GOP lawmakers are aiming to send a clear message at the start of 2024: The Southern border is a leading priority for Republicans.
On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee announced it will formally move forward with impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The committee will hold a hearing on the matter Jan. 10.
“For almost three years, the American people have demanded an end to the unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border, and they have also rightly called for Congress to hold accountable those responsible,” the committee’s chairman, Rep. Mark Green, said in a statement Wednesday.
Last June, Green, R-Tenn., announced a five-part investigation into Mayorkas, in part to determine whether the House should launch impeachment proceedings against the DHS chief.
“Our investigation made clear that this crisis finds its foundation in Secretary Mayorkas’ decision-making and refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and that his failure to fulfill his oath of office demands accountability,” the Tennessee lawmaker said.
The House held a bipartisan vote in November to refer articles of impeachment to the Homeland Security Committee following a failed effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to force a vote on the House floor to impeach Mayorkas.
Punchbowl News was first to break the news of the impeachment proceeding against Mayorkas and reports that House leadership has yet to announce a date for a formal impeachment vote. As of now, Mayorkas is not expected to testify before the committee.
The DHS secretary responded to the news of the impeachment proceedings during an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday morning.
Mayorkas said he is committed to working on “a legislative solution to a broken immigration system,” adding that he and the Biden administration are focused on “solutions to problems.”
The DHS secretary says he will cooperate with the hearings and investigation, and will “continue to do my work as well.”
A number of House GOP lawmakers have been calling for Mayorkas’ impeachment for years.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in August 2021 and again in February 2023, saying that Mayorkas “is the chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border.”
Last June, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.
On Wednesday, the same day the GOP-led House Homeland Security Committee announced the impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas, a group of about 60 Republicans lawmakers, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, visited the southern border.
Upon arriving in Eagle Pass, Texas, Johnson posted a photo of the central crossing point at the border noting the difference in the scene this week versus mid-December.
“The Biden Administration decided to divert the flood of illegal immigrants to another location in order to keep them out of the camera shots during [the House GOP’s] visit to Eagle Pass,” Johnson wrote on X. “Don’t be fooled, they are still being released into our country.”
“Under President Biden, our Southern border is a disaster,” he added.
“Under President Biden, America has laid out a welcome mat to illegal immigrants, smugglers, and cartels,” Johnson said during a press conference at the border Wednesday. “He is responsible for the grave threat to our national security and our nation’s sovereignty that these policies have created.”
Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., joined the trip to Eagle Pass and wrote on X that “With 80k migrants crossing last month alone in the Tucson Sector, the Biden admin continues to worsen the crisis of their own creation.”
Over 302,000 illegal aliens were encountered at the southern border in December alone, according to Customs and Border Protection sources.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, did not participate in the delegation to Eagle Pass, citing a need for action over more “meetings, speeches, and press conferences.”
“I commend Speaker Johnson’s efforts to take a group of House Republicans to the Texas border [Wednesday] so that any members unaware of the depths of the threat to our citizenry may become fully informed. However, I will not be attending,” Roy wrote in a letter to his colleagues that Fox News Digital exclusively reported.
“Our people–law enforcement, ranchers, local leaders–are tired of meetings, speeches, and press conferences,” the Texas lawmaker said. “So, for those of us who have already witnessed this crisis dozens of times, it’s past that time. It’s time to act with urgency.”
In a video shared on X, Roy called on GOP lawmakers to refuse to fund the government until the border is secure. This week, after speaking with ranchers and local law enforcement and leaders in border communities, Roy said, “They all told me the same thing: ‘Shut down the border or shut down the government.’”
It is the responsibility of Congress to “use the power of the purse to stop funding” the crisis at the southern border, Roy said. “If you fund it, you own it. We have to choose whether or not we’re going to fight for the people we came to Washington to fight for. We’ve gotta choose whether we’re going to use all of this as an excuse and then campaign on the issue, rather than doing what we can do right now if we choose to.”
On this week’s edition of the “Problematic Women” podcast, we discuss the GOP prioritization of the border in 2024 and why the Senate needs to take up and pass the border security bill known as HR 2, which the House passed last May. If passed in the Senate and signed into law, the bill would restart border wall construction and end the mass parole of illegal aliens into the interior of the U.S.
Also on today’s show, we debunk some of the myths about climate change. Plus, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill intended to protect children from transgender treatments and protect female sports. We explain why the Republican chief executive likely nixed the bill and what happens next.
Catch the show on your favorite podcast platform Thursday morning.
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