Among stalled border asylum policy negotiations in the Senate, expected impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and an upcoming trip by House Republicans to the U.S. southern border, immigration reform is center stage as 2024 kicks off.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will lead a group of about 60 Republican this week on a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass, Texas. Also on the trip: Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who represents a border district, along with House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.), both of whom will be at the center of any impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas.
The Hill’s Emily Brooks and Rebecca Beitsch note the trip is the latest escalation for Johnson, who has become increasingly vocal about taking action to address soaring border crossings and establishing stricter immigration policies.
Gonzales said the trip’s timing, so soon into the new year, is “a small miracle and shows we are committed as a group.”
“America is experiencing the worst border crisis in our history, impacting every community in the country. While President Biden and Senate Democrats are asleep at the wheel, House Republicans will not cease in demanding transformative, immediate solutions to the madness,” Johnson said ahead of the trip.
Senators will make another go at a bipartisan deal over border policy changes that would unlock funding for Ukraine after weeks of failed negotiations. These negotiations continued virtually and even over text over the holiday break, lead Democratic negotiator Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) told Politico.
RELATED: More than a third — 35 percent — of Americans listed immigration and the border wall as a top concern heading into the new year, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Mayorkas, meanwhile, could come under further scrutiny from the House GOP over his handling of the border situation. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) revealed Johnson and Green told her an impeachment vote for the Homeland Security chief could come in the near future. The House referred two previous impeachment inquiries into Mayorkas to the House Homeland Security Committee and declined to take an immediate vote.
“We’re going to have about three or four hearings in January, and then we’re going to mark up the impeachment articles that have been written,” Green said late last month during an appearance on Fox News.
The Department of Homeland Security has pushed back against the prospect, calling the House majority’s efforts a “baseless political exercise” with “no basis.”