Kurt Englehart, left, Elmer Rueda-Linares, center, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. (Facebook, Washoe County Sheriff's Office, Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.)
Kurt Englehart, senior advisor to Cortez Masto, was killed in a car collision south of Downtown Reno, Nevada, on April 6, 2024. Rueda-Linares, the illegal migrant driving the vehicle that collided with Englehart, was arrested and charged with failing to stop at the scene of the accident.
CBP noted that encounters increased by 71 percent over February 2021 in March of that year, the same month Cortez Masto made the claim about the border.
Also that month, Fox News Digital reported that CBP agents had encountered a "large group" of illegal immigrants near Las Lomas, Texas, apprehending 134 illegal immigrants who had come to the southern border from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
When asked about the 2021 comment, a spokesperson for Cortez Masto stated that the Senator "has repeatedly pushed for additional border security funding under both the Trump and Biden administrations." Cortez Masto signed a letter in 2020 that demanded the reversal of Trump-era border policies, "condemning the Trump Administration for its harmful policies that have dismantled the United States’ asylum system."
Migrant families, mostly from Central American countries, wade through shallow waters after being delivered by smugglers on small inflatable rafts on U.S. soil in Roma, Texas, Wednesday, March 24, 2021. As soon as the sun set, at least 100 migrants crossed through the Rio Grande by smugglers into the United States. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Most recently, the Democrat voted to dismiss the articles of impeachment filed against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border crisis.
Republicans in the House unveiled articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in January, claiming that the Biden administration secretary has "repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security."
"In large part because of his unlawful conduct, millions of aliens have illegally entered the United States on an annual basis with many unlawfully remaining in the United States," Republicans alleged. "Alejandro N. Mayorkas knowingly made false statements to Congress that the border is 'secure,' that the border is ‘no less secure than it was previously,’ that the border is 'closed,' and that DHS has ‘operational control’ of the border."
Cortez Masto called the impeachment inquiry a "waste of time."
"There is no evidence that @SecMayorkas committed high crimes and misdemeanors, so I voted to end this waste of time," the Senator said in an April 17 post on X. "Republicans could have made real policy changes, but they decided to play games and killed the bipartisan border package in favor of this frivolous impeachment."
The house filed articles of impeachment against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, but the motion was dismissed by Senate Democrats on Wednesday. (Kevin Wolf)
During the Senate's meeting Wednesday on the dismissal of impeachment articles against Mayrokas, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, appeared to mention the incident in which Cortez Masto's staffer was killed as an example of ramifications of the ongoing southern border crisis.
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"The consequences of our open border policy can touch all of us," Lee said. "One of our dear, respected colleagues having lost a beloved staff member in the last few days. Having lost that staff member as a consequence of the actions taken by an immigrant in this country, who was here unlawfully, who shouldn't have been here. That's a troubling thing."
Fox News' Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
Aubrie Spady is a Production Assistant for Fox News Digital.
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