Senate Republicans tell Mayorkas he is ‘derelict in duties’ and ‘failing miserably’ at the border

sec. homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas was verbally abused by Republicans during a hearing on Tuesday. Some demanded that he resign and one suggested a vote of no confidence.

Senator Roger Marshall, R-Ky., told the secretary he “has failed to fulfill his duties” and said he planned to introduce a draft resolution that would require the Senate to pass a vote of no confidence “in the coming days.” to hold.

On the House side, Republicans have been calling for impeachment for some time, but no articles have been put to a vote. Marshall noted the need to support the House impeachment effort.

“I stand ready to receive articles of impeachment from the House and to preside over an impeachment process in this body. But in the meantime, I think the Senate should show our colleagues in the House that we are fed up with the failures of the Department of Homeland Security and believe that the Secretary is not fit to faithfully discharge the duties of his office.” he said.

The House must pass articles of impeachment before an investigation can formally begin in the Senate.

At one point during the Homeland Security Committee hearing, Mayorkas asked the senator if he could comment. Marshall shot him, “I want you to answer my questions, not lecture.”

Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., at one point estimated that between 4 and 5 million people had crossed the southern border in the past two years. Mayorkas replied that he is “very, very focused on the security of our border.”

‘No you’re not. No, you’re not,” Johnson interrupted. “I don’t want to listen to that.”

Johnson then asked Mayorkas how many girls on the southern border are victims of sex trafficking and the secretary said his department has made anti-trafficking “a priority.”

“But you fail miserably,” Johnson said.

“You don’t give me any statistics at all about how many people are victims of human trafficking, how many young girls are victims of sex trafficking,” Johnson said. ‘You have no idea. You don’t even want to say how many dead bodies, which is very well documented, at the border.’

“Don’t you care?” added the Wisconsin Republican. “Don’t you have an ounce of human compassion for your open-border policy, the kind of human depredation it causes? You just sit there and watch with a blank look on your face.’

He again listed the number of border crossings over the past two years. “And you say this is a priority?” he said. ‘Mr. Secretary, you should resign.’

Democrat Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chided his GOP colleagues to cheer up the secretary.

“I want to take a moment to ask my colleagues here today to treat the secretary with the respect he deserves,” said Carper, noting Mayorkas’ dedication to the tough work.

Migrants stand at the border wall after crossing the Rio Bravo River with the intention of turning themselves in to US Border Patrol agents, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, April 14, 2023

Migrants surrender to US authorities to seek political asylum in the United States, on April 17, 2023 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

“I was raised – I suspect most of the people on this committee were raised – to treat other people the way we want to be treated. I would not treat anyone as I have seen you treated before in other committees and again here by at least one of our colleagues today.”

But Senator Josh Hawley supported calls to resign. “You should have resigned a long time ago and if you can’t change course you should be removed from office,” said Hawley, R-Mo.

Meanwhile in the lower chamber Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Mark Green reportedly told donors he would bring high charges of crimes and misconduct against Mayorkas.

Mayorkas told senators it was up to Congress to reform a “broken” immigration system.

Some Republican lawmakers turned their sights to the New York Times reporting that Biden administration officials were aware of unaccompanied children being taken to the border and trafficked for child labor.

Placing unaccompanied minors in the care of vetted guardians usually falls under Health and Human Services (HHS).

But Hawley accused Mayorkas of “pressuring officials and agencies to skip the vetting process and send these children to sponsors who had not been vetted as soon as possible.”

‘You are failing miserably,’ Senator Ron Johnson told Mayorkas, demanding he resign

Senator Roger Marshall said he would propose a vote of no confidence in the DHS secretary

The Times coverage made no mention of Mayorkas and focused mainly on the role of HHS and senior Biden officials.

“Senator, I look forward to discussing this matter further because you are so horribly misrepresenting the facts,” Mayorkas said.

Separately, Democrat Senator Bob Menendez unveiled an immigration plan for the Biden administration on Tuesday that focused primarily on executive actions that would circumvent the Congressional stalemate.

The outline called for encouraging new pathways to citizenship, giving more humanitarian aid to specific countries, increasing funding for border security and launching further efforts to crack down on human traffickers.

But on Monday, House Republicans unveiled their own sweeping immigration bill that would tighten the right to asylum, expand the detention of migrant families and crack down on the employment of undocumented workers.

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to flag down the bill on Wednesday. It is likely dead on arrival in the Senate and may face difficulties getting through the House as Republicans have different ideas about how best to handle immigration.