Fed up with an unproductive exchange, the House Homeland Security Committee said it wants Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to testify in writing in impeachment proceedings against him.
Committee Chairman Mark Green said he wanted Mr. Mayorkas to show up for a hearing this week, but the secretary declined, saying he was involved in negotiations with Mexico over the border flood.
So Mr. Green, in a letter Wednesday, said if Mr. Mayorkas wants to defend himself in the impeachment proceedings he should submit something in writing.
“Regretfully, every invitation for almost half a year we extended to you to testify focused specifically on the border crisis has been rejected or subject to endless delay tactics,” wrote Mr. Green, Tennessee Republican. “Since you continue to decline to come in person, I invite you to submit written testimony for the Jan. 18 hearing record so that our committee members may hear from you directly.”
He said Mr. Mayorkas has 10 days after the hearing to submit a defense, if he wants.
Mr. Green’s committee is pursuing impeachment based on authority of a House vote last year.
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Homeland Security spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said Mr. Green’s new move shows impeachment is a “sham process” with an inevitable outcome of making Mr. Mayorkas the first sitting Cabinet secretary to be impeached.
“It’s abundantly clear that they are not interested in hearing from Secretary Mayorkas since it doesn’t fit into their bad-faith, predetermined and unconstitutional rush to impeach him,” Ms. Ehrenberg said.
She said Mr. Mayorkas last week agreed to testify but couldn’t agree to the Jan. 18 date. She said he’s offered other dates but Mr. Green hasn’t accepted them.
“Instead, they provided this offer of written testimony to the media before any outreach to the department,” she said.
Homeland Security says Mr. Mayorkas has already testified to Congress more than any other Cabinet official in the Biden administration, with 27 appearances in 35 months.
That includes an appearance before Mr. Green’s committee two months ago, alongside the FBI director and the National Counterterrorism Center director, to talk about worldwide threats.
Mr. Green, though, says he wants Mr. Mayorkas to appear to talk specifically about the border chaos.
Republicans say Mr. Mayorkas has earned impeachment by lying to Congress and the public, refusing to enforce laws governing illegal immigration, flouting court orders and failing to achieve operational control as required by the Secure Fence Act.
The secretary’s defenders say Republicans haven’t identified any high crime or misdemeanor, which is the impeachment standard set by the Constitution, and that the GOP is trying to impeach over policy differences.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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