Republicans tell Homeland Secretary to RESIGN over border chaos or face impeachment

GOP leader Kevin McCarthy appealed to Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas resigns at a press conference in El Paso, Texas after a border visit.

“Today I call on the Secretary of State to resign. He cannot and should not remain in that position,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said, adding that if Mayorkas did not step down, he would look into impeachment.

“If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, the House Republicans will investigate every order, action and failure and determine whether we can initiate an impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy continued, flanked by other Republican members of Congress.

During McCarthy’s last visit to the border in April 2022, he left the door open to impeaching Mayorkas, a prospect some House Republicans have raised. But the leader has claimed he will not use impeachment for political purposes.

‘[A]If someone stops doing their job, there is always the option to rip someone off,” McCarthy said at the time.

“If Secretary Mayorkas was in charge of a company, he would have been fired by now,” McCarthy said Tuesday.

McCarthy claimed there have been 4 million illegal crossings since President Biden took office

McCarthy claimed there have been 4 million illegal crossings since President Biden took office.

‘That’s not the worst. With Title 42 potentially ending, we’re bracing for a tsunami. People are talking about 18,000 crossings a day, which would mean 13 million more illegal crossings for the rest of Joe Biden’s term, if nothing changes, think about that.”

Title 42 is the pandemic-era health restriction that allowed border agents to immediately deport migrants. A judge last week ruled Title 42 illegal but gave the Biden administration a five-week extension of the order to get its post-Title 42 plan in order. They have until midnight on December 21 to continue using the law to deport migrants.

McCarthy claimed that as a result of Biden’s border laws, fentanyl was flowing across the border in “record amounts.”

“Today 300 Americans will be poisoned and die. 300 more tomorrow. It’s the equivalent of an airline crashing every day in America,” McCarthy said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stressed earlier Tuesday that Republicans have “no plan” to tackle immigration and are only engaged in “political stunts” as GOP leader Kevin McCarthy sends a congressional delegation to the border in El Paso.

McCarthy has no plan. The Republican Party has no plan. They do nothing but pull political stunts,” Jean-Pierre told reporters about the GOP-led trip in a news conference Tuesday.

“He goes out there and he pulls a political stunt, like a lot of Republicans do, which we’ve seen them do, but he doesn’t actually come up with a plan, a plan to help us, you know, address a problem that we’re having.” “We all see you all reporting,” she continued.

Jean-Pierre said Biden drew up a comprehensive immigration plan on his “first day” in the White House.

She continued: “We are working with Mexico and Guatemala to tackle the criminal smuggling networks that prey on immigrants. Those efforts have already resulted in thousands of arrests for the work this president has done. He brought together 20 leaders to collectively address the immigration challenge that affects the entire Western Hemisphere. And we’re stopping fentanyl before it hits the streets of the United States. So we have a plan.’

McCarthy has no plan. The Republican Party has no plan. They do nothing but pull political stunts,” Jean-Pierre told reporters about the GOP-led trip in a news briefing

On January 20, 2021, Biden sent the never passed Citizenship Act to Congress. Among other things, the bill would have protected millions from deportation, created a pathway to citizenship for illegal migrants in the US, and given more money to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

On the charge of having “no plan,” McCarthy’s office pointed to an image they took in April 2021. It listed the steps they wanted to take to halt the unlawful flow of migration: complete the wall between the US and Mexico, reinstate the ‘Stay in Mexico’ policy, strengthen Title 42 Covid restrictions, require a negative Covid test before migrants are released in the US

McCarthy, along with Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, sent a delegation to El Paso to “express gratitude” for border patrol ahead of the holiday and to participate in operational briefings.

McCarthy has set his sights on the border after border agents saw a record 2.4 million official encounters with migrants in fiscal year 2022, according to Customs and Border Patrol figures.

In a Dear Colleague letter to Republicans last week, McCarthy identified the southern border as the most important issue for the new Congress.

“Perhaps no issue requires more immediate and dedicated attention than our border security, which the Biden administration has been actively undermining for the past two years,” he wrote.

The GOP leader threatened subpoenas and withholding funding to address border security.

More importantly, I will deliver a message to Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer that this new Republican majority will use every tool at our disposal in the next Congress – from the power of the purse to the power of the subpoena – to secure border. . This was spelled out explicitly in our Commitment to America and I ask for your support and determination on this matter.”

Just before the Nov. 8 election, McCarthy told CNN his first order of business would be a border security bill.

“The first thing you see is a bill to control the border first,” McCarthy said. “You have to get control of the border. You’ve had almost 2 million people over this year alone.’

Migrants live at the Movimiento Juventud 2000 shelter in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, November 16

A view from the camp largely populated by Venezuelan migrants in front of the U.S. Border Patrol operations post across the Rio Bravo River in Mexico on Nov. 14,

Karla, 5, from Honduras, stands near relatives as they wait to be registered by border guards after being smuggled across the Rio Grande River from Mexico to Roma, Texas, US, Nov. 18

McCarthy said his party had “a number of different ways” of tackling the southern border, but stressed they would not move forward with immigration reform until the flow of migrants at the border had come to a halt.

“I think you should have ‘Stay in Mexico’ right away,” McCarthy said, referring to the Migrant Protection Protocols that require those seeking asylum to wait in Mexico for their claim to go through the courts. The Biden administration ended the policy in August.