking a bipartisan border deal. The border patrol union backed the proposal and Harris said she'd sign it.
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said he and other GOP senators thought it was an awful bill and were already against it, before the former president criticized it.
"When they finally released that bill on Sunday, that bill was dead upon arrival. I don’t know of any Republican Senator that President Trump called up to tell them to vote against that bill," Johnson said.
The Department of Homeland Security reports 90% of captured fentanyl is stopped at official ports of entry "where cartels attempt to smuggle it primarily in vehicles driven by U.S. Citizens."
Republicans pushed back, saying that is where it's caught, but the drugs are still getting in somewhere, somehow.
The hearing in Milwaukee was the 60th time this session of Congress the House held a field hearing, with the Judiciary Committee hosting 10 of them.
A new Emerson College poll of Wisconsin finds the top issue on the minds of Wisconsin voters is the economy, with 41% rating it top of mind. Second was threats to democracy at 17%, then abortion at 10%, while immigration and housing affordability were both at 9%.