The House Homeland Security Committee released draft articles of Impeachment Sunday against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The first article of Impeachment against Mayorkas is for âwillful and systemic refusal to comply with the lawâ and the second is for âbreach of the public trust,âaccording to a copy obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The committee held two hearings recently on Impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas that centered around his handling of the southern border and heard the testimonies of Republican attorneys general, legal experts and mothers whoâve lost their kids to fentanyl and an MS-13 gang member.
The first article surrounds the record levels of migrants coming illegally and getting released into the country that has happened under Mayorkasâ watch. One of the ways the committee believes Mayorkas played a role in the issue is through a September 2021 memo in which he directed his agency to limit immigration enforcement.
âThe fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,â Mayorkas wrote in the previous memo.
Border Patrol recorded more than 2.2 million encounters of migrants crossing the southern border illegally in fiscal year 2022 and more than 2 million in fiscal year 2023, according to federal data. Between October and December, there have been more than 629,000 illegal encounters at the southern border.
The second article asserts that Mayorkas lied to Congress when he said the southern border is âsecure,â âno less secure than it was previously,â that itâs âclosed,â and that DHS has âoperational controlâ of the area. One section of the article points to Mayorkasâ previous statements supporting a false narrative accusing Border Patrol agents of âwhippingâ illegal migrants in September 2021.
A federal investigation later found that the agents didnât engage in any whipping.
âThese articles lay out a clear, compelling, and irrefutable case for Secretary Alejandro Mayorkasâ Impeachment. He has willfully and systemically refused to comply with immigration laws enacted by Congress. He has breached the public trust by knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people, and obstructing congressional oversight of his department,â the committeeâs chairman, Mark Green, said in a statement to the DCNF.
âThese facts are beyond dispute, and the results of his lawless behavior have been disastrous for our country. Empowered and enriched cartels, mass fentanyl poisonings, surges of terror watchlist suspects, more criminal illegal aliens causing harm in our communities, and traumatized and exploited migrants will be Secretary Mayorkasâ open-borders legacy,â Green said.
DHS believes the committeeâs actions are âunconstitutional and evidence-free,â according to an agency memo obtained by the DCNF.
âThis markup is just more of the same political games from House Homeland Security Committee (CHS) Republicans. They donât want to fix the problem; they want to campaign on it. Thatâs why they have undermined efforts to achieve bipartisan solutions and ignored the facts, legal scholars and experts, and even the Constitution itself in their quest to baselessly impeach Secretary Mayorkas,â the memo states.
âThis farce of an Impeachment is a distraction from other vital national security priorities and the work Congress should be doing to actually fix our broken immigration laws,â the memo states.
The committee will hold a markup of the Impeachment articles on Tuesday.
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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporterâs byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].