House Republicans will proceed with impeachment charges against President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary this week.
On Sunday, Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee unveiled two articles of impeachment against Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the administration’s efforts to actively undermine border security.
“These articles lay out a clear, compelling, and irrefutable case for Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ impeachment,” Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green of Tennessee said in a statement to The Federalist. “He has willfully and systemically refused to comply with immigration laws enacted by Congress. He has breached the public trust by knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people, and obstructing congressional oversight of his department. These facts are beyond dispute, and the results of his lawless behavior have been disastrous for our country.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., introduced a resolution to impeach Mayorkas last year, but it was referred to the House Homeland Security Committee in November. Since then, House Republicans have held two hearings on the secretary’s impeachment in January. The embattled DHS chief was absent for each. In a statement, Green called Mayorkas’ refusal to testify “deeply troubling.”
“We have given him every opportunity to explain his handling of the crisis,” Green said in a statement earlier this month. “Unfortunately, this pattern of defying Congress has continued with his refusal to testify before this Committee specifically about his handling of this crisis and his failure to enforce America’s immigration laws. Apparently, accountability and transparency are not high on his priority list. The American people deserve better than this.”
On Sunday, Green proposed an amendment in the nature of a substitute, or new bill language, as the base text for the articles being formally introduced this week. Charges will include “Willful and Systemic Refusal to Comply With the Law” and “Breach of the Public Trust” stemming from the secretary’s failure to secure the border.
Republicans say Mayorkas has acted contrary to his obligation to provide border security with programs facilitating open migration such as the expansion of the CBP One App, which allows migrants to enter the country after scheduling an appointment with officials. According to the Washington Examiner, the app has also been abused by Central American cartels with virtual private networks (VPN) to smuggle people across the border.
Green said Mayorkas has “empowered and enriched cartels, mass fentanyl poisonings, surges of terror watchlist suspects, more criminal illegal aliens causing harm in our communities, and traumatized and exploited migrants.”
December set a new single-month record for border arrests, with more than 300,000 illegal aliens encountered by U.S. border officials. According to an October report from the House Judiciary Committee, an estimated 1.7 million more known “gotaways” have come in undetected since Biden took office, bringing the estimated number of illegal entries under this Democrat administration to roughly 10 million or more.
[RELATED: Hawley Blasts Mayorkas As Annual Unvetted Migrants Outnumber St. Louis, Kansas City ‘Combined’]
At the House Homeland Security Committee’s second and final impeachment hearing for Mayorkas last week, Republicans featured victims of the fentanyl crisis. Fentanyl seizures by federal border enforcement are up 860 percent since 2019, according to ABC News.
“In my humble opinion, Mr. Mayorkas’ border policy is partially responsible for my daughter’s death,” said Josephine Dunn, whose daughter died from fentanyl poisoning.
If Republicans are successful, Mayorkas would become the second presidential cabinet member to be impeached. William Belknap, who served as war secretary under President Ulysses S. Grant, was impeached in 1876 shortly after resigning over allegations of corruption. Belknap was ultimately acquitted by the Senate.
