(Washington) House Republicans on Sunday issued two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom they consider incapable of defending the border between the United States and Mexico.
Democrats and the agency criticized the move, calling it a politically motivated stunt that lacked the constitutional basis to remove him from office.
Republicans say Mayorkas is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” that amount to a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” on immigration and a “breach of public trust.” Impeachment, they say, is “Congress’s only viable option.”
“Alejandro N. Mayorkas willfully and systematically refused to comply with immigration laws, failed to control the border to the detriment of national security, compromised public safety, and violated the rule of law and the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution, to the manifest harm of the people of the United States,” the impeachment resolution states.
Since taking control of the House in 2023, Republicans have pushed to impeach Mr. Mayorkas. Sunday’s announcement comes as their other impeachment campaign — aimed at removing Democratic President Joe Biden in connection with his son Hunter’s business dealings — has struggled to move forward.
Immigration, a key issue in the presidential election
But Republicans moved quickly against Mr. Mayorkas after a series of hearings in recent weeks. All this comes at a time when border security and immigration are key issues in the 2024 campaign and when Donald Trump, favorite for the Republican presidential nomination, promises to launch the “largest deportation operation” in the history of the United States if he returns to the White House.
The offensive by Republican representatives comes at a strange time since the minister is eagerly negotiating with the Senate to reach a bipartisan agreement on border policy. He received praise from senators for his commitment to the process.
The Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee is expected to vote on the articles of impeachment on Tuesday, aiming to send them to the full House for consideration. Speaker Mike Johnson said all representatives should be able to vote quickly at the end of a quick process.
Passage requires only a simple majority in the House, but it’s up to the Senate to hold the trial. A two-thirds vote is required for conviction, an extremely unlikely outcome in the still Democratic-controlled Senate.
A simulation of impeachment proceedings
Democrats say Republicans staged a sham impeachment proceeding against Mr. Mayorkas and lack the constitutional basis to remove the secretary. According to them, the Republicans also harmed the minister’s work by refusing to give him the tools necessary to manage the situation.
“They don’t want to solve the problem. They want to campaign on this. “That’s why they undermined efforts to reach bipartisan solutions and ignored facts, legal scholars and experts, and even the Constitution itself, in their quest to baselessly impeach Secretary Mayorkas,” said Sunday the ministry in a press release.
The two articles of impeachment mark the culmination of Republican opposition to the policies of President Joe Biden’s administration. They blame her and Mr. Mayorkas for rolling back the measures of previous President Donald Trump and encouraging migrants from around the world to come to the United States illegally.