- The Washington Times - Sunday, February 11, 2024

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday deflected blame for the record influx of illegal crossings at the southern border as he again faces impeachment by House Republicans.

“It certainly is a crisis, and, well, we don’t bear responsibility for a broken system,” Mr. Mayorkas said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We’re doing a tremendous amount within that broken system. But fundamentally, Congress is the only one who can fix this.”

Senate Republicans last week rejected a bipartisan border security bill over objections it would fail to solve the problem.

Mr. Mayorkas narrowly survived a House impeachment vote last week, but the chamber is expected to succeed in another vote once Republicans return to Capitol Hill.

Conservative critics accuse Mr. Mayorkas and President Biden of refusing to exercising their executive authority to combat the surge of illegal entries.

“We have taken executive actions already. We continuously review what options are available to us,” Mr. Mayorkas said. “But those are always challenged in the courts. And whether or not they see the light of day and actually are able to be operationalized is an open question.”

• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.

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