With the possibility of impeachment increasing for the second Cabinet member in U.S. history, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has finally acknowledged that his agency is failing to uphold the rule of law at the border.
In a recent interview, Mayorkas seemed to agree with the assessment that the government is releasing more than 70% of illegal immigrants into the country. Mayorkas also privately told Border Patrol agents that the number of illegal aliens being released into the country was more than 85%, according to a later Fox News report. All of this contradicts Mr. Mayorkas' repeated claims that the United States has operational control of the southern border, but it is also very revealing about the approach Mr. Mayorkas takes to border security.
With record numbers of illegal aliens crossing the border every year since Mayorkas took office, the secretary has been loath to take responsibility for the catastrophes that have occurred on his watch. He has repeatedly blamed Congress for the border crisis, claimed he inherited a broken immigration system, and effectively implored Americans not to blame him for the disaster. There is. But the root cause of the unprecedented surge of illegal aliens at the southern border is not a “dysfunctional immigration system” or flaws in U.S. asylum law. It is Mr. Mayorkas' blatant refusal to uphold the rule of law.
EAGLE PASS, Texas – DECEMBER 17: A U.S. Border Patrol agent watches as migrants wait to be processed after entering the United States from Mexico on December 17, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. A surge of 12,000 migrants a day crossing the US southern border is overwhelming US immigration authorities. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Mayorkas and his supporters argue that foreign nationals have the right to apply for asylum and that he is not to blame for the overwhelming number of fraudulent asylum claims. These defenses are inadequate given the vast incentive structure that Mayorkas and his cronies have set up to enable illegal immigration.
Just months after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the role in 2021, Mayorkas penned a memo saying illegal entry is no longer sufficient reason to deport an alien. Undocumented immigrants can remain in the United States as long as they wish, as long as they have not committed a heinous crime or are considered a national security threat.
When Mayorkas released this memo, it sent a signal to the world that America's borders are wide open. Once through the border, any willing immigrant can stay for life and have access to all the taxpayer-funded services that should be available to Americans. This signal was heard loud and clear by the drug cartels. Drug cartels are subject to appalling treatment as they traffic immigrants into the United States, while profiting billions of dollars from this scourge of human misery and suffering. For all practical purposes, Mr. Mayorkas has effectively partnered with cartels to turn illegal immigration into a lucrative business.
When it comes to reducing illegal immigration, we know what works. The number of frivolous asylum claims has dropped dramatically since the Trump administration launched a program forcing foreign nationals to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are reviewed. If asylum seekers learned they would not be allowed to live in the United States while their claims were adjudicated, the number of people willing to make the dangerous journey through Latin America to file fraudulent claims would plummet.
No wonder, then, that when the Biden administration ended the Remain in Mexico program shortly after taking office, it had the opposite effect. Abuse of the U.S. asylum system is largely preventable, but has instead been encouraged at every step by the administration.
Mayorkas' first public concession on the number of illegal aliens released into the country came during a media tour to protect himself from possible impeachment. The House of Representatives began impeachment proceedings against the embattled chief earlier this month after more than a year of threats. Only one cabinet minister in U.S. history has been impeached by the House of Representatives — Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 — and Mr. Mayorkas is certain to target him over policy disagreements. would argue that this process is being exploited. But Mr. Mayorkas' encouragement of the invasions taking place at the U.S. border in violation of constitutional and statutory responsibilities is no more a policy than Pentagon Secretary Lloyd Austin's condoning the Chinese occupation of Hawaii. Not the above discrepancy.
The impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas is about much more than a policy disagreement. It concerns the intentional undermining of American sovereignty and security in violation of the Constitution and longstanding federal law. Mr. Mayorkas' admission that he is releasing large numbers of illegal aliens into the United States should strengthen Congress's resolve to bring him into historic disrepute through his impeachment.
Dale L. Wilcox is Executive Director and General Counsel of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to protect the rights and interests of Americans from the negative effects of mass immigration.
