Mayorkas Impeached House Sends a Clear Message that the Homeland Security Secretary Must Be Held Accountable
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the architect of the ruinous Biden Border Crisis, was finally impeached by the House of Representatives for his “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and his “breach of public trust.” On February 13, by a vote of 214-213, the House approved articles of impeachment, based on Mayorkas’ refusal to enforce countless immigration laws and secure our borders, repeatedly obstructing congressional oversight, and making false statements to Congress and the American people. FAIR has been at the forefront, making demands for his removal.
While illegal immigration has been a long-standing problem, Secretary Mayorkas’ actions have actually encouraged it. Indeed, Mayorkas has ‘distinguished’ himself by his deliberate efforts to undermine the laws he swore to uphold and by his brazen efforts to replace those laws with his own policies. Mayorkas inherited many effective policies, put in place by the previous administration, that had resulted in some of the lowest levels of illegal immigration in recent history, and proceeded to systematically dismantle them.
During his first year in office, Mayorkas also gutted the enforcement capability of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency under his command through a series of policy memos. Under those edicts, he barred ICE from arresting, detaining and removing all but a miniscule fraction of the more than 16.8 million illegal aliens in the country. In an explicit contradiction of federal statutes, he declared that merely being present in the country illegally is not sufficient grounds for initiating removal proceedings.
The results of his sabotage of laws and policies were immediate and dramatic. By the end of his third year at the helm of DHS, some 10 million illegal aliens had entered the country, including about 1.8 million who were never encountered and have disappeared into the country. With the end of Title 42 last May – a public health provision invoked during the COVID pandemic that allowed for immediate expulsion of illegal aliens encountered at the border – Mayorkas privately conceded that some 85 percent of those encountered at the southern border are now being released into the country.
Mayorkas’ dereliction of his duties as Homeland Security Secretary have not been limited to undermining our laws. His actions have imperiled the security of the United States, leading House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) to label him, “the greatest domestic threat to the national security and the safety of the American people.” At a time when Iran and its proxy terror groups have made overt threats against the United States, and FBI Director Christopher Wray has testified that the dangers posed by these groups have reached a “whole other level,” Mayorkas continues to resist enforcement of our laws and protection of our borders.
Unfortunately, the adoption of articles of impeachment alone won’t remove Mayorkas from office. Removal requires a conviction by a two-thirds majority of the Senate. Still, this extraordinary action by the House – impeaching only the second cabinet member in U.S. history – sends a clear message that this is an unprecedented case of a public official deliberately subverting laws and violating his oath of office.
Now that the House has acted, all eyes are on the Senate. The House is expected to send the impeachment articles to the Senate in the coming weeks, following the government funding debate, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is already rumored to be considering a motion to dismiss them on arrival. If the Senate fails to convict the Secretary or fails to take up the articles of impeachment altogether, FAIR will continue to press the case for Mayorkas to either resign or be fired by President Biden. The American people deserve a secretary who is prepared to uphold the rule of law and faithfully carry out the duties of the office.
FAIR first began calling for Mayorkas’ impeachment more than a year ago. For a comprehensive list of Secretary Mayorkas’ deliberate actions designed to undermine border and immigration enforcement, go to “Secretary Mayorkas: Betraying the American People”.