Republicans in Congress are finally ready to move against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
The House Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider articles of impeachment against Mayorkas for “high crimes and misdemeanors” related to his handling of the crisis at the nation’s southern border.
Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee filed an amendment to the articles on Sunday accusing the secretary of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” as well as a “breach of public trust.”
“Throughout his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas has repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security,” the amendment says.
“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,” it says.
“His refusal to obey the law is not only an offense against the separation of powers in the Constitution of the United States, it also threatens our national security.”
Green’s amendment also accuses Mayorkas of lying to Congress and refusing to enforce the law as millions of illegals continue to enter the country without any effective form of deterrence.
“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,” the second article of impeachment declares.
“These articles lay out a clear, compelling, and irrefutable case for Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ impeachment. He has willfully and systemically refused to comply with immigration laws enacted by Congress,” it says.
Should Mayorkas be impeached?
“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.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson has confirmed he intends to bring a vote to the House “as soon as possible.”
“The facts show that President Biden and his Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas have willfully ignored and actively undermined our nation’s immigration laws,” Johnson wrote in a letter to fellow Republicans on Friday, according to Fox News.
“Rather than accept accountability, President Biden is now trying to blame Congress for what HE himself intentionally created,” the speaker said.
The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has attempted to dismiss the allegations as a “cynical and hypocritical process” with a predetermined outcome.
“This markup is just more of the same political games from House Homeland Security Committee (CHS) Republicans,” the department said in an official memo on Sunday. “They don’t want to fix the problem; they want to campaign on it.”
“That’s why they have undermined efforts to achieve bipartisan solutions and ignored the facts, legal scholars and experts, and even the Constitution itself in their quest to baselessly impeach Secretary Mayorkas,” it said.
A recent CBS News poll found that 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the way President Joe Biden is handling the border crisis.
Estimates of the number of illegal crossings varies, with some reports placing the figure at more than 10 million since Biden took office in January 2021. That’s more than the populations of 40 U.S. states.
