After inheriting a secure southern border, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has allowed the southern border to deteriorate into a crisis with both national security and humanitarian implications — a crisis Mayorkas denies even exists and about which he’s accused of lying under oath to Congress. For some time now, impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas have been said to be a matter of “when” rather than “if.”
On Wednesday, Chairman Mark Green of the House Homeland Security Committee unveiled the preliminary results of the inquiry into Mayorkas’s conduct, marking the first step in what is likely to be his impeachment.
But don’t get too excited yet. According to Green, the investigation will be conducted in five stages and is expected to conclude within approximately 12 weeks. The initial finding support allegations that Mayorkas lied to Congress and misled the public.
“In just over two years of Secretary Mayorkas’ leadership, the number of encounters at our Southwest border has doubled compared to the previous administration. More than 1.5 million known gotaways have entered our country. The drug cartels control our Southwest border and are flooding our communities with fentanyl,” Green said in a statement released Wednesday. “This is not a coincidence—this is a dereliction of duty. As the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas swore an oath to the Constitution and to faithfully discharge the duties of his office. But as the Committee has learned time and time again through witness testimony and firsthand insight from the frontlines of this crisis, the American people have been forced to face the devastating costs of his failure.”
Related: Impeachment Exists for Cases Like Mayorkas and Garland
Green continued, “There is no question that Secretary Mayorkas is the chief architect of the open borders policies that got us here, and it is crucial that this Committee fulfills its congressional oversight duties and leaves no stone unturned in its efforts to get the facts. This preliminary report is just the first step to get to the bottom of this crisis, demonstrate why this Committee’s investigation is necessary, and shine a light on the intentionally reckless policy decisions that have created the worst border crisis in American history.”
The DHS naturally released a statement defending Mayorkas that also called on Congress to reform our immigration system.
“Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of the Department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve the American people. The Department will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border, protect the United States from terrorism, and improve our cybersecurity, all while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,” the statement read. “Instead of pointing fingers and pursuing baseless attacks, Congress should work with the Department and pass comprehensive legislation to fix our broken immigration system, which has not been updated in decades.”
While I’m not happy with the prolonged timeline, I’d like to believe the GOP is building up the most ironclad case possible to ensure that impeachment is a slam dunk.
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