A Republican-led House committee early Wednesday approved articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of “deliberate and systematic” disregard of federal immigration law and betrayal of the public’s trust.
The House Homeland Security Committee passed two articles of impeachment along party lines 18-15, finding Mayorkas did not detain migrants crossing the border before deciding whether to grant asylum. did.
The article also says the secretary ignored records requests from the committee, exercised “operational control” of the U.S. border, and misled Congress that he maintained the border was “secure.”
The marathon hearing, which lasted more than 15 hours, saw several procedural attempts by Democrats to derail the impeachment effort, and Republicans said a year-long investigation had found ample evidence that Mayorkas violated his oath of office. claimed to have been done.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on Friday promised a floor vote on the article “as soon as possible” after releasing a memo earlier this month that read: 64 times The Biden administration has weakened U.S. border security.
If passed by the narrow House of Representatives, Mr. Mayorkas would become the second cabinet member in U.S. history to be impeached, and the first since Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876.
Moderate Republicans are increasingly willing to move forward with the vote, with Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) telling reporters on Monday that he now supports impeachment.
Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) called Mayorkas’ handling of the border issue a “crisis” even by Democrats like Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. He pointed out that it was called.
He went on to mention six reports released by majority committee staff on the “costs and consequences” of the Biden administration’s border policies and hearings with state attorneys general and grieving mothers. Another died of a fentanyl overdose.
Both majority witnesses called on the House committee to impeach Mayorkas, but legal scholars called by the minority argued that the director’s conduct did not rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” did.
“For almost a year, the Democratic committee has turned a blind eye to the victims of the border crisis, while taking too long to investigate Secretary Mayorkas’ handling of the border crisis,” Greene said in her opening remarks. They blamed us for having done so.”
“If your refusal to obey the law leads to the death of your fellow citizens, you no longer deserve to hold your job and you have betrayed the public’s trust.”
Mayorkas said in a letter hours before the hearing that while he agrees that the U.S. immigration system is “broken,” he has made “politically motivated accusations and personal attacks” against Greene. Greene’s committee was accused of
“We have provided Congress and the committees with hours of testimony, thousands of documents, hundreds of briefings, and a lot of information that shows very clearly how we enforce the law. ” he wrote.
“Differences and returns per day are nearly double compared to the pre-pandemic average from 2014 to 2019. Throughout this administration, the majority of people encountered at the Southwest border have been , or being ostracized.”
Mayorkas and Democratic committee members said the Biden administration only disagrees with House Republicans on immigration policy, and both men urged passage of a bipartisan Senate bill that includes border enforcement provisions.
Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) dismissed the process as a “sham impeachment” and said Republicans “failed to mount a constitutionally viable case.”
“Secretary Mayorkas’s sham impeachment is a baseless political stunt by extreme MAGA Republicans,” Thompson said in his opening statement, attacking the committee chair and members who introduced the resolution.
“Chairman Green, Councilor Margaret [sic] Taylor Greene and others based their fundraising drive on this pre-planned, pre-determined secretary scapegoat, in a process similar to throwing spaghetti against a wall and seeing what sticks. We have also been conducting fundraising activities. ”
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and others also accused former President Donald Trump of preparing for a 2024 presidential election, which Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday. That’s ridiculous,” he denied.
“I have talked at length with former President Trump about this issue,” he told reporters. “He used executive power to bring that system under control. President Biden came around reflexively and did exactly the opposite. And that’s what created this crisis.”
But in early January, Mayorkas told CBP officials that 85% of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally then entered the country to await asylum hearings, some of which were scheduled 10 years later. That’s what it means.
A separate program for humanitarian parole allows 30,000 asylum seekers from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the country through the country’s legal ports of entry before their trials begin.
At least 1.5 million “fugitives” also evade detection by U.S. immigration authorities when crossing the border.
Hundreds of other people also attempted to enter the country between ports of entry. Appeared on terrorist watch listCBP data is displayed.
In total, more than 8.5 million immigrants have been apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection since President Biden took office in January 2021, with 7 million encountered at the southern border.
Deaths from fentanyl overdose also skyrocketed during the same period, says the National Institutes of Health. data showSynthetic opioids are heavily trafficked into the United States by Mexican cartels.
Asked about the border on Tuesday, Biden told reporters: “We’ve done everything we can.”
“Please give me the power I asked for. [for] From the day I took office. Please leave border security to us. Please give me the people who can stop this and make it happen,” he said, referring to negotiations over an additional $106 billion package that mainly includes military aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Senate Republicans denounced the bill, Johnson declared it “dead on arrival” in the House, and the speaker ordered Biden an executive order to end “the mass release of illegal aliens and dangerous individuals into our country.” asked him to sign.
