Republicans’ first impeachment hearing for Alejandro Mayorkas begins, examining embattled DHS secretary’s ‘failed leadership’ after more than 2.3 MILLION illegal migrants are released into the US under Joe Biden’s leadership
- The hearing, which begins at 10 a.m. ET, will focus on President Biden’s border policies just as senators are trying to save border reform.
- Witnesses are expected to focus on the impacts of fentanyl and crime resulting from border crossings in their communities
House Republicans will host a momentous first hearing Wednesday to debate the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The hearing, which begins at 10 a.m., will focus on President Biden’s border policies just as lawmakers on the Senate side try to salvage a sweeping immigration and foreign aid deal.
Top law enforcement witnesses from across the country are expected to blame Mayorkas for the negative effects of fentanyl and the increase in crime resulting from illegal border crossings into their communities.
The Homeland Security Committee will hear from attorneys general from Missouri (Andrew Bailey), Oklahoma (Gentner Drummond) and Montana (Austin Knudsen) and University of Missouri law professor Frank Bowman.
House Republicans will host a momentous first hearing today to debate the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Drummond signed an amicus brief last year accusing the Biden administration of failing to follow the law by not detaining migrants at the border.
After weeks of negotiations on Capitol Hill over the deal, Mayorkas has not been invited to testify at the hearing. He is on the ground this week in Eagle Pass, Texas, where more than 60 Republicans visited last week.
A DHS official noted that Mayorkas has testified on Capitol Hill more than any other Cabinet official — 27 times since he took the job.
It is the first impeachment hearing after nearly a year of investigations and reports from the House Homeland Security Committee.
If Republicans succeed in removing Mayorkas, he would be the first Cabinet official to be impeached in nearly 150 years. This would require near-total Republican unanimity, given their narrow three-seat majority.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, who is leading border negotiations for Republicans on the Senate side, suppressed any sense of optimism that the two sides could reach an agreement this week.
Migrant caravan leaves Tapachula, Mexico for the US in December
‘There are still too many unanswered problems. There are too many unresolved parts,” he told reporters this week.
The House of Representatives voted in November to refer articles of impeachment back to the Homeland Security Committee, and it is expected that articles of impeachment will appear there after a series of hearings, if the committee decides to move forward.
The hearing comes as the number of border crossings has reached a record high, surpassing 2.4 million in the 2023 budget year, according to government figures released in October. Last month alone, there were more than 300,000 border crossings at the southern border.
More than 2.3 million migrants have been released into the United States at the southern border under the Biden administration, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. DHS.
But Chairman Johnson’s slim majority comes after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy resigned from Congress at the end of 2023 and controversial Rep. George Santos was expelled.
House GOP Whip Steve Scalise is battling cancer and will be out of DC until next month, so if an impeachment vote is held in January, he may not attend.
And the expected resignation of Representative Bill Johnson of Ohio on January 21 will further reduce the Republican majority: 219 Republicans (including Scalise) to 213 Democrats.
“Secretary Mayorkas is not a good negotiating partner,” Johnson told CBS this week after his trip to Eagle Pass, when asked about the secretary’s resignation at a time of “crisis” numbers at the border.
The trips to Eagle Pass come as the battle between the Biden administration and the state of Texas heats up, with the White House asking the Supreme Court to intervene and allow it to tear down the razor wire that Gov. Greg Abbott installed along the southern border. border.
Abbott also installed floating barriers in the Rio Grande, which later failed a legal battle and were removed, and recently signed a new law allowing state law enforcement agencies to arrest and immediately deport migrants.