An elated crowd inside Yuma’s city hall cheered Thursday for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ potential impeachment after a local official accused him of lying about plans to close gaps in the US-Mexico border wall.
Jonathan Lines, a member of the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, testified at a House Judiciary Committee field hearing, which was boycotted by panel Democrats, that Mayorkas falsely said he’d address openings that are popular avenues for illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
“Has Secretary Mayorkas ever lied to you?” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) asked Lines, who was one of three witnesses at the hearing.
“Yes,” Lines said to chuckles from a crowd of more than 200 in the hearing chamber.
“What was the substance of that lie?” asked Gaetz.
“The mayor and I had the opportunity to visit with Secretary Mayorkas and the Yuma [Border Patrol] sector chief … at sector headquarters almost a year ago,” Lines said. “And during that meeting he committed to, after reviewing the border both from the ground and the air, to specifically address ‘nine of the 11 Yuma gaps.'”
“And how many of those gaps have been addressed?” asked Gaetz.
“To date so far? None. We see infrastructure on two and yet they would not deter anyone,” Lines said.
“It seems as though it’s not a great mystery where the pressure points are where we have gaps in the wall and where we have recalcitrant [Native American] tribes,” Gaetz said — after touring two such gaps Wednesday night with fellow committee members. --->READ MORE HERE
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| AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File |
Republicans don’t have the votes to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a key lawmaker pushing the effort.
Mr. Gaetz and Republican colleagues have been trying to lay the case for impeachment in early hearings on the chaos at the southern border. But he said Monday that they are far from getting there.
“We don’t have the votes,” he said.
Pressed on whether they can get there, he said, “I don’t think we’re close to having the votes.”
The assessment is a significant setback for Mr. Mayorkas’s opponents, who accuse him of lying, failing to follow his oath of office and overseeing an unprecedented breakdown at the border.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has asked the chairmen of the Judiciary and Oversight and Accountability committees to probe Mr. Mayorkas’ actions to see whether cause exists to launch an impeachment inquiry.
They have each held hearings on the border, highlighting the breakdown.
But the actual case for Mr. Mayorkas committing a “high crime” or “misdemeanor,” the standards the Constitution lays out for impeachment, are not well developed at this point. And some Republicans are wary of pulling the trigger on a process that’s extremely unlikely to result in conviction in the Senate. --->READ MORE HERE
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