- The Washington Times - Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Rep. Andy Biggs made good Tuesday on his promise to file articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, saying the man in charge of the border crisis has admitted he’s breaking the law.

The Arizona Republican congressman said the country “is more in danger today” than when Mr. Mayorkas took office, and said the secretary has “willfully” refused to enforce U.S. laws against illegal border crossers and helped spur more spread of the coronavirus.

“Secretary Mayorkas is failing to faithfully uphold his oath of office and is presiding over a reckless abandonment of border security and immigration enforcement, at the expense of the U.S. Constitution and the security of the United States,” the lawmaker said.

The two articles of impeachment are unlikely to gain traction in the Democrat-controlled House, where the majority party, if anything, would like to see Mr. Mayorkas be more lenient still in his approach to immigration by canceling the few Trump get-tough policies that have survived the first six months of the Biden administration.

But for many Republicans, Mr. Mayorkas’s tenure has been a disaster given the unprecedented illegal immigrant surge at the border.

The country is posting records for unaccompanied juveniles and seeing soaring rates of families, along with more single adults.

The Washington Times has reached out to Homeland Security for a response to the congressman’s move, which Mr. Biggs previewed last week.

Mr. Biggs and his GOP colleagues say Mr. Mayorkas invited the surge by canceling key Trump policies such as the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as “Remain in Mexico,” which denied illegal border crossers a foothold in the U.S. while they awaited their immigration court dates.

In the articles of impeachment, Mr. Biggs also points to the return of catch-and-release, which has seen tens of thousands of migrants each month be apprehended then quickly turned loose into communities — sometimes without even a notice for an immigration court date.

And Mr. Biggs said Mr. Mayorkas admitted in testimony to Congress that his department was catching and releasing inadmissible migrants.

“This was an admission that under his direction, the Department of Homeland Security is violating the law,” Mr. Biggs charged.

That’s compounded by the ongoing COVID pandemic, the congressman said, pointing to high rates of the disease among those migrants that are being tested.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

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