The House Homeland Security Committee voted to impeach Department of Homeland Security Mayorkas after a marathon 13-hour hearing. The vote was along party lines, 18-15. A full house vote will likely take place next week.
This is a rare event. No cabinet member has been impeached in over 150 years. Yet, that is how bad the Biden border catastrophe has gotten. Democrats on the committee tried to flip the script and blame Republicans for what is happening on the southern border. Chairman Green blamed Mayorkas for failing to comply with immigration laws already on the books.
Republicans on the panel charged that Mayorkas was guilty of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” as well as a “breach of public trust.”
“The facts are indisputable — for three years, Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and systematically refused to comply with laws enacted by Congress, and he has breached the public trust,” Green said. “His actions created this unprecedented crisis, turning every state into a border state.”
Green is right. If Mayorkas would let Border Patrol just enforce existing laws, the scope of the border crisis would not be so large. Democrats tried to stall the committee’s vote by offering up numerous amendments. And, of course, Trump was a target of their resistance to impeach Mayorkas.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) both offered amendments to strike an article of impeachment in its entirety. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) tried to offer an amendment that asserted Republicans were only impeaching Mayorkas because former President Donald Trump wanted it.
“You bend the knee to the Orange Jesus,” Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) angrily exclaimed at one point. ”We all know what this is about.”
Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) proposed an amendment that would prompt the committee to acknowledge that Mayorkas wasn’t afforded due process, chiefly because he wasn’t allowed to testify. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) offered an amendment saying that Republicans had failed to meet the constitutional threshold for defining an impeachable offense by Mayorkas.
It is not Trump’s fault that Joe Biden threw open the southern border and invited the world to cross into the United States. In Biden’s mind, he thought he should undo all that Trump did to secure the border. The agreements and policies that were successful in securing the border as best as could be expected were all stopped by the stroke of Biden’s pen during his first day in office. No more Remain in Mexico policy or an end to catch and release. Biden deliberately stopped enforcement of the laws in place to handle immigration. Make no mistake, the border crisis is now a catastrophe and it is intentional.
It is important for House Republicans to sick together and vote yes to impeach Mayorkas. The truth is that the House will likely vote yes on impeachment if Speaker Johnson keeps Republicans together. However, the Democrat- controlled Senate will not vote yes. And, Biden will not get rid of Mayorkas. The House should go ahead anyway. Mayorkas must be held accountable. Not everyone is on board with the impeachment. Some Senate Republicans and vulnerable red state Democrats are not on board and Democrats criticize the effort because nothing will come of it.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune said he prefers to “focus on winning elections and changing the secretary of homeland security.” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said “malfeasance in office is not, the way we read it, a reason for impeachment.” And Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), a key red-state Democrat, said he “probably” wouldn’t vote to convict Mayorkas. The best way to address the problems at the border, Tester said, is to pass a border security bill.
Mayorkas made an unusual move. He wrote a last-minute letter to the committee stating the committee should be working with the Biden administration on immigration law reforms. “We need a legislative solution and only Congress can provide it,” Mayorkas wrote.
This is malarkey. Tossing it back to Congress when Biden has the power to close down the border right this minute shows that Biden is not negotiating as an honest broker.
Of all the nonsense uttered by Democrats during the hearing as they tried to blame Republicans and Trump for the border crisis, this is the best the Democrats offered from a purely entertaining point of view.
During this impeachment sham against Secretary Mayorkas, let’s remind the public about Donald Trump’s border solutions:
– alligator moats
– electric fences
– bombing Mexico
– Shooting migrantsWhat a joke. pic.twitter.com/y4BynJ9aG5
— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) January 30, 2024
The congressman is unhinged. You hate to see it happen.
Mayorkas did not testify before the committee before the hearing. It is reported that Mayorkas and the committee couldn’t agree on a date to do that.
Let the process play out. Mayorkas deserves to be held accountable. He’s doing the bidding of Joe Biden but his continued presence in his job shows he agrees with Biden’s approach. Otherwise, he would have resigned by now.