(The Center Square)— Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs does not think impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is the right answer to solving the border crisis.
The Center Square asked about her takeaway from the ongoing effort to impeach the Biden administration cabinet member, who’s been under scrutiny for his role in border security enforcement.
“That the Republicans in Congress don’t have their stuff together,” Hobbs said at a news conference in Mesa on Friday morning.
Congressional Republicans attempted to impeach the secretary earlier this week, but they ultimately failed with four Republicans voting against the effort. One of the no votes, Utah Rep. Blake Moore, voted against it as a procedural measure in hopes of keeping the ball rolling.
CBS News reported on Thursday that House Majority leader Steve Scalise will be back from getting care for cancer next week, which means Republicans will presumably try again at impeaching Mayorkas.
The governor added that lawmakers in Congress should have passed the border bill negotiated partly by Arizona Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, which got killed in the Senate on Wednesday.
“I think that the fact that they’re at the same time crying about a border crisis and then failing to move forward a bill that does a lot to solve the problems, and then failed to impeach the person they say is causing the problems is just laughable at this point. And we need real solutions and they’re not bringing them,” Hobbs said.
On border matters, the governor has taken a critical tone of the Biden administration’s approach. In December, Hobbs changed course and ordered the Arizona National Guard to the Lukeville area following the port of entry closure that cut of the safest way to reach Rocky Point, Mexico, creating tourism and trade concerns among experts and government officials from both parties.
United States Customs and Border Protection reopened the port in early January, and Hobbs told The Center Square she spoke with Mayorkas “a couple of times” afterward. Before the closure, she said she had not spoken with Mayorkas since September when she visited Washington D.C.
“So my team is communicating with them daily. I’ve spoken with the secretary a couple of times since the port was reopened,” Hobbs said in January.
As for the border itself, the Tucson sector has seen the highest number of migrant encounters in recent months, with 200,048 encounters in fiscal year 2024 so far, according to CBP data.
