Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul announced Thursday that he will chair the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He plans to immediately adopt President-elect Donald Trump’s policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. immigration court hearings.
Paul will become the committee’s new chairman after Republicans gained control of the Senate in recent elections. This role places Paul, a proponent of limited government and a longtime skeptic of surveillance programs, at the head of a committee with broad jurisdiction over government operations, including the Department of Homeland Security. Paul has been the committee’s top Republican during Democratic control of the Senate. His chairmanship, along with other Senate committee leadership roles, will become official with the start of the new Congress in early January.
“I chose to chair this committee above any other because I believe that for the health of our republic, Congress must once again uphold its constitutional role,” Paul said in a statement. “This committee’s oversight and investigative mission is critical to Congress reasserting itself.”
As a third-term senator, Paul said he will immediately address a key part of Trump’s immigration policy—forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. immigration court hearings.
President Joe Biden scrapped the measure in 2022, which critics argued was inhumane for exposing migrants to violence in Mexico and making it difficult for them to access legal counsel.
“Our first hearing will examine reinstating the successful ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy from Trump’s first term,” Paul said. “We will also quickly move Trump’s top nominees, including Gov. Kristi Noem, forward in time for the inauguration.”
Trump selected Noem, the governor of South Dakota, to lead the Department of Homeland Security, an agency critical to fulfilling his promise to enforce the border and conduct a massive deportation operation.
Paul was first elected in 2010, bringing his libertarian-leaning brand to the Senate. He ran for president in 2016 but was overtaken by Trump’s first successful campaign for the White House.
Paul consistently criticizes federal spending while warning about the nation’s mounting debt. He said his chairmanship will be guided by his views on spending and government regulations, which he often sees as a drag on the economy.
Another goal, he said, is for the committee to conduct “bipartisan oversight and investigations with consequences.” Paul did not provide specifics, but during his 2022 reelection campaign, he expressed a desire to conduct a vigorous review into the origins of COVID-19 if he were to win a committee chairmanship. Paul, an ophthalmologist by training, opposed the administration’s response to the pandemic, calling it an overreach.
His new role as committee chairman will give him far greater influence after years of pushing back and occasionally halting the normal functioning of Washington to promote his vision of limited government and restraint in foreign policy.
Paul remains popular in Kentucky but suffered a political setback this month when voters rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed state lawmakers to allocate public funds to support students attending private schools or boarding schools. He was a prominent supporter of the proposal. Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, led opposition to the measure, arguing that funds allocated for education should only go to public schools.
Source: Tampa Hoy
