OKLAHOMA CITY (Jan. 10, 2024) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond testified today before the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee that the failure of the Biden Administration to secure the nation’s southwest border is seriously endangering public safety in Oklahoma. The Capitol Hill hearing was part of that committee’s impeachment proceedings against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Drummond noted that the flood of illegal immigrants into the U.S. under Mayorkas has allowed criminal enterprises, primarily populated by Mexican and Chinese nationals, to jeopardize public safety through drug trafficking and other crimes. He recounted the details of a November 2022 quadruple homicide at an illegal marijuana farm in Kingfisher County where a Chinese national allegedly killed four people.
“The carnage of that day is but one tragic example of a failed system plagued by failing leadership,” Drummond said. “Throughout Oklahoma, law enforcement comes into daily contact with foreign nationals who entered our country illegally or who remain here illegally – or both. This is all too common in Oklahoma’s marijuana grow operations.”
He told the committee that criminal illegal immigrants have heavily infiltrated Oklahoma’s legal medical marijuana industry to manufacture and distribute black-market marijuana. Drummond noted that these criminal organizations also produce and distribute fentanyl and engage in sex trafficking and labor trafficking.
“Oklahoma’s law enforcement community fights a constant battle against these evils,” he said.
Drummond praised the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the scores of local law enforcement agencies for their heroic efforts combating the crime syndicates.
“While there have been great successes,” Drummond said, “the ongoing border crisis ensures a never-ending flood of illegal foreign nationals who continue to perpetrate criminal activities that endanger our people.”
The Attorney General said that over the past seven months his Organized Crime Task Force – the first of its kind in the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office – has investigated and is prosecuting more than 50 multi-jurisdictional criminal cases, the vast majority of which involve Mexican or Chinese drug syndicates.
“The people of Oklahoma don’t deserve to live under constant threat from criminal foreign nationals,” Drummond said. “We don’t deserve to have our communities flooded with illegal drugs that were smuggled across our unsecure border, and we don’t deserve to have our loved ones ripped away by those same drugs.”
Drummond was one of three state attorneys general who testified at the hearing, entitled “Havoc in the Heartland: How Secretary Mayorkas’ Failed Leadership Has Impacted the States.” Committee Chairman Mark Green has indicated the panel will hear from other witnesses in two additional hearings before members vote on impeachment.
Drummond’s opening statement can be read here (https://www.oag.ok.gov/sites/g/files/gmc766/f/documents/2024/congression...) and his submitted written testimony is available here (https://www.oag.ok.gov/sites/g/files/gmc766/f/documents/2024/final_congr....) Today’s entire hearing can be viewed here (https://www.youtube.com/live/VN-ty-MkypA?si=7Er1UpzYhB1DsLtV)