House Committee Begins Impeachment Proceedings Against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas

Next week, a committee in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives will begin impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, intending to show that Mayorkas has been derelict in his duty to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.

The more publicized impeachment inquiry of President Biden is ongoing but not as far along as the inquiry of Secretary Mayorkas. In the latter case, articles of impeachment have already been drawn up, and a series of four hearings, starting next Wednesday, will lay out the evidence his critics believe supports them.

The record number of migrants entering the country illegally and the burden that has been placed on law enforcement and border communities will be exhibit number one for Republicans on the Homeland Security committee, including Oklahoma Congressman Josh Brecheen.

"We've got an invasion," Rep. Brecheen (R-OK2) said in an interview last month, "we've got special interest aliens that are coming across that border from Iran and Syria; we have 250 people on the terrorist watchlist in two and a half years that have come across that border, and so it's a real threat to our national security."

Rep. Brecheen and his colleagues will argue the border crisis is the direct result of Mayorkas failing to enforce the law. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and dozens of GOP colleagues made a trip to Eagle Pass, Texas, this week to draw attention to the situation.

"Our communities are overrun," said Johnson (R-LA) at a news conference, "we have local resources that are being strapped, we have lethal drugs that are pouring into our country at record levels."

Homeland Security officials call the impeachment hearings a 'baseless political exercise', and Mayorkas insists he is enforcing the law.

"And when people come to the United States at the border, they are placed in immigration enforcement proceedings," Mayorkas said in an interview this week. "And those proceedings take many years because our system is broken, and it is also underfunded."

He blames House Republicans for holding up President Biden's supplemental funding bill, which contains $14 billion for enhanced border security.

As for President Biden, House Republicans narrowly approved a resolution formalizing their impeachment inquiry of him in December. The resolution laid out the rules for public hearings and directed the committees with jurisdiction — Oversight, Judiciary, Ways and Means — to produce a public report with their findings. It’s not clear how soon that will be complete.