On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before a House Homeland Security Committee that was largely hostile towards him. Throughout the hearing, the Republican members of the committee laid the groundwork for a potential case of impeachment against him, accusing the secretary of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) led the charge against Mayorkas, slamming him for agreeing during a previous hearing that he had “operational control” of the border, a term that was first defined in the 2006 Secure Fence Act as the standard for a secure border.
“Mr. Roy reads the very definition you just admitted last month in the Senate that has not been achieved. He said, ‘According to this definition, do you have operational control?’ According to the definition that you just said, ‘No one has operational – has ever had operational control.’ He asks you under oath, in the United States Congress, if you had operational control according to that definition and you said, ‘I do,’” Green said at the start of his questioning.
“That is a false statement because you admitted in the Senate that no one had ever achieved that. You make it very clear, Mr. Secretary, that you’ve known all along, according to the definition that is written in the law passed by the Congress, that you do not have operational control,” Green continued. “And yet in testimony to this House, under oath, the definition was read to you. You’ve asked, ‘According to that’ — you’re asked, ‘According to that definition, whether control exists. And you say, ‘Yes.’ That sounds like a lie under oath.”
Representative Clay Higgins (R-La.) addressed Mayorkas after Chairman Green’s remarks and expressed his belief that the secretary had violated 11 laws during his tenure of the past two years and three months.
After gaining control of the House in January, the Republicans singled out various Biden administration officials, including Mayorkas, for potential impeachment.
Related: Impeachment Exists for Cases Like Mayorkas and Garland
“Our country may never recover from Secretary Mayorkas’ dereliction of duty. This is why today I am calling on the secretary to resign,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said back in November. “If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action, and every failure. And we will determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry.”
Over the past few months, House committees have conducted numerous hearings about the ongoing border crisis.
Under Biden’s watch, we have witnessed an unprecedented surge in encounters with non-citizens attempting to enter the United States illegally. After inheriting a secure southern border, the Biden administration implemented open-border policies, leading to a severe humanitarian and security crisis. Within months, 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.
Lawmakers have committed to investigating and constructing a case against Mayorkas. The developments in Wednesday’s hearing imply that the Republicans are getting closer to impeaching Mayorkas.
In addition to the border crisis, Mayorkas will have to answer for punishing Border Patrol agents over whippings he knew never actually happened.
