Two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were released by House Republicans on Sunday.
Republicans said they will quickly move forward to try to oust Mayorkas from office. Mayorkas faces impeachment due to his failure to manage the southern border. Democrats claim it is an election year stunt, politically motivated as House Republicans have no constitutional basis to remove him.
Republicans contend Mayorkas is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” that amount to a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” on immigration and a “breach of the public trust.” Impeachment, they say, is “Congress’s only viable option.”
“Alejandro N. Mayorkas willfully and systemically refused to comply with the immigration laws, failed to control the border to the detriment of national security, compromised public safety, and violated the rule of law and separation of powers in the Constitution, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States,” the impeachment resolution says.
When House Republicans took control of the House in 2023, a top agenda item was to hold Mayorkas responsible for the chaos on the southern border. Granted, he is doing the bidding of Joe Biden but Mayorkas has continually lied to Congress. He claims that the border is not open and it is secure. He has not enforced existing immigration laws. He has turned Border Patrol agents along the southern border into paper pushers instead of letting them do their job.
Look no further than the fact that an all-time high number of apprehensions took place at the southern border in December to know that there is a failure to secure the border. The Biden border crisis has become a catastrophe in the time that Biden has been in the White House and Mayorkas has been in charge of DHS and the border.
The media is portraying this move as one that doesn’t have evidence. A cabinet secretary has not faced impeachment since the Civil War days.
The charges come as Republicans swiftly concluded two public impeachment hearings this month without Mayorkas’s in-person testimony or testimony from any fact witnesses. Although the Biden administration has been struggling with the overwhelming surge of migrants at the southern border, congressional lawmakers have yet to detail clear evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors on the part of leaders.
Republicans argue in the first article that Mayorkas has failed to enforce U.S. immigration policies at the nation’s border, has disregarded laws passed by Congress and has ignored court orders, allowing for a surge of migration at the southern border that has resulted in record highs of illegal crossings in recent months.
“Congress has a duty to see that the executive branch implements and enforces the laws we have passed,” Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement. “Yet Secretary Mayorkas has repeatedly refused to do so.”
It’s those mean Republicans being mean Republicans again.
If Mayorkas does not show up to testify before the Homeland Security Committee, that’s on him. The committee moved forward and Mayorkas’ liberal media friends cried foul. The second charge is about a breach of public trust.
The second charge, breach of the public trust, accuses Mayorkas of making false statements and obstructing oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. After little public action in the probe for several months, the Homeland Security Committee’s investigation came to a head this month after Green invited Mayorkas to testify at the committee’s second impeachment hearing. Mayorkas responded that he had a scheduling conflict and offered to testify on another date, but Green declined the offer and moved forward with the hearing. It was held on a day Mayorkas was preparing to host a delegation of Mexican officials to discuss migration issues at the U.S.-Mexico border and also was spotted in the other side of the Capitol, negotiating with the Senate on a border security deal.
Shortly thereafter, Green issued a letter outlining 31 requests to the department that remained “partially or entirely unsatisfied,” signaling an obstruction charge to come.
Mayorkas has been called upon to testify before Congress more than any other cabinet member. That isn’t surprising. Securing the border and protecting the homeland is the president’s top job. Mayorkas is in charge of that responsibility and he is derelict in his duties, as is Biden. Nine million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border during Biden’s term in office and it is unacceptable. Who else should be held accountable?
Anyone interested just has to look at daily reports on Fox News Channel or look at the updated CBP monthly report to see what is happening along the southern border. The numbers don’t lie. There were 302,030 apprehensions in December. That number doesn’t include the gotaways. Nineteen apprehensions were of people who were on the terror watch list. How much longer do American taxpayers have to feel the burdens of an open border? Impeaching Mayorkas in the House is a start. Sadly, it won’t go further than the House. The Democrat-led Senate will not vote in favor of his impeachment and even if it did, Biden would not support the impeachment.
Immigration and border security is a top issue with voters this election cycle. Biden and Mayorkas have no one to blame but themselves.