Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing Friday to get local perspectives on what they have dubbed the “Biden-Harris border crisis in San Diego” — just as the party’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance, toured the U.S.-Mexico border near San Ysidro. Vance was joined at the border by county Supervisor Jim Desmond and Border Patrol agents before attending a scheduled fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe. “Our Border Patrol agents want nothing more than to do their job,” Vance wrote on X, sharing a video of his visit. He said the Biden administration “made that impossible” by ending Trump administration programs that limited access to asylum and forced migrants to wait in Mexico for asylum hearings. Meanwhile, Rep. Darrell Issa hosted the congressional hearing at the Santee City Council chambers. He said it was one of several held around the country over the last two years for the committee to try to gain a perspective on the “growing crisis” at the border, talking to individuals “who will understand and who are impacted by it,” the Congress member said. Speakers included the mayors of Vista and Santee, a local border security advocate, a Dulzura resident and the district attorney and the undersheriff of Riverside County — all people who either live in or represent areas in Issa’s district of eastern San Diego County and portions of southern Riverside County. Rep. Darrell Issa, of California, listens during the House Judiciary Committee hearing. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune) The testimony ranged from concerns about the rising amount of fentanyl smuggled across the border to challenges related to unauthorized migration. “There are people legitimately seeking asylum. There are people who legitimately, more than a million a year, who have gone through the process to come to America legally,” Issa said. “It is our goal to restore the rule of law, and to, in fact, recognize that we can have immigration in our country, we can have prosperity for all, but we can only do so if we can control our borders.” Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin pointed to the large amounts of fentanyl coming across the border, helping fuel a deadly overdose epidemic throughout the country. In fiscal 2023, about 26,700 pounds of fentanyl were seized along the southwestern border, an increase of about 150 percent from 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. “We urgently need comprehensive and tough federal action and robust initiatives to address this issue effectively,” Hestrin said. Hestrin said that several major freeways in his county have become “known drug-trafficking corridors, providing direct routes from the border to Southern California and beyond.” “The state’s southern border has become a critical entry point for fentanyl entering the U.S., largely driven by the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, which dominate the Mexican states adjacent to California,” he said. “Although we know the quantity of fentanyl seized, we don’t know how much gets in, but we can only assume that those numbers are incredibly large.” People line up to listen to the House Judiciary Committee hearing. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Riverside Undersheriff Don Sharp said that the arrival of large numbers of migrants at the border has caused border agents to abandon their normal duties of protecting the border from smuggling. “When our Border Patrol agents are diverted from their proper duties, and the border is wide open, there will always be larger drug and human smuggling loads,” he said. “The risk of detection and loss of illicit contraband becomes less, and the shrinking risk is easily worth the rewards for cartels and criminals.” The number of migrant encounters in the San Diego sector dropped nearly 40 percent in July from the previous month, per CBP data — a decrease attributed in part to President Joe Biden’s recent executive order restricting access to asylum. Still, the San Diego sector remained the busiest along the U.S.-Mexico border last month. Despite the fall-off in border crossings, San Diego County is still working to establish a migrant transition center, and the negotiations with an operator were in the final stages, officials said. The county plans to use $19.6 million it has received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program. Santee Mayor John Minto pointed to the large number of recently arrived migrants who had been released to San Diego streets after being processed by Border Patrol from last September to May — as many as 154,000. “The situation underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive, long-term strategy with improved coordination between federal, state, and local governments and nonprofit organizations,” Minto said. However, street releases have since stopped with the decrease in border crossings, and migrant shelters in the county have had the capacity to take in those who have been newly released. Local agencies such as the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office were not represented in the group, nor were any of the groups providing humanitarian aid to migrants over the past year. A spokesperson for District Attorney Summer Stephan said that the office was not invited to testify but that the agency looks forward to the results of the hearing. The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to questions about the matter. Issa said that local agencies have been invited to previous hearings and that this time the committee “wanted to make sure that people understood the unique work of Riverside and their leadership.” When it was noted during the hearing that no Democrats on the committee were present, Issa said that “all members of the committee were invited, and those who were able to make it showed up.” Joining Issa were Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin. Pedro Ríos, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program, said Friday that the hearing’s “border crisis” title was part of a false narrative of what is happening in border communities. He said the crisis instead was that it is now more difficult for asylum seekers to safely present their cases. “The crisis exists because there is a failure to prioritize the protection of the human rights of migrants and to recognize the importance of asylum processes for people who come in fear of returning to their country,” Ríos said. Ríos has been among the volunteers regularly providing humanitarian aid to migrants waiting to be picked up by Border Patrol at a section of the fence known as Whiskey 8 near the San Ysidro Port of Entry. It’s the same area Vance toured Friday. Volunteers said that officials asked them to leave the area for a few hours while the visit took place. No migrants were present at the time, Ríos said.