4 Causes Why Republicans Name for Impeaching Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Rep. Andy Biggs and a gaggle of fellow Republican lawmakers say it’s time to question and take away Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the disaster of unlawful immigration on the southern border.  

“It’s clear Secretary Mayorkas has dedicated excessive crimes and misdemeanors,” Biggs, R-Ariz., not too long ago mentioned in a ready assertion calling for Mayorkas’ impeachment. “His conduct is willful and intentional. He isn’t imposing the regulation and is violating his oath of workplace.”

Biggs first launched articles of impeachment towards Mayorkas in August 2021, when he was chairman of the conservative Home Freedom Caucus. Final week, Biggs filed new articles of impeachment towards Mayorkas, saying in a press launch that Mayorkas “is the chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border.”  

In fiscal yr 2022, which ended Sept. 30, U.S. Customs and Border Safety reported a report 2.3 million land encounters with migrants on the southern border. With over 700,000 encounters between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, CBP encounters with migrants are on observe to overhaul the earlier yr’s numbers.  

Biggs and a number of other different Republican lawmakers held a mock Mayorkas impeachment Wednesday at The Heritage Basis’s headquarters on Capitol Hill. (The Each day Sign is Heritage’s multimedia information group.)

“Now we have a constitutional obligation to make use of the instruments that the Founders gave us, and the device right here for an govt official that has gone off the rails is impeachment,” Biggs instructed The Each day Sign.  

Becoming a member of Biggs on the impeachment discussion board had been fellow Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Michael Cloud of Texas, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Matt Gaetz of Florida, and Bob Good of Virginia.  

Biggs and others questioned key “witnesses” on the state of the southern border and Mayorkas’ actions.

The 4 professional witnesses included Mark Morgan, former performing commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Safety; Tom Homan, former performing director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Steve Bradbury, a distinguished fellow at The Heritage Basis; and Robert Legislation, director of the Heart for Homeland Safety and Immigration on the America First Coverage Institute, a analysis institute fashioned by former Trump administration officers.  

Contributors argued that there are a lot of explanation why Mayorkas must be impeached, however targeted on the next 4 causes.

1. Mayorkas Lied Underneath Oath to Congress

President Joe Biden appointed Mayorkas as secretary of the Division of Homeland Safety, the place subagencies embody U.S. Customs and Border Safety and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mayorkas took workplace Feb 2, 2021.

In April 2022, whereas testifying earlier than Congress, Mayorkas was requested by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas: “Will you testify underneath oath proper now, do we’ve operational management [of the border], sure or no?”  

“Sure, we do,” Mayorkas responded.  

The homeland safety secretary “supplied false, deliberately false, and deceptive testimony whereas underneath oath,” Morgan mentioned in the course of the discussion board.

Morgan identified that “operational management” shouldn’t be an opinion, and never left to interpretation. The Safe Fence Act of 2006 defines operational management as “prevention of all illegal entries into the US, together with entries by terrorists, different illegal aliens, devices of terrorism, narcotics, and different contraband.”  

However when Mayorkas testified earlier than Congress, Morgan mentioned, “the secretary knew that CBP had confirmed the detection of tons of of hundreds of identified gotaways.”

“Gotaways” are unlawful immigrants who evade Border Patrol brokers slightly than flip themselves in as asylum-seekers.

“Among the many gotaways, Secretary Mayorkas knew there have been untold numbers of criminals, together with murderers, rapists, aggravated felons, gang members. The checklist goes on,” Morgan mentioned. “He knew that for each pound of narcotics seized, probably tenfold will get by us, and he knew that the second he lied to Congress and mentioned he has operational management of our borders.”  

Customs and Border Safety reported that it seized simply over 14,000 kilos of fentanyl in fiscal yr 2022, which ended Sept. 30, and greater than 7,000 kilos between October and the tip of December. 

The Heart for Immigration Research reported in April that underneath Biden’s presidency, greater than 756,000 unlawful migrants have been launched into America’s inside, not together with greater than 146,000 youngsters and an estimated 620,000 gotaways.  

Mayorkas has “betrayed the general public belief by making false statements to Congress and deceptive the general public concerning the nature and results of his insurance policies,” Heritage’s Bradbury mentioned. 

2. Mayorkas Deliberately Unsecured the Border 

“President Biden is the primary president within the historical past of this nation who got here into workplace and unsecured a border, with the assistance of Secretary Mayorkas,” Homan mentioned in the course of the discussion board.  

Homan has practically 35 years of border safety expertise, having joined the Border Patrol in 1984. Each president he labored underneath, Homan mentioned, took some steps to safe the border.

“Even [Bill] Clinton and [Barack] Obama took strikes to safe the border as a result of they understood you may’t have nationwide safety with out border safety,” Homan mentioned.

If Biden and Mayorkas merely reimplemented President Donald Trump’s insurance policies on the southern border, the state of affairs on the border “would change in 24 hours,” he mentioned.  

3. Mayorkas Opened Border for Political Achieve 

Via his expertise in Customs and Border Safety, Morgan mentioned, he has come to consider—though he “didn’t wish to consider it”—that “on the finish of the day, there’s two perceivable advantages” the Biden administration sees in having an unsecure border.  

“One, unlawful aliens are counted [as] a part of the census. So, there’s a really actual, that is hyperbolic, redistricting of Home seats within the favor of the Democrats,” Morgan mentioned, including: “No. 2 is the perceived political profit. They do consider that each single unlawful alien they provide a path to citizenship goes to extend the Democrats’ vote.”  

Morgan mentioned unlawful aliens wish to enter the nation unlawfully and be free from deportation and to have the ability to work, ship cash dwelling, and convey different relations to America. The Biden administration, with Mayorkas in a key publish, has given unlawful migrants all of these items, he mentioned.  

“That is all politics,” Morgan mentioned.  

4. Mayorkas’ Insurance policies Sparked Humanitarian Disaster 

A human value accompanies unlawful immigration, and Homan took time to element this value throughout his remarks. The drug cartels are making billions smuggling migrants into America whereas ladies and youngsters are being trafficking and sexually exploited, he mentioned.  

The Biden administration tells hopeful migrants that “you gained’t be deported, you gained’t be detained, you get a piece authorization, you will get free well being care,” Homan mentioned.

“When the president says these items,” he added, the result’s “probably the most susceptible folks on the earth are going to place themselves in felony cartels’ arms … they usually’re going to be victimized.”  

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