A House Republican has filed the first articles of impeachment in the new Congress, targeting Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for failing to secure the southern border and then misleading lawmakers about his efforts.
Rep. Pat Fallon, Texas Republican, said Mr. Mayorkas is violating a 2006 law that requires the government to establish and maintain “operational control” of the border.
Mr. Fallon said not only has the border deteriorated to historic levels of chaos, but Mr. Mayorkas also has not been truthful in his evaluation of the border in testifying to Congress. That, the GOP lawmaker said, amounts to perjury.
The congressman added a third charge of slandering the Border Patrol over a 2021 incident in which top Biden administration officials suggested horse-mounted agents whipped Haitians attempting to jump the border. A department investigation disproved those claims, but Mr. Fallon said Mr. Mayorkas “supported” the false narrative.
Mr. Fallon filed the articles on Monday. As of Wednesday he still had no co-sponsors.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said impeachment could be in the future, but he is taking a more methodical approach. He has asked two committee chairmen to launch a probe of Mr. Mayorkas’s actions to determine whether an impeachment inquiry is warranted.
Mr. Mayorkas presents a juicy target, given the unprecedented breakdown of immigration enforcement and the record surge of people attempting to take advantage of lax policies he has implemented.
But the link between those policies and impeachable offenses is tenuous.
The Constitution’s standard for impeachment is a high crime or misdemeanor.
Mr. Mayorkas has repeatedly brushed aside questions of impeachment. During a weekend trip to the border with President Biden, the secretary said he is instead focused on “doing the work that we need to get done.”
Even if the House does impeach Mr. Mayorkas — a move that only requires a majority vote in the chamber — it’s unthinkable that he would be removed by the Senate, where Democrats hold power and where it takes a two-thirds vote to convict and remove an official.
Only one Cabinet official has ever been impeached, and it came after Secretary of War William Belknap had resigned his post in 1876. The Senate failed to convict, in part because some senators felt they didn’t have jurisdiction since Belknap was no longer in office.
Several other Cabinet officials have resigned amid impeachment investigations but before an actual impeachment vote.
Rep. Andy Biggs, Arizona Republican, introduced articles of impeachment against Mr. Mayorkas last year, though they never saw action in the Democrat-controlled House.
The GOP won control of the chamber in November’s elections with immigration and border security serving as top issues in their campaigns.
Mr. Biggs, in his impeachment resolution, cited Mr. Mayorkas’s failure to achieve operational control of the border as his chief reason for impeachment. A second article of impeachment cited Mr. Mayorkas’s policies that allowed illegal immigrants who tested positive for COVID-19 to be caught and released into the U.S. at a time when COVID-positive international travelers coming through legal channels were barred from entering.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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