Two Republican senators are placing a Biden cabinet official on notice.
Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina are warning Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to prepare for a potential impeachment trial.
They’re citing the porous state of the southern border under his leadership and dismal immigration enforcement.
“This is gross dereliction of duty and, if not corrected swiftly, could provide grounds for impeachment,” the senators inform Mayorkas in the Wednesday letter.
Mayorkas is considered a likely candidate for congressional oversight in the event Republicans win one or both chambers of Congress in a November “Red Wave” midterm election.
Mayorkas has overseen a historic increase in illegal alien arrivals, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
“Since you assumed office as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) 19 months ago, there have been over 4.4 million illegal crossings, including over 3.5 million apprehensions by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and at least 900,000 gotaways, who evaded apprehension,” Cruz and Graham point out in their letter.
Deportations plummeted even as illegal crossings skyrocketed in fiscal year 2021, according to one ICE whistleblower. Many advocates of border integrity point to the Biden administration’s weak enforcement as a de facto invitation for potential illegal immigrants.
Illegal immigration erodes American democracy and significantly increases the cost of living for average Americans.
Illegals will cost the taxpayer over $140 billion in free public services alone in 2022, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform — a figure that doesn’t include the deleterious impact of illegal migration on U.S. housing costs and wages.
Cruz and Graham are warning that Mayorkas won’t get as many breaks from a Republican-led Congress.
The senators criticize Mayorkas for a 219 percent increase in fentanyl apprehensions on the part of Customs and Border Protection.
Increased seizures of drugs at the border usually correlate with higher volumes of drug smuggling, much of which authorities are unable to prevent.
“We fully expect that in a few months’ time a Republican-led Congress will hold you to account for your willful negligence regarding the security of the southern border and the safety of the American people,” the GOP senators indicate in the letter.
Impeaching a cabinet secretary is only slightly different from impeaching the president, with the vice president presiding over a Senate trial instead of the chief justice of the United States.
A simple majority vote in the House of Representatives spurs a Senate impeachment trial, but it takes two-thirds of senators to remove a federal official from office.
Removing Mayorkas from office would take the backing of a number of Senate Democrats, but it’s a possibility Biden’s border czar could find himself impeached by a Republican House of Representatives.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
