Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a new interview that he will not be pushed out of his position amid efforts from some House Republicans to impeach him.
"They will not force me out," he told CNN's Chris Wallace on Sunday's episode of "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace."
Many House Republicans have repeatedly called to impeach Mayorkas, arguing that the secretary does not have "operational control" of the border despite repeated claims the border is secure.
Two articles of impeachment have now been levied against Mayorkas this year, alleging that Mayorkas lied to Congress about having control of the border and that he has failed in his duties to control the border.
The GOP's impeachment case against him is dependent on a 2006 law that states operational control of the border is defined as the prevention "of all unlawful entries." Critics have argued that this definition of operational control was commonly seen as impossible to meet.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called on Mayorkas to resign in November, saying that a House investigation will determine if an impeachment inquiry is warranted. The Department of Homeland Security has previously said that Mayorkas has no plans to resign.
Mayorkas said that he takes calls for his impeachment "seriously" and that he intends to appear before Congress when he is called to.
"I take them seriously," he said. "It is the leadership of the House that provided those remarks. I don't dismiss it by any measure, but what I do is I focus on my work."
He also added that he does not think he has done anything wrong.
"I think it is a disagreement over policy," he said. "And I think it is used for political purposes to continue a negative dialogue about a migration challenge that is not unique to the United States, to continue that dialogue to uplift it for political reasons."
The impeachment of cabinet members has been exceedingly rare throughout U.S. history.
Former President Grant’s secretary of war, William Belknap, was the only Cabinet member to be impeached in history. He resigned in 1876 before he would have been likely convicted for taking kickbacks for appointing a contractor to run a trading post in Oklahoma.
A budding GOP impeachment case against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is relying on a 2006 law that says operational control of the border means the prevention “of all unlawful entries” to the United States — a standard seen as impossible to meet.
The Secure Fence Act of 2006 was passed during a failed Bush-era effort to move a comprehensive immigration reform bill. In the fallout, House Republicans rushed to show they were taking action on border security, requiring the installation of intermittent fencing along the southern border.
Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (Gregory Payan/AP Images for NFL)
But a provision of the law defining operational control is now at the center of the new House GOP majority’s effort to impeach Mayorkas, who is accused of lying to Congress when he’s said the border is secure.
“Secretary Mayorkas does not think that the border is open. He thinks that he has operational control, although the Secure Fence Act of 2006 clearly defines what operational control of a border is, and that means that no contraband or individual can come into the country illegally,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, a conservative Republican from Arizona and one of two members who have formally introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“And yet, under his watch, Secretary Mayorkas has allowed in approximately 5 million illegal aliens coming through, and that doesn’t include got-aways,” added Biggs.
Republicans argue that Mayorkas has been ineffective in managing what they see as a crisis, as record numbers of migrants attempt to cross the southern border. It’s a failure they contend is a violation of his oath of office.
“He has taken an oath, a constitutional oath, to obey the laws of the United States and protect us,” said Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), who this year filed the first articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.
Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas (AP Photo/Jess Rapfogel)
“In 2006, the Secure Fence Act was passed which requires the Department of Homeland Security Secretary to maintain the operational control of the southern border. He has clearly not done that,” Fallon said.
Democrats and other critics of the GOP case argue that the differences between Republicans and Mayorkas are largely policy issues that don’t rise to the level of impeachment.
“Impeachment covers treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors. It's not typically envisioned as covering policy disputes, or disagreements on policy, which seems like what these are,” said Dave Rapallo, a Georgetown Law professor who also worked with Democrats on the impeachment of former President Trump.
He and others argue that the 2006 law lays out an impossible standard — but includes clear language that gives the secretary the discretion to determine how to meet it.
“Congress has delegated to the secretary of Homeland Security the decision to determine what is 'necessary and appropriate.' And that's what the department is doing. There may be a difference of opinion about whether that happens with walls or other mechanisms to prevent unlawful entry,” Rapallo said. “But if the standard is that not one migrant can get into the United States, that’s a standard no secretary of Homeland Security would ever meet.”
Doris Meissner, who ran the Immigration and Naturalization Service under former President Clinton and how heads the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, said the standard "isn't something that we ask of any other law enforcement regime."
Previous Homeland Security secretaries, Democrats and Republicans, have not been removed over the standard highlighted by Biggs and Fallon.
“The assumption with having law enforcement at all, is that there are laws and there will be a degree to which laws are broken, and law enforcement, and law enforcement systems, and structures are in place to keep them to a minimum and to create accountability if they do happen," said Meissner.
Biggs himself acknowledged the standard that no one or thing can enter the country illegally for the DHS secretary to not be impeached is a high one. But he argues Mayorkas still deserves to be impeached because of how he has handled border security.
“While that particular statute requires perfection, which we all recognize is an impossible task, the American public still trusts him to do his very best to secure operational control of the border. He necessarily has the ‘public trust,’ and as a Cabinet secretary, he is a public man,” he wrote in an op-ed shortly after introducing his resolution.
“The case against Alejandro Mayorkas … does not necessarily turn on whether Mayorkas has actually committed a statutorily defined black-letter crime. It is whether he has committed a ‘high crime’ as that term is understood under the U.S. Constitution.”
The fencing bill was passed after two competing comprehensive immigration reform bills moved through the House and Senate in 2005.
The House version, led by former Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), was a security-focused immigration crackdown; the Senate version led by former Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) paired border security and guest worker provisions with a broad legalization program for undocumented immigrants.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Jan. 29, 2008 (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
To no one's surprise, the House and Senate were unable to find a middle ground in conference, and the two bills failed in the lead-up to the 2006 midterm elections.
“There really was a strong feeling, in the Senate in particular, that people had to go home with something to show for immigration, in order to be running their campaigns, and having some kind of a message to take back to their constituents,” said Meissner.
“So they passed this act quite hurriedly in October of 2006, right on the cusp of the elections. It just had this sort of sweeping mandate, which really hadn't been tested or vetted with the executive branch,” she added.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), one of the co-sponsors of the 2006 border bill, described the legislation as tasking the Homeland Security secretary to determine where to put fencing.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
“It was our intention to put a fence not everywhere but where it made sense to put the fence on the border, you know, [in] more populated areas to have the infrastructure in place to stop illegal crossings,” he said, noting along with specific mileage of fencing, “we gave discretion to the secretary to use his or her judgment as to where to put it.”
McCaul, a stern Mayorkas critic who has directly admonished the secretary in hearings, has likewise criticized members of his party for rushing a process he said should be handled by committees of jurisdiction who can investigate and build a strong case for impeachment.
“You can make the case to the American people without having to do it overnight. We criticized the Democrats for impeaching Trump in one day. ... We shouldn't make that same mistake,” he told The Hill.
Mayorkas and his department are now gearing up for a fight.
The department initially declined to assign specific staff to deal with impeachment, but on Friday confirmed it had hired an outside law firm to aid in any eventual impeachment hearings.
It’s also shifted tone in its public statements on impeachment developments, attacking the credibility of the resolutions directly.
“Instead of pointing fingers and trying to score political points, the Members of Congress recklessly and baselessly pursuing impeachment should work on legislative solutions for our broken immigration system,” DHS said last week when Biggs’s resolution was introduced.
Republicans have rolled out other arguments for impeachment, including one that mirrors a recent lawsuit from a number of GOP-led states challenging a program that allows 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela to be “paroled” into the country each month, while quickly expelling to Mexico an equal number of migrants from those countries who show up at the border.
The resolution deems the current use of parole an abuse, calling it a way to "'legally’ admit aliens.”
Biggs and other Republicans are also basing their impeachment case on a broader claim — dismissed as a conspiracy theory by Democrats — that the Biden administration is intentionally loosening border controls.
“First of all, when we look at that intentionality, this is done intentionally,” Biggs told reporters last week. “This is not negligence, it is not by accident. It is not incompetence, and how do we know that? Well, just like we look at a culpable mental state, like intentionality or knowledge, we look at a totality of circumstances."
Biggs said the evidence of intention is in Mayorkas ending a series of Trump-era border policies, a move that many Republicans believe is the direct cause of increased migration in the Western Hemisphere, presumably knowing his policies would result in increased border crossings.
But whether Republican leadership decides to forward any impeachment resolution, the process could face a substantial roadblock in the Democratic-controlled upper chamber.
“A majority of the House could just decide to impeach the secretary based on whatever it puts in its resolution,” Rapallo said. “But that's highly unlikely to go anywhere in the Senate.”
U.S. Border Patrol chiefs will testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Tuesday after they were first blocked by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas from doing so.
Last month, Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, sent a letter to Mayorkas stating the committee would be investigating the “Biden Administration’s creation of and failure to resolve the worst border crisis in American history. … The American people deserve answers about [DHS’] role in undermining Customs and Border Protection agents’ efforts to secure the southern border.”
Four Border Patrol agents overseeing southern border sectors were called to testify: Chiefs Jason Owens, Gregory Bovino, Gloria Chavez, and Acting Chief Patricia McGurk-Daniel. Initially, two were cleared to testify by Mayorkas and two weren’t.
Comer then threatened to use the “compulsory process” to require them to testify. By Jan. 31, Mayorkas agreed to all four testifying and Comer sent another letter to him saying, “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially sought to prevent Congress from hearing invaluable testimony from Chief Patrol Agents, believing that DHS’s internal protocols superseded Congressional oversight prerogatives. I am pleased that the DHS is no longer taking such a position, and will make available as witnesses” all four agents.
Comer last week told reporters at the National Press Club that the committee requested they testify about “the worst offenses with respect to illegal border crossings are occurring, just to come before the committee. … We need to hear from people on the front lines” to ask their advice and how Congress can help them do their jobs.
Comer’s initial Jan. 19 letter to Mayorkas requested documents and copies of internal communications from DHS including data on border crossers released by DHS into the U.S. and DHS’ plan to terminate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), otherwise known as “Remain in Mexico,” over which Texas sued. A federal court halted the administration’s plan to terminate it although Texas maintains the administration isn’t following the court order.
The letter also requires Mayorkas to provide information about “the effect of historic numbers of illegal border crossings on retention rates, staffing, recruitment and morale among” Border Patrol agents. The National Border Patrol Council, the union representing them, has argued that under this administration more agents are retiring and recruitment and morale is at an all-time historic low.
Comer also requested all documents and information about an ICE memorandum Mayorkas issued in September 2021, which drastically altered enforcement policies. Texas and Louisiana sued to stop it, supported by 19 states that filed a brief with the Supreme Court.
“President [Joe] Biden’s radical open borders agenda has ignited the worst border crisis in American history,” Comer said in a statement last month when he announced the hearing. “The Biden Administration’s deliberate actions are fueling human smuggling, stimulating drug cartel operations, enabling deadly drugs such as fentanyl to flow into American communities, and encouraging illegal immigrants to flout U.S. immigration laws. … Republicans will hold the Biden Administration accountable for this ongoing humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis that has turned every town into a border town.”
In early January, Biden said on his first day in office he sent to Congress a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would extend amnesty to a wide range of people illegally in the U.S. He also announced DHS’ new mobile app that allows foreign nationals to file asylum claims remotely from anywhere in the world as well as expanding the parole process and creating a new visa process. Multiple states also sued over the parole and visas policies, which they argue are illegal.
The hearing comes after Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz testified in a case brought by Florida that Biden policies led to increased illegal crossings and one of his emails revealed the administration’s plan to release people en masse into the U.S. once Title 42 was lifted.
Since Biden’s been in office, over 5 million people from over 150 countries have illegally entered the U.S. while Mayorkas has consistently maintained the southern border is closed. A record 3.3 million people were apprehended or reported evading capture by law enforcement in fiscal 2022, according to Border Patrol data obtained by The Center Square, including nearly 1.8 million in Texas alone.
Several House Republicans have called for Mayorkas’ impeachment; two Republicans from Texas and Arizona each filed separate articles of impeachment. Mayorkas says he isn’t resigning and has blamed the previous administration for the problems he says he’s inherited.
The NBPC disagrees, tweeting on Monday: “Two years ago we ceased to have any semblance of a functioning border. It’s just an out-of-control free-for-all … a disaster zone of massive human misery, death and lawlessness. How much longer can this country continue to absorb millions of illegal aliens?
“Everyday thousands more illegal aliens enter our country by crashing our border between ports of entry. Has Biden thought about how many millions he’s going to shuttle in? Is he even aware enough to realize that many of these people can’t be ID’d and no way to check records?”
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
GOP lawmakers banded together to file an additional resolution that would impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, filing a second bill to do so less than a month into the new Congress.
The resolution filed Wednesday comes after its sponsor, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), promised a resolution with “even more justification” than a first resolution filed immediately after the Speaker’s race concluded.
Biggs called Mayorkas “chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border” in a press release announcing the move and argued the uptick in migration is a result of a “willful and intentional” violation of Mayorkas’s oath of office.
But Biggs’s efforts clash with those in the party who say impeachment should follow a thorough inquiry, a promise House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made in November when he said the GOP would “investigate every order, every action” to determine whether to begin an inquiry.
“We made the argument that impeachment was rushed — the second impeachment — and I think that’s not who we are as a party,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) previously told The Hill in reference to the second impeachment of former President Trump.
He said it’s the committees of jurisdiction that should be leading the inquiry.
“We need to have hearings on this and we need to gather evidence and facts and, look, do I think the guy has done a terrible job? Yes,“ McCaul said. “Do I think he’s been derelict in his responsibilities? Yes. But we need to get all this together, and do it in a methodical way.”
Biggs's resolution is largely based on the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which requires the Homeland Security secretary “take all actions the Secretary determines necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control” of the border.
But the law, true to its name, primarily deals with fencing. It says the the secretary should weigh operational control for the border in regards to both surveillance and “physical infrastructure enhancements.”
Only one Cabinet member has been impeached in history — former President Grant’s secretary of war, William Belknap, who was accused of taking kickbacks from a contractor he appointed to run the trader post in Fort Sill, Okla. Belknap resigned before facing an almost-certain Senate conviction, a fate that’s unlikely to play out with Mayorkas given the Democratic majority in the upper chamber.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) didn’t immediately respond to request for comment, but the agency has previously noted Mayorkas has no plans to resign.
“Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of this Department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve the American people. The Department will continue our work to enforce our laws and secure our border, while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,” DHS said after the introduction of the first resolution.
“Members of Congress can do better than point the finger at someone else; they should come to the table and work on solutions for our broken system and outdated laws, which they have not updated in over 40 years.”
Republicans will turn their focus to the U.S.-Mexico border with a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing featuring four Border Patrol agents next month.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced the hearing on Thursday, to take place sometime during the week of Feb. 6. Border Patrol agents Jason Owens, Gregory Bovino, Gloria Chavez and Patricia McGurk-Daniel were invited to testify.
“The Biden Administration’s deliberate actions are fueling human smuggling, stimulating drug cartel operations, enabling deadly drugs such as fentanyl to flow into American communities, and encouraging illegal immigrants to flout U.S. immigration laws,” Comer charged in a statement. “Republicans will hold the Biden Administration accountable for this ongoing humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis that has turned every town into a border town.”
Comer separately sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday requesting documents and communications detailing accounting of illegal border crossings, border security plans, changes in certain migration policies, interior enforcement actions and several other matters.
The hearing is the second that the high-profile panel has scheduled. A hearing on waste, fraud and abuse in COVID-19 relief programs is set for Feb. 1.
A focus on the border, which Comer has long said will be a top priority for his committee, comes as several House Republicans are renewing their calls to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the border. Any impeachment actions would be pursued by the House Judiciary Committee rather than the Oversight panel.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has called on Mayorkas to resign, but has stopped short of supporting impeachment.
“We can investigate, and then that investigation could lead to an impeachment inquiry. I don't predetermine because I'll never use impeachment for political purposes,” McCarthy told reporters on Monday.
Tensions are rising in the GOP House over how to tackle a topic many back enthusiastically: impeaching Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Republicans are largely unified in opposition to the secretary, but while some want to go full bore right away, others see fast-track impeachment as a mistake, warning that it's important to build their case before the public.
“We made the argument that impeachment was rushed — the second impeachment — and I think that's not who we are as a party,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), a former prosecutor, in reference to the second impeachment of former President Trump.
McCaul said it's the committees of jurisdiction that should be leading the inquiry.
“We need to have hearings on this and we need to gather evidence and facts and, look, do I think the guy has done a terrible job? Yes,“ McCaul said. “Do I think he's been derelict in his responsibilities? Yes. But we need to get all this together, and do it in a methodical way.”
In some corners, Republicans are lining up at the chance to impeach Mayorkas.
After Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) filed articles of impeachment against the secretary this week, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) quickly pledged his own resolution while suggesting he was the one who had actually taken the impeachment action first.
“I was the first Member of Congress to introduce impeachment articles against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in 2021,” Biggs wrote on Twitter. “I will reintroduce these articles with even more justification very soon.”
Balancing the different interests will be another challenge for Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who has signaled he supports a deliberate approach.
“House Republicans will investigate every order, every action. And every failure will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry,” he said in November, during a trip to the border.
Twenty lawmakers have signed on to Fallon’s resolution. While he said he doesn't want to preclude any investigation, Fallon wants to prompt his colleagues to start them immediately.
“I think it's of vital import to get the ball rolling immediately. Because this is an emergency. This is break glass. This is something that we can't just sit around any longer and say, ‘Well, we'll do it in a month, we'll take it up in four months.’ Let's take it up right now,” he told The Hill.
Building a case for Mayorkas’s impeachment may not be as easy as some of his critics think.
For example, Fallon argues that Mayorkas lied to Congress in two different appearances, when saying both that the Biden administration has maintained operational control of the border and that the border is secure.
Both points are largely a matter of opinion; impeachment statutes are typically reserved for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“Impeachment is a very serious topic, and it's one where the facts need to lead you to the results, not have a predetermined decision,” said Rep. Tony Gonzales (R), who represents the Texas district with the longest shared border with Mexico.
Homeland Security officials, so far, have not assigned staff to deal with potential impeachment inquiries.
“Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of this Department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve the American people. The Department will continue our work to enforce our laws and secure our border, while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system," said Marsha Espinosa, a spokesperson for DHS.
“Members of Congress can do better than point the finger at someone else; they should come to the table and work on solutions for our broken system and outdated laws, which they have not updated in over 40 years,” she added.
Ultimately, Republicans who support impeachment and those who oppose it will have to make their case to McCarthy and his leadership team, who will weigh the costs and benefits of spending political capital on a historic measure with scant chances in the Senate.
Impeaching Mayorkas in the House would require a majority vote. In the Senate, a two-thirds majority would be necessary to win a conviction — a high bar.
Only one Cabinet member has been impeached in history — former President Grant’s secretary of war, William Belknap, who was accused of taking kickbacks from a contractor he appointed to run the trader post in Fort Sill, Okla. Belknap resigned before facing an almost-certain Senate conviction, a fate that's unlikely to play out with Mayorkas.
Other Republicans who spoke with The Hill stressed the need to go through the proper oversight channels, rather than leap into impeachment.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.), whose panel would be among those with jurisdiction over Mayorkas’s impeachment, was animated when he spoke about the opportunity to remove the DHS chief, pushing their own coming investigation.
“We're going to hold him accountable. That's what we're going to do. We're going to have hearings and dig into what I would say is dereliction of duty,” he said.
“All I can speak about is what we're going to do in the committee and that is a five-phased approach of tackling the fight.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said the GOP needed to handle the matter in “the appropriate way.”
“I've been very public about my belief that he has violated his oath, that he has undermined our ability to defend our country,” he said.
“But I'm on the House Judiciary Committee in the majority now and so I'm going to talk to [Chair] Jim [Jordan] (R-Ohio) and talk to people on that committee to make sure that we're going through this and looking at it in the appropriate way.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who was initially by McCarthy’s side for the November border trip as he stressed an eventual inquiry, has signed onto Fallon’s resolution as a co-sponsor, saying he believes Cabinet secretaries can be impeached over their policies.
“People argue about this legally, you can impeach a president because you just don't like his policies. In theory that could be considered a high crime or misdemeanor according to the current legal analysis,” he said.
“I just decided I agree with Fallon. That's basically as simple as I can put it.”
Representative Pat Fallon, a Texas Republican, has filed articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Fallon had promised to move on impeachment once the 118th Congress was sworn in.
“Secretary Mayorkas’s willful actions have eroded our immigration system, undermined border patrol morale, and jeopardized American national security,” he tweeted. “He has violated the law and it is time for him to go.”
The resolution accuses the DHS Secretary of having “engaged in a pattern of conduct that is incompatible with his duties.”
Keeping the homeland secure does seem to be one aspect in which the chief of Homeland Security has failed – and failed miserably.
In a statement to Fox News, Fallon cited Mayorkas’ lies to Congress that he had operational control of the border and his effort to smear Border Patrol agents with false allegations of ‘whipping’ illegal immigrants as reasons he has been derelict in his duties.
I have officially filed Articles of Impeachment on Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The articles of impeachment accuse Alejandro Mayorkas of “high crimes and misdemeanors” and have been officially filed and referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, during a visit to the border back in November, called for the DHS Secretary to resign or face an impeachment inquiry.
“If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure and will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry,” he told reporters.
This should give conservatives a glimpse of the kind of Speaker Kevin McCarthy will be and why I’m supporting him.
He’s demanding Mayorkas resign or face investigations leading to impeachment bc the cartels run our border
House Republicans have been warning for over a year that the border crisis was one aspect they would be investigating thoroughly when they take back control of the chamber.
“He clearly knew the truth and willfully misled Congress and then by extension, the American people.”@RepPatFallon has filed Articles of Impeachment against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for misleading Congress.@JohnFBachman@BiancaDLGarza
A recent MSNBC report documented numerous illegal aliens who said they “haven’t had any interaction with U.S. immigration authorities” and “they just walked right in.”
That seems less a product of a broken system and more the incompetence of the head of DHS.
Deportations in 2021 were the lowest on record. In 2022, ICE deported 61% fewer illegal aliens than in 2020, including 66% fewer criminals, even though border crossings increased by 419%.
On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump weighed in on the border crisis.
Fmr Pres. Trump releases a statement about the border and how people are talking about it now since it’s a problem and it wasn’t under his administration. He adds, “Biden has allowed the cartels to destroy the border, and I’ll destroy the cartels!” pic.twitter.com/qAPxGJspbj
After suggesting nobody could talk about a border situation he “fixed” during his presidency, Trump declared it one of the biggest problems facing our nation today.
“It’s amazing what has happened in two years, because now the Border is probably our biggest bone of contention,” he said in a statement.
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A Texas Republican has filed articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, wasting little time in the new Congress to act on a GOP priority leadership has said would come after thorough investigation.
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) filed the paperwork for the resolution on Jan. 3, the first day of the 118th Congress, though with delays in securing a House Speaker, the document was officially filed late Monday.
The resolution claims Mayorkas “engaged in a pattern of conduct that is incompatible with his duties,” complaining that he has failed to maintain operational control over the border.
The resolution comes amid a busy week in the Biden administration. President Biden visited the border over the weekend for the first time since taking office, pledging to deliver more resources to the officers who patrol the region.
And Mayorkas is in Mexico this week, meeting with officials there on a variety of issues, including the shared migration agreement rolled out by the Biden administration last week.
Mayorkas is also due to discuss coordination on transnational crime with Mexican authorities.
Fallon’s resolution won’t move without further action from GOP leadership, but it would otherwise jump-start a process House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has treaded carefully on.
“House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy said at a press conference in El Paso, Texas, in November.
Still, impeachment charges against Mayorkas were all but certain under Republican control of the House, as the DHS secretary has been a constant foil for the party during the Biden administration.
Republicans claim that under Biden, the DHS has dismantled the border security apparatus built under former President Trump, leading to border chaos.
The primary basis for the articles of impeachment is the claim that Mayorkas lied to Congress — a case they back by pointing to two instances in which the secretary told lawmakers he believed the Southern border was under control.
“His willful actions erode our immigration system, undermine border patrol morale, and imperil American national security. He must be removed from office,” Fallon said in a release.
DHS said Tuesday that Mayorkas has no plans to resign and argued that the grounds for impeachment pointed to by the GOP were both inaccurate and failed to meet the standards to qualify as high crimes and misdemeanors.
“Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of this Department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve the American people. The Department will continue our work to enforce our laws and secure our border, while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,” Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Marsha Espinosa said in a statement.
“Members of Congress can do better than point the finger at someone else; they should come to the table and work on solutions for our broken system and outdated laws, which they have not updated in over 40 years.”
Most border and immigration analysts agree that increased migration due to security, economic and governance conditions in the Western Hemisphere is the primary reason for the high number of migrants encountered at the border.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, left, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speak before a meeting with President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
And Mayorkas has taken flak both from the right and the left, as the DHS has maintained many of the Trump administration's border policies, which immigrant advocates say violate human rights.
Still, Republicans see the border as a winning issue for them, and Mayorkas is the Biden administration's face on that issue.
Mayorkas, the first Latino to ever hold that post, has often butted heads with congressional Republicans at oversight hearings.
In April, Mayorkas clashed with Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, including a notable exchange with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) over the agency's record on deportations from the interior of the country.
That combative exchange could set the tone for impeachment proceedings.
The potential for a political circus is concerning for Republicans fresh off a nationally televised Speaker's race that highlighted divisions in the party.
Some Republicans have expressed reservations about going after Mayorkas without careful study.
“You’ve got to build a case. You need the facts, evidence before you indict,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas).
“Has he been derelict in his responsibilities? I think so,” he added.
Ahead of President Biden’s first trip to the southern border on Sunday in El Paso, Texas, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas again said the U.S. southern border is closed.
His comments came despite thousands of illegal border crossers pouring into the city, filling the airport, sidewalks, homeless shelters. Over the past few days, many were bused out of town and otherwise cleared out ahead of the president’s visit.
On Jan. 5, after the president announced his expanded immigration plan, Mayorkas announced the Department of Homeland Security was preparing for the end of the public health authority Title 42 after its challenges in court end.
Mayorkas said, “Title 42 or not, the border is not open. We will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws in a safe, orderly and humane manner. Individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States will be subject to expulsion under Title 42 or removal under Title 8.”
Mayorkas also said the crisis at the southern border was “because our immigration system is broken, outdated, and in desperate need of reform. The laws we enforce have not been updated for decades. It takes four or more years to conclude the average asylum case, immigration judges have a backlog of more than 1.7 million cases, and we have more than 11 undocumented people in our country, many of whom work in the shadows …”
He mentioned that there are 2.5 million Venezuelans living in Columbia and 1.5 million living in Peru. Over 350,000 Haitians are living in Brazil and Chile and the number of Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica has more than doubled over the past year.
He made the remarks as the number of apprehensions of illegal entries by Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians have surged in the U.S. in the past few months and after more than 5 million foreign nationals were apprehended or evaded capture from law enforcement. This includes over 3.3 million in fiscal 2022, of which nearly 1.8 million occurred in Texas alone.
The El Paso Sector, which includes two west Texas counties and all of New Mexico, has experienced a surge in the last two months, breaking all-time records.
In December, agents apprehended over 55,700 people and reported nearly 33,000 gotaways, according to preliminary CBP data obtained by The Center Square.
In November, they apprehended more than 53,000 illegal foreign nationals in the sector and reported over 24,000 gotaways.
The number of people crossing the board every month are greater than the individual populations of all but four cities and all but five of counties in New Mexico, according to 2022 Census data analyzed by The Center Square.
The record numbers increased after Mayorkas reversed several policies, including releasing illegal foreign nationals into the U.S. and limiting ICE enforcement of detention and deportation policies. Nineteen attorneys general filed a brief with the Supreme Court over them; Florida heads to trial Monday in another lawsuit in which the plaintiffs argue the administration is continuing to violate federal law.
Multiple members of Congress have called for Mayorkas to be impeached; multiple attorneys general, led by Florida, have called for him to resign.
Last November, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., now Speaker of the House, said “if Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action, and every failure will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry.”
On Sunday morning, when asked to respond, Mayorkas told ABC News This Week he was joining the president in El Paso and at the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City on Monday, where world leaders will discuss “the security of the homeland.” When asked if he planned to resign he said: “I do not. I’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’re going to do it,” according to Fox News.
On Saturday, Mayorkas reiterated his “secure border” language in an interview with CNN anchor Poppy Harlow. She asked him, “Border officials have been consistently telling” a CNN correspondent “they feel abandoned by this administration, by the federal government. So why has it taken two years for President Biden to go to the southern border?”
Mayorkas replied, “We have been dedicating our efforts to the situation at the border since day one. We are incredibly proud of our frontline personnel who are tirelessly and selflessly dedicated to the mission. The president knows the border very well. … He is going to see the border not for the first time in his public service career this Sunday.”
The National Border Patrol Council, the union representing BP agents, has argued the Biden administration, which defunded CBP enforcement mechanisms while sending $45 billion more to Ukraine, said the administration “doesn’t want more money for DHS to enforce laws and deport people. They only want more money to process more people so they can release more people. Don’t be fooled by their propaganda.”
The union also said, “No administration in modern history of this country has done more damage, killed the morale of Border Patrol agents and unleashed death, destruction, rapes, murders and mayhem at our border like the Biden administration.”
In a statement it issued on Saturday, it said, “As Biden and Harris sit around DC patting themselves on the back and lying about the border, things in the real world continue to deteriorate at record-setting levels. Rampant lawlessness, dead bodies piling up and human suffering are not part of the gated fantasyland they live in.”
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
A group of U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday called for the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The lawmakers, led by U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., made their remarks during a news conference outside the Capitol Building, calling for Mayorkas’ impeachment amid the soaring number of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S.
“Every day he remains in office, America is less safe,” Biggs said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection have released a steady stream of figures showing that the number of illegal immigrants entering through the southern border has soared to record levels since President Joe Biden took office.
Those numbers are poised to get worse. Trump-era Title 42 protections that allowed feds to expel migrants more quickly because of COVID-19 concerns are set to expire later this month, and experts predict a surge of illegal immigrants are awaiting that expiration.
Some areas, like El Paso, are seeing thousands of migrants cross over each day.
Those larger numbers of migrants have also brought large quantities of fentanyl, a deadly drug that is trafficked in the U.S. via cartels. Fentanyl overdoses have soared in recent years as well.
Some in the Senate have echoed the criticism of Mayorkas.
“The southern border has been an issue for a long time,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “Secretary Mayorkas only showed back up when the mainstream media caved and reported on the issue.”
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
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