9 months ago
House Republicans unveiled articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday, accusing him of “breach of trust” and “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law.”
The release of the impeachment resolution comes ahead of Tuesday’s vote in the Homeland Security Committee, led by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), where Republicans are expected to advance the effort along party lines.
That would allow the House to vote on impeachment as soon as the week of Feb. 5, depending on absences and if Republicans can shore up a swath of their undecided colleagues. If the resolution passes the House it would amount to a historic, rare step — a Cabinet official hasn’t been impeached since Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 — but one that is all but guaranteed to end without a conviction in the Senate.
The impeachment resolution is the culmination of a monthslong investigation into Mayorkas that at times last year appeared to have stalled as Republicans shifted their focus toward investigating President Joe Biden. Republicans held two impeachment-related hearings earlier this month as they tried to build the case for an impeachment vote on Mayorkas.
“In the Committee’s impeachment hearings, members received testimony from top legal officials that detailed how Secretary Mayorkas has failed to uphold his oath of office, how his actions and decisions rise to the level of impeachable offenses, and how his misconduct is costing states across the country,” Green said in a recent statement, announcing the committee vote.
In the first article, refusing to comply with the law, Republicans argue that Mayorkas didn’t uphold immigration laws, exceeded his authority and risked public safety. In the second article, breach of trust, Republicans accuse him of making false statements to Congress, obstructing congressional oversight and other steps like ending construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Some of the criticisms contained within the articles are well-trodden.
Republicans have accused Mayorkas for months of lying to Congress over whether or not the department has operational control of the border. Mayorkas has argued he did not mean operational control according to the statutory definition, which no administration has met. And the department has been rebuffing GOP claims of obstruction, noting its compliance with hearings, closed-door interviews and turning over documents.
The impeachment articles come as the Senate could vote on a bipartisan deal linking new border restrictions to money for Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel. Former President Donald Trump has lashed out at the deal, and Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that depending on the details it could be "dead on arrival" in the House.
The drive to impeach Mayorkas has drawn criticism from Democrats and legal experts, plus skepticism from some of their own GOP colleagues, who believe they haven’t shown that Mayorkas committed a high crime or misdemeanor.
“What is glaringly missing from these articles is any real charge or even a shred of evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors — the Constitutional standard for impeachment,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the top Democrat on the panel, said in a statement after Republicans released their impeachment articles on Sunday.
The Department of Homeland Security, in a four-page memo responding to the articles, called Tuesday’s committee vote “just more of the same political games” from Republicans on the committee.
“This farce of an impeachment is a distraction from other vital national security priorities and the work Congress should be doing to actually fix our broken immigration laws,” it added in the memo.
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