(The Center Square) – Several House Republicans have taken action to hold accountable Vice President Kamala Harris for her failures as “border czar,” a role President Joe Biden designated in March 2021.
One congressman filed impeachment charges, four filed a resolution condemning her “failure to secure the United States border.”
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., filed two articles of impeachment against Harris, the second time he’s done so. He first filed impeachment charges against Biden and Harris last June.
Harris “disgraced the Office of the Vice President,” “willfully disregarded her oath to uphold and defend the Constitution,” “intentionally ignored her responsibility to enforce the laws of the United States and protect the American people,” leading to violence committed against Americans and creating a national security crisis, Ogles said.
He filed two articles: Article 1 “Willful Refusal to Uphold the Immigration Laws” and Article 2: “Breach of Public Trust.”
Article 1 charges Harris with violating her constitutional oath; not faithfully executing her office as vice president; “demonstrating extraordinary incompetence” in executing her duties and responsibilities; refusing to uphold existing immigration laws; and exhibiting “a palpable indifference” to the suffering of Americans from the border crisis.
It states that she “will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office” and “has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law,” warranting impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold any future office in the government.
Article 2 states Harris breached the public trust because she knowingly misled the American people and Congress about Biden’s failing health.
“Immediate action should be taken to impeach her,” Ogles said based on her not invoking the 25th Amendment alone “to remove President Biden from office when it became apparent that he was mentally and physically incapable of continuing to serve.”
Republican U.S. House Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Neal Dunn of Florida filed a separate resolution condemning Harris as border czar. So far, Greg Lopez of Colorado and Mike Bost of Illinois have joined them as cosponsors.
The resolution “strongly condemns” the Biden administration and “its Border Czar, Kamala Harris’s, failure to secure the United States border.”
It states that on March 24, 2021, Biden asked Harris to serve as border czar to address the ‘‘root causes’’ of illegal entry into the U.S. but it took 93 days for her to visit the border. She first met with officials at a port of entry in El Paso, Texas, on June 25, 2021, roughly 800 miles from the crisis occurring in the Rio Grande Valley at the time.
It also cites former Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz saying he “never had one conversation with the president or the vice president” in two years, adding, “that’s a problem.” Ortiz made the claim after he retired in a May 2024 CBS News interview.
Both the impeachment articles and the resolution cite examples of violent crimes being committed against Americans, the record number of illegal border crossers, more than 12 million, and the record amount of fentanyl pouring through the border under Harris as border czar.
Dunn says Harris is just as complicit as Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for the border crisis and “unacceptable lapse in American national security.” Mayorkas was impeached in February for his alleged role in the border crisis, the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history.
Stefanik said the House will vote on the resolution to “condemn Harris’ failure” as border czar, which “led to the most catastrophic open border crisis in history. Biden’s open border czar Kamala Harris, and every elected Democrat is responsible for this border crisis and they must all be held accountable for their role in jeopardizing our national security and turning every community into a border community.”
She also addressed the crisis at the northern border where, in Champlain, New York, she saw “firsthand the disastrous consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s failed Far Left open border agenda which has caused a historic surge in illegal crossings including individuals on the terrorist watch list,” first reported on by The Center Square.
The resolution was referred to House committees on Homeland Security and the Judiciary.
