After nearly a year of investigations and hearings, the U.S. House Committee of Homeland Security is preparing to impeach U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Committee chairman Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., has led the charge for impeachment, arguing Mayorkas is derelict of duty, holding over a dozen hearings and issuing multiple reports over the past year, which The Center Square has extensively covered.
On Tuesday, two articles of impeachment will be filed and marked up, The Center Square learned from the committee. If the articles are voted out of committee, they would go to the full House for a vote. Green says he has the votes in committee to advance them.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, last week announced, “a vote on the floor will be held as soon as possible thereafter.”
The 20-page resolution that Green is filing amends a previously submitted article of impeachment, HR 863, stating Mayorkas “is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Article 1, “Willful and Systemic Refusal to Comply with the Law,” states that Mayorkas has violated his oath “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, to bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and to well and faithfully discharge the duties of his office, has willfully and systemically refused to comply with Federal immigration laws.”
Mayorkas has repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress on immigration and border security, the article states, which violate the separation of powers in the Constitution and “threatens our national security.”
Mayorkas has not only refused to enforce laws established by Congress but unilaterally created programs that are in direct violation of them, an impeachable offense, Green argues. Among them are over a dozen parole programs identified by the committee as illegal. The consequences are a more than tenfold increase in illegal border crossings, a more than 20-fold increase in cartel enrichment, skyrocketing fentanyl distribution and overdose deaths, the article details.
Consequences include more than 10 million illegal entries primarily by single military age men under his watch, the greatest number of known or suspected terrorists apprehended, and the largest number of illegal entries last month in U.S. history. Retired FBI counter intelligence officials recently warned Congress that a preventable, but likely, terrorist attack is imminent as a result of his policies.
Article 2, “Breach of the Public Trust,” states that Mayorkas has violated his oath “to well and faithfully discharge the duties” because he “knowingly made false statements, and knowingly obstructed lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security of his office.”
It cites examples of Mayorkas knowingly making false statements to Congress when he testified the border is ‘‘secure,” “no less secure than it was previously,” ‘‘closed,” and DHS has ‘‘operational control’’ of the border as defined in the Secure Fence Act of 2006, when data from his own agency contradicts his claims.
Mayorkas also knowingly made false statements about apprehensions and removal of “aliens with no legal basis to remain in the United States” and “knowingly made false statements supporting the false narrative that U.S. Border Patrol agents maliciously whipped illegal aliens,” the articles states.
Mayorkas failed to comply with multiple subpoenas issued by congressional committees and obstructed DHS Office of Inspector General investigations, according to the second article.
Green said the articles “lay out a clear, compelling, and irrefutable case.” Mayorkas has “willfully and systemically refused to comply with immigration laws enacted by Congress. He has breached the public trust by knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people, and obstructing congressional oversight of his department.
“These facts are beyond dispute, and the results of his lawless behavior have been disastrous for our country. Empowered and enriched cartels, mass fentanyl poisonings, surges of terror watchlist suspects, more criminal illegal aliens causing harm in our communities, and traumatized and exploited migrants will be Secretary Mayorkas’ open-borders legacy.”
Mayorkas maintains he’s followed the law and has no plans to resign. The White House and DHS have said any impeachment articles filed don’t meet the standard for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” House Democrats have argued impeaching Mayorkas is a political ploy.
Green argues Mayorkas “has also completely disregarded the separation of powers, a bedrock of our constitutional republic. Congress has a duty to see that the executive branch implements and enforces the laws we have passed. … The House of Representatives must impeach Secretary Mayorkas.”
Ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, responded to the charges, saying, “What is glaringly missing from these articles is any real charge or even a shred of evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors, the Constitutional standard for impeachment. That should come as no surprise because Republicans’ so-called ‘investigation’ of Secretary Mayorkas has been a remarkably fact-free affair. They are abusing Congress’ impeachment power to appease their MAGA members, score political points, and deflect Americans’ attention from their do-nothing Congress.”
If the House does impeach him, Mayorkas would be just the second cabinet member in U.S. history in nearly 150 years to be impeached. Secretary of War William Belknap, serving under President Ulysses S. Grant, was impeached on March 2, 1876. Although he had resigned, he stood trial before the U.S. Senate as a former government official and was acquitted.
