Joe Biden already faces a formal impeachment inquiry amid mounting evidence of influence-peddling and bribery, but he may not be the only member of his administration at risk of removal.
According to a new report from Punchbowl News, the House Homeland Security Committee, which completed its investigation of Mayorkas in December, has determined it has grounds to proceed with impeachment hearings. Hearings are scheduled to begin on January 10, with a potential second hearing the following week.
Mayorkas has been a target for impeachment over his mishandling of the southern border. After inheriting a secure perimeter, the Biden administration instituted open-border policies, creating a humanitarian and security crisis. Within months of Biden taking office, there were reports of overflowing migrant facilities and immigrant children being kept in deplorable conditions and reportedly sexually assaulted. This crisis has also seen a huge influx of fentanyl crossing the border and an unknown number of migrant children being sex trafficked.
Mayorkas has repeatedly denied there’s a crisis at the border. On his watch, migrant encounters at the southern border reached unprecedented levels.
In addition to the border crisis, Mayorkas punished Border Patrol agents over whippings he knew never actually happened. He has been accused of lying under oath to Congress. Mayorkas has refused to resign despite multiple calls to do so. If he does get impeached, it would be the first impeachment of a Cabinet official since Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876.
It’s been very plain that it is entirely up to the Republican Party to hold him accountable.
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“Our investigation made clear that this crisis finds its foundation in Secretary Mayorkas’ decision-making and refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and that his failure to fulfill his oath of office demands accountability,” Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said in a statement to Punchbowl News. “The bipartisan House vote in November to refer articles of impeachment to my Committee only served to highlight the importance of our taking up the impeachment process – which is what we will begin doing next Wednesday.”
This is a major escalation in Green’s nearly year-long probe into Mayorkas, which was split into five phases. The investigation looked at the origins, effects and economic costs of the influx of millions of undocumented migrants who have illegally crossed the U.S. border since Mayorkas has held his post.
It also comes as House Republicans launched a formal impeachment inquiry last month into President Joe Biden. That probe could wrap up as early as February.
On top of that, House Republicans will be grappling with two looming government shutdown deadlines when they return to Capitol Hill next week.
A previous attempt to begin impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas failed in November when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) proposed a vote without the customary hearing or committee markup. Had the resolution passed, it would have expedited the impeachment process, sending the case directly to the Senate for a trial, but eight Republicans sided with Democrats against impeaching him.
While Republicans appear more ready now to impeach Mayorkas, it will be difficult. Republicans will only have a two-vote majority thanks to the recent expulsion of Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) and the forthcoming retirement of Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) in a few weeks. Assuming all Democrats will oppose impeachment, the entire GOP caucus will have to be unified against Mayorkas. Perhaps the best thing Republicans have going for them is that the border crisis has turned the immigration issue, once a Democratic advantage, in favor of Republicans.
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