U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) chaired a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration hearing titled “ICE Under Fire: The Radical Left’s Crusade Against Immigration Enforcement” on November 19, 2025, in Washington.
During his opening remarks, Cornyn criticized the Biden administration’s approach to immigration enforcement. He stated, “President Biden invited millions of unvetted illegal aliens into the United States. These included hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens, violent gang members, and even individuals on the terror watch list.”
Cornyn referenced an increase in assaults against immigration agents since former President Trump prioritized immigration enforcement. He said, “Ever since President Trump was sworn into office and began prioritizing immigration enforcement, assaults and attacks on immigration agents and officers have skyrocketed.”
He cited Department of Homeland Security data regarding non-citizens with criminal convictions: “DHS has reported that currently more than 415,000 illegal aliens in the United States already have criminal convictions – 415,000. Of that number, nearly 400,000 aren’t even detained.”
Cornyn also addressed the issue of sanctuary cities. “The only reason that ICE and CBP must go out in our streets and seek out and arrest criminal aliens is because sanctuary cities simply refuse to cooperate with law enforcement,” he said.
Criticizing media coverage of these issues, Cornyn stated: “The mainstream media, unfortunately, has shown no willingness to educate the public. Instead of reporting these realities truthfully, mainstream media outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and ABC have ignored the real harm that these criminal aliens have caused in these communities, and instead directed their ire toward law enforcement.”
He further accused some Democratic lawmakers of using strong language that leads to unrest: “Some of our Democratic colleagues have used incendiary rhetoric to fan the flames of public protests that are anything but mostly peaceful. The result has been widespread assaults on our law enforcement officers.”
Cornyn discussed threats made against ICE officers during protests: “Protesters have made violent threats against ICE officers, comparing them to fascists and Nazis, inciting more violence against immigration officers, who are again simply doing the job that Congress has asked them to do.”
He concluded by questioning priorities around immigration policy: “Why is the Radical Left so intent on protecting illegal aliens over U.S. citizens who are suffering the consequences of violent crime? To me, that is the most important question that remains unanswered.”
Senator Cornyn has a long history as an elected official from Texas. In recent elections for U.S. Senate seats representing Texas he won re-election multiple times including victories over MJ Hegar in 2020 (53.5% to 43.9%), David Alameel in 2014 (61.6% to 34.3%), Rick Noriega in 2008 (54.8% to 42.8%), and Ron Kirk in 2002 (55% to 43%).
