Republicans are testing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas today, just days after an effort to oust him failed.
Mayorkas is on Capitol Hill for the first time since the House of Representatives voted down a proposal to impeach him on Monday – after a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the proposal.
In a vote of 209 to 201, eight Republicans joined Democrats in voting to refer the impeachment resolution back to the Homeland Security Committee — effectively dismissing it indefinitely.
“(Republicans are) on a crusade to impeach the secretary without legal justification,” Democratic Ranking Member Bennie Thompson said at the start of Wednesday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing on global threats.
Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., made no mention of the failed impeachment in his opening statement, focusing instead on the record numbers of illegal migrants who have entered the U.S. under Mayorkas’ leadership.
Mayorkas is on Capitol Hill for the first time since the House of Representatives voted down a proposal to impeach him on Monday
He also detailed the billions of dollars the Mexican cartels make from human trafficking and called the Biden administration’s policies a “humanitarian and national security crisis.”
His committee is particularly concerned about the numbers of individuals on the terrorist watch list who have sneaked into the US, which Green said is especially concerning following Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on October 7.
“And yet Secretary Mayorkas has continued to mislead Congress and the American people by claiming that this is what a secure border looks like,” he said in comments first obtained by DailyMail.com.
“The homeland is without a doubt less safe under President Biden.”
Mayorkas’ impeachment proposal, put forward by Assemblywoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, drew support from other establishment and moderate Republicans, proving how much the tide has changed for the Secretary of Homeland Security since the start of this Congress, when many were reluctant to oust him to put.
Greene’s impeachment resolution accused him of failing to enforce U.S. law to maintain operational control of the border.
“Through his willful admission of border crossers, terrorists, human traffickers, drugs and other contraband, Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas has failed to maintain operational control of the border, thereby violating the Secure Fence Act of 2006,” the resolution alleges.
But Homeland Chairman Green had urged his colleagues to vote to send the resolution to the committee, saying he wanted to first complete his five-phase investigation into Mayorkas.
He previously indicated to DailyMail.com that the committee could move forward with an impeachment vote at the end of the investigation.
In his opening statement Wednesday, Green focused on the “record-breaking year for illegal immigration” under Mayorkas.
‘CBP reported 2.47 million alien encounters along the Southwest border in FY 2023. Since taking office, Secretary Mayorkas has overseen more than 6.5 million encounters at the Southwest border, 7.8 million encounters nationwide and more than 1.8 million known escapes – all data,” says Green. declared.
“To put this in perspective, the number of illegal immigrants who have entered our country since President Biden took office is greater than the population of 33 of our states. I repeat that: more than 33 of our 50 states.”
FBI Director Wray focused on the threats terrorists pose to the United States. He said Al Qaeda has made its “most specific call” to attack the US in the past five years.
“Given these calls to action, our most immediate concern is that individuals or small groups will draw distorted inspiration from events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,” he said.
The cost of providing education, health care, law enforcement and other expenses resulting from millions of additional migrants amounts to as much as $451 billion a year, according to the fourth installation of the House Republicans report released Monday.
“Every day, millions of American taxpayer dollars are spent on costs directly related to illegal immigration and the unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border fueled by Mayorkas’ policies,” the report said.
Migrants stage a protest on their way to the US, where Republicans say they are a costly drain on resources
Hundreds of migrants march in a caravan in southern Mexico, many heading for the US
“The massive illegal immigration, accelerated by Mayorkas’ open borders policies, now represents enormous costs to both the federal and state governments, as well as to the pocketbooks of private citizens and businesses.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has seen record numbers of migrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, a trend fueled by more people fleeing political chaos in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Since Biden took office in 2021, U.S. border agents have made more than five million arrests of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally — that is, not through a controlled border station.