Mayorkas lashes out as Homeland Security committee works on impeachment

Brushing aside Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ last-minute defense, House Republicans were poised Tuesday night to clear the first hurdle toward his impeachment with votes expected in a committee on two articles of impeachment.

The outcome was not in doubt, both Republicans and Democrats said. All Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee said they would support impeachment. The only question was how deep into the night Democrats would take matters before the inevitable outcome.

Republicans said Mr. Mayorkas should earn the dishonor of becoming the first sitting Cabinet secretary in history to be impeached based on his management of the border and his dealings with Congress.

They pointed to record-shattering illegal immigration numbers as proof that the secretary has subverted an immigration system that was working reasonably well under President Trump, replacing it with a catch-and-release policy that has drawn millions of unauthorized migrants into the U.S.

“Secretary Mayorkas has put his political preferences above following the law,” said Rep. Mark Green, Tennessee Republican and panel chairman. “We cannot allow this man to remain in office any longer. The time for accountability is now.”

Hours before the committee met to take up impeachment, Mr. Mayorkas fired off a letter at 5 a.m. blasting the proceedings and saying he won’t be deterred by the outcome.

“I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted,” he said.

Mr. Mayorkas said he has done the best he can within the laws on the books. He said other answers will require Congress to pass further legislation — something he is already working on with a bipartisan group of senators.

The secretary ticked off his accomplishments, saying under his watch the Homeland Security Department has interdicted record levels of fentanyl and is ousting more border migrants than any time in the past decade.

Republicans say those numbers are a reflection of how bad things are because he also has set records for the total flow of deadly fentanyl, as well as migrants caught and released.

They also point to record numbers of terrorism suspects detected, and plummeting rates of interior enforcement against illegal immigrants as he has shifted officers to manage catch-and-release at the border.

Tensions ran high at Tuesday’s committee hearing, with Democrats saying the impeachment push was an embarrassment to lawmakers.

“This is a terrible day for the committee,” said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi Democrat.

He kicked off the meeting with repeated attempts to derail the proceedings, but each was defeated on a party-line vote, indicating where the day was headed.

“Secretary Mayorkas is breaking the law. We are going to impeach Secretary Mayorkas today on this committee. We don’t care how long you go on,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, who told Democrats that immigration will be their political downfall. 

“It’s going to hurt you,” she said.

The two articles of impeachment accuse Mr. Mayorkas of a breach of public trust by obstructing and lying to Congress and willfully undermining the immigration system by refusing to carry out laws that require the government to try to detain and deport certain categories of illegal immigrants.

Once the committee acts, Republican leaders will have to decide whether to bring the articles of impeachment directly to the House floor or whether to go through the Judiciary Committee as well.

Either way, House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised speedy floor action.

Democrats warned that if Mr. Mayorkas is impeached, it “opens the floodgates” for impeachment proceedings against others.

Rep. Seth Magaziner, Rhode Island Democrat, pointed to five instances where he said Cabinet secretaries for Mr. Trump lied to Congress.

Republicans said they have no alternative way to force Mr. Mayorkas to change course but impeachment.

They said using the power of the purse to cut funding would backfire because Mr. Mayorkas already cites lack of money as a reason he has curtailed enforcement compared with past administrations. They said passing new laws won’t work because Mr. Mayorkas is already ignoring existing ones.

To that point, Rep. Dan Bishop, North Carolina Republican, said Mr. Mayorkas has written guidelines ordering agents to look for reasons not to detain or deport migrants, saying he was setting new priorities.

“Secretary Mayorkas has brazenly flouted and disobeyed those laws,” Mr. Bishop said.

Republican lawmakers also said Democrats paved the way for this impeachment with their two impeachments of Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump was impeached in 2019 and again in 2021, but was acquitted by the Senate.

Mr. Green pointed to Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat who led one of the impeachments and who said “abuse of power was a well-understood offense” that deserved impeachment.

“If your refusal to obey the law leads to the death of your fellow citizens, you no longer deserve to keep your job, you’re breaking the people’s trust,” Mr. Green said.

Democrats rejected the comparison, insisting they had evidence to support the Trump impeachment that is lacking in the case of Mr. Mayorkas. They also said they afforded more rights to Mr. Trump in the 2019 impeachment process than Republicans are allowing Mr. Mayorkas.

The committee has been investigating Mr. Mayorkas for months but did not begin an official impeachment inquiry until this month, with two hearings.

Mr. Green asked Mr. Mayorkas to testify at one of the hearings, but the secretary declined, citing other pressing business on that day. He said he would be willing to testify at another time, but Mr. Green accused him of playing games and moved ahead with the vote.

Mr. Green did invite Mr. Mayorkas to submit testimony in writing, which prompted Tuesday’s letter excoriating the committee and complaining about the way the Trump administration achieved border security.

“I think it is unconscionable to separate children from their parents as a tool of deterrence,” he said, referring to a part of the Trump team’s zero-tolerance border policy in 2018.