Exclusive: Key moderate Republicans have announced support for impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, moving House Republican leaders one step closer to unifying the conference on the issue.
Rep. John James (R-Mich.), who represents a battleground district that former President Donald Trump won by just 1 percentage point in 2020, told Fox News Digital that he would not only impeach Mayorkas, but also charge him with treason. But he said the case should go to trial.
“Secretary Mayorkas must be impeached and tried for treason.”
“The evidence shows that Mr. Mayorkas' sustained and deliberate betrayal of the public's trust makes him complicit in the poisoning of millions of Americans, complicit in the modern slave trade, and unequivocally defending the homeland.” It will prove that there was a breach of duty.'' This is the realm of felonies and misdemeanors. ”
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been targeted by House Republicans over the border crisis. (Reuters/Sarah Silbiger)
House Republicans began proceedings to impeach Mayorkas last week, with the Homeland Security Committee holding its first hearing on the matter on Wednesday.
Democrats denounced the move as political, while Republicans blamed Mayorkas for the migrant crisis at the southern border. The number of encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border topped 300,000 in December, shattering a record.
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If the House votes on impeachment in the future, it is unlikely to receive support from the left. For Republican leaders, that means uniting a Republican conference that has been deeply divided for much of this term and bringing moderates like James on board.
In the current situation, House Republican leaders cannot lose more than two votes to pass something along party lines.
Rep. John James (R-Mich.) voted in favor of impeaching Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
James was one of more than 60 House Republicans who visited the border earlier this month.
“I believe that legal immigration is an economic and moral imperative for this country. But we are now talking about border security,” he told reporters at a subsequent press conference.
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“Border Patrol agents are underfunded, undervalued, and at a loss. And one of the only reasons they're still there is that once they leave, they feel like they're separating from their allies.” As a former military officer, that resonates with me. ”
Mr. James also discussed the toll of human trafficking by smugglers who take people across borders illegally.
“We're talking about human beings. Men and women. Children,” he said. “These are creatures of God, and they are herded by these coyotes like cattle, like chattel, like animals. And in the Del Rio area alone, they are bought and sold for as much as $32 million a week. I am.”
Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande River from Mexico into the United States wait to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Eagle Pass, Texas, Oct. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
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Republicans have accused the Biden administration of inciting the crisis by rolling back Trump-era border policies.
House conservatives are now pushing to return many of them through their own border security bill, known as HR2.
Meanwhile, negotiations are underway in the Senate to finalize a border security agreement, and Mr. Mayorkas is participating in those negotiations.
Asked for comment on the Republican impeachment push, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a memo: “After decades of Congressional inaction on broken immigration laws, Secretary Mayorkas and a bipartisan Senate committee… The group is working hard to find real solutions.” “Let's address these challenges. Instead of working in a bipartisan manner to fix our broken immigration laws, the House majority is wasting its time on baseless and pointless political attacks in an effort to impeach Secretary Mayorkas.”
The memo also noted that Republican lawmakers have used Mayorkas' impeachment push and the rhetoric surrounding it to raise money, which some in the party have criticized as a waste of time.
