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.
If passed in the narrowly divided House, Mayorkas would be the second Cabinet official impeached in US history — and the first since Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876.
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.
Both sets of majority witnesses urged the House panel to impeach Mayorkas, whereas legal scholars called by the minority argued the secretary’s actions had not risen to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“For almost a year, committee Democrats have turned a blind eye to the victims of the border crisis, while berating us for spending what they believed was too much time investigating Secretary Mayorkas’ handling of the border,” Green said in his opening remarks.
“If your refusal to obey the law leads to the death of your fellow citizens, you no longer deserve to keep your job, you’re breaking the people’s trust.”