Mayorkas Will Testify As GOP Pushes For Impeachment: Here’s What Led To This Point

Topline

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday he will testify before a GOP-led House committee as House Republicans push for Mayorkas’ impeachment over what they claim is a dereliction of duty at the U.S.-Mexico border, even though GOP lawmakers have yet to provide evidence of criminal or improper activity against President Joe Biden’s top immigration official.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said he will testify before a GOP-led House … [+] committee as Republicans push for his impeachment.

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Key Facts

Mayorkas said he is willing to testify before the House Committee on Homeland Security, according to a letter from DHS assistant secretary for legislative affairs Zephranie Buetow to Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the committee.

In that letter, Buetow said Mayorkas is “laser focused on border security,” and is “working tirelessly to foster the close partnership and engagement with our international neighbors that are necessary to address these root causes” of an influx of migrants at the southern border.

Republicans in Congress have increasingly turned their blame on Mayorkas for what they describe as a worsening border crisis as record numbers of migrants arrive at the southern border, with Republicans calling for swift immigration reform.

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) filed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas on Monday, alleging the secretary failed to maintain control of the U.S.-Mexico border and violated his oath of office by previously testifying the border was secure.

House Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee laid the groundwork for that impeachment in a hearing Wednesday, arguing a rising numbers of migrants proves Mayorkas committed a “dereliction of duty,” with Green arguing Mayorkas should be removed from his position on the basis of “gross incompetence.”

Even if the House votes to impeach Mayorkas, an effort to remove him from office is expected to fail, as it would require 67 members of the Democratic-controlled Senate to vote in favor of removal.

Chief Critic

In a statement Thursday afternoon, the House Committee on Homeland Security claimed Mayorkas failed “to accept our invitation or offer an alternative time to testify,” after the committee invited Mayorkas to testify last week for a hearing scheduled for Jan. 18. In that statement, the committee announced it would move forward with “hearing from victims of Secretary Mayorkas’ border crisis next week.”

Key Background

Immigration reform has been a top policy issue for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in recent years, though lawmakers have been at loggerheads over what that reform should entail, including former President Donald Trump’s controversial border wall project—Biden announced plans in October to resume construction of the border wall. Republicans in Congress have roundly criticized Biden’s border policies, with a group of Republicans threatening a government shutdown earlier this month unless stricter border controls are funded. One policy at issue was the expiration last year of Title 42, a Covid-era policy that allowed Customs and Border Protection officials to turn migrants away at the border. In recent months, House and Senate Republicans have amplified their calls for Mayorkas’ impeachment amid an influx of migrants arriving at the border. GOP firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a privileged resolution late last year to impeach Mayorkas, though the House blocked that resolution, with eight Republicans joining Democrats to keep Mayorkas in office. Greene had accused Mayorkas of violating a federal law that requires the DHS to maintain “operational control” of the border. Fallon filed his articles of impeachment against Mayorkas on Monday, accusing Biden’s top immigration official of failing to control the border and of slander against border patrol agents who appeared in a controversial video to act aggressively toward Haitian migrants crossing the Rio Grande in 2021 (Mayorkas later said he was “horrified” by the footage, saying it “troubled [him] profoundly” while a Customs and Border Protection report found those agents did not strike any of the migrants in question).

Big Number

2.48 million. That’s how many migrants the Department of Homeland Security recorded at the southern border in fiscal year 2023—a narrow increase from the 2.38 million in fiscal year 2022 and a spike from the 1.73 million recorded in fiscal year 2021.

Contra

Mayorkas continues to rebuff Republicans’ calls for him to step down or be impeached, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday he has no intention of resigning, and adding: “I’m going to continue to do my work.”