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| Photo: Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press |
Effort comes as Senate tries to wrap up bipartisan deal on immigration
House Republicans moved ahead with the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas while also throwing cold water on an emerging bipartisan Senate deal aimed at curbing illegal border crossings.
The GOP-led House Homeland Security Committee voted along party lines to approve articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, alleging he has failed to properly enforce the nation’s immigration laws. Mayorkas is being accused of demonstrating a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breaching the public trust”—two charges that bipartisan critics of the effort say don’t amount to impeachable crimes.
“Today is a grave day,” said committee Chairman Mark Green (R., Tenn.). Mayorkas’s “actions have forced our hand,” he said.
“No serious person believes” that Mayorkas has committed an impeachable offense, said Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the panel.
Tuesday’s committee action could set up an impeachment vote in the full House as soon as next week. If successful, Mayorkas would become only the second cabinet secretary in history to be impeached, and the first since Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876. Mayorkas is expected to be acquitted by the Democratic-controlled Senate and remain in office.
Mayorkas, who has served in his role since the start of the Biden administration, has been a primary target of Republicans in Congress, as illegal border crossings hit record levels and the GOP seeks to make the issue central to this year’s presidential election. Polls have shown immigration as a top issue among Republican primary voters headed into the fall.
Republicans are moving ahead even as Mayorkas has been working with a bipartisan group of senators to craft changes to immigration law that would discourage migrants from journeying to the southern border to seek asylum. The deal, which could be released as soon as this week, would include changes that require the president to effectively shut down the border to asylum seekers if a daily threshold of 5,000 crossings is surpassed.
Though Republicans had sought changes to border policy in exchange for passing an aid package requested by President Biden for Ukraine and Israel, in recent days the not-yet-public deal has split the party. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner in the presidential race, has been lobbying Republicans not to support the package because it doesn’t go far enough—and could defuse an issue he is making central to his campaign. --->READ MORE HERE (or HERE)
A Republican-led House panel approved articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas early Wednesday for having “willfully and systematically” flouted federal immigration laws and breached the public trust.
The House Homeland Security Committee voted 18-15 along party lines for the two articles of impeachment, affirming that Mayorkas failed to detain migrants crossing the border before deciding whether to grant asylum.
The articles also state that the secretary ignored records requests from the committee and misled Congress about having “operational control” of the US border and maintaining that it is “secure.”
The marathon hearing, which dragged on for more than 15 hours, saw several procedural attempts by Democrats to tank the impeachment effort, with Republicans insisting that their year-long investigation had uncovered sufficient evidence that Mayorkas violated his oath of office.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pledged on Friday to hold a floor vote on the articles “as soon as possible” after having released a memo earlier this month citing 64 times the Biden administration undermined US border security.
Moderate Republicans have increasingly expressed willingness to move forward with the vote, with Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) telling reporters on Monday he now favored impeachment.
Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) pointed out that even Democratic members of Congress such as Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania had referred to Mayorkas’ handling of the border as a “crisis.”
He went on to note 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 — one’s daughter was murdered by an illegal alien; the other’s died of a fentanyl overdose. --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
+++++House GOP takes party-line vote toward Mayorkas impeachment as border becomes 2024 campaign issue+++++
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