OPINION:
The impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas misses the mark. Since Mr. Mayorkas is simply doing the bidding of his boss, his removal, while entirely appropriate, isn’t a solution. The illegal immigration mayhem only stops when President Biden is sent home to Delaware.
The House Homeland Security Committee is expected to vote Tuesday on articles of impeachment against Mr. Mayorkas, and a full House vote is scheduled for next week. With a slim, two-member Republican majority, success in the lower chamber is uncertain. Because Democrats control the Senate, where expulsion requires a two-thirds majority, the Homeland Security secretary won’t be clearing out his office any time soon.
Still, the vote is worth taking because it places a spotlight on a critical issue. Under Mr. Mayorkas’ leadership, border control has been performed as if it were air-traffic control, ensuring the efficient and safe movement of travelers — in this case, illegal immigrants from nearly every corner of the globe.
The U.S. Border Patrol reported 302,034 encounters along the southwest border in December alone, setting an all-time monthly record. Including so-called “gotaways” — individuals spotted but not apprehended — the total number of illegal entries is estimated as high as 10 million during Mr. Biden’s three years in office — more than the individual population of 40 of the 50 U.S. states.
By any definition of the word, the phenomenon is an invasion. A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released last week found immigration ranks as Americans’ top concern, named so by 35% of registered voters. It should surprise no one: A recent Center for Immigration Studies report estimated the annual cost to taxpayers of housing and care for these uninvited guests to be as much as $451 billion.
Recognizing his re-election vulnerability, Mr. Biden recently admitted, “No, it’s not,” when asked if the border is secure. He backs a package currently grinding through Capitol Hill’s legislative sausage-making process that would, among other things, limit the flow to 150,000 border-crossers a month before the president can order a halt.
The plan, emerging from the Senate, is “dead on arrival,” in the words of House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican. That’s as it should be. Americans who see uncontrolled immigration as a problem don’t view allowing “only” 1.8 million trespassers a year as a solution.
The immigration impasse is not simply a disagreement over the number of individuals who should be given a pass for violating U.S. law. It is much more fundamentally a clash over the question of whether national borders are still viable. Mr. Biden has given into the progressive notion of a borderless world under global governance — especially since that means recruiting millions of potential new voters to his cause.
All things considered, Mr. Biden and his Democratic allies have chosen to sacrifice the nation’s security and prosperity to advance their aim. Citizens in communities from coast to coast are left to deal with the collateral damage.
The impeachment of Mr. Mayorkas would serve as an aspirational symbol, but the immigration invasion will not subside until the White House is under new management.
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