Washington — The U.S. House is set to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over border security, a strongly politicized and rare attack on a Cabinet officer that has constitutional academics and Democrats alarmed.
House Republicans said Mayorkas has “refused to comply” with immigration rules, resulting in a record influx of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, and “breached the public trust” with his actions and words. Democrats claim the accusations are inaccurate and not grounds for impeachment. The House votes on them on Tuesday.
It is the first time a serving Cabinet secretary has been impeached since 1876, when Secretary of War William Belknap resigned before the vote. At a hearing before the vote, Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., claimed Secretary Mayorkas has chosen which laws to enforce.
Border security is a prominent political issue in the 2024 election, and Republicans, headed by Donald Trump, are attacking President Joe Biden particularly hard. Mayorkas faces impeachment proceedings.
Mayorkas considers it a global migration age, with record numbers of individuals coming at the southern border, many fleeing nations. Many migrants are claiming asylum and being conditionally released into the U.S., arriving in places that lack homes and other services while they await years of legal hearings to decide their status
The two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas are anticipated to be rejected by House Democrats as a hoax because they do not meet the Constitution's treason, bribery, or “high crimes and misdemeanors” standards.
After Republican efforts to impeach Biden over his son Hunter Biden's business connections stalled and the Biden family inquiry lagged, Mayorkas' impeachment was immediately added to the House calendar.
A resolution from Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., energized Green's committee's year-long investigation of the Homeland Security secretary. The commission quickly convened two sessions in January before issuing Mayorkas' two impeachment articles.
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