The Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations will hold an oversight hearing on Wednesday, April 10 to examine the impact of the border crisis on U.S. natural resources.
The oversight hearing, titled “Biden’s Border Crisis: Examining the Impacts of International Cartels Targeting Indian Country,” aims to address the “increase in violence, crime, and drug overdoses that are ravaging communities across Indian country, particularly in Montana and Wyoming” that has occurred in the wake of President Joe Biden’s open border policies.
Witnesses for the hearing include Bryce Kirk, a Tribal Executive Board Member from Montana, Jeffrey Stiffarm, the president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana, and Verlon M. Jose, the chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona.
Cartels have targeted Indian Country because of the higher profits they can make on selling drugs compared to more urban areas, the lack of law enforcement officers across large rural areas, and the ability to leverage jurisdictional conflicts between local, federal, and tribal authorities, according to the hearing announcement.
The House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations members include Vice-Chairman Mike Collins (R-Ga.), Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), and Chairman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.).
