WATCH: Mayorkas claims US-Mexico border is 'secure' despite Border Patrol Chief saying DHS has no 'operational control'

Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was grilled over Biden's border crisis during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Mayorkas claimed that the southern border was "secure," contradicting prior statements made by his own Border Patrol Chief Raul L. Ortiz.

"Chief Ortiz said that the border is not secure," Rep. August Pfluger said to Mayorkas, referencing statements he made at a March 15 hearing in McAllen, Texas. "Do you disagree with Chief Ortiz?"
 

During the March hearing, Ortiz responded to a question asking whether DHS has "operational control of the entire border," to which Ortiz said, "no sir." 

Mayorkas attempted to evade the question, but Pfluger persisted, and eventually the DHS secretary folded and admitted that he did, in fact, "respectfully" disagree.

"Not a single border patrol agent I've talked to in the past three years has said that they trust your leadership or have faith that you’re keeping our country secure," Pfluger added.

Mayorkas defended his record, vehemently stating that "the border is secure," and that his team is "working every day, day and night, to increase security" at the border and deal with the "challenges" presented.

Sen. Ted Cruz slammed Mayorkas, calling his suggestion that the border was secure "utter malarkey," and urging him to resign.

The strongest condemnation, however, came from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

"You're a liar," Greene scolded. "You are letting this go on and the numbers prove it. You can't lie about the facts."

"While you live in denial," she continued, "and sit over there with this attitude that you're doing everything right, you are killing Americans with your policies."

Greene went on to suggest that 300 Americans were dying every day as a result of the Biden border crisis, and was about to ask another question when she was cut off by Rep. Bennie Thompson.

He criticized Greene for calling Mayorkas a liar, and Chairman Mark Green gave her an opportunity to withdraw her remarks. When she did not, Green went ahead and struck it from the record, barring her from speaking for the remainder of the hearing.

Greene decried the decision on Twitter, saying, "we'll never implement our conservative agenda if we can’t even call a liar a liar."