GOP backtracks on Mayorkas impeachment appearance, demanding written testimony

House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) demanded written testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, abandoning plans to have the secretary’s public testimony as part of his impeachment proceedings.

The Wednesday letter comes after Mayorkas’s office said he was unable to meet Green’s demand for testimony that came just two weeks ahead of the slated Thursday hearing, noting that the secretary would be hosting a delegation from Mexico to discuss immigration issues.

While Mayorkas’s office asked to find another time, Green’s letter characterized the response as “declin[ing] to appear.”

“Since you continue to decline to come in person, I invite you to submit written testimony for the January 18th hearing record, so that our Committee Members may hear from you directly,” Green wrote in the letter, first reported by Punchbowl News.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the disagreement over setting a date amounted to a “rush to impeach” on Green’s part.

“This is just the latest example of Committee Republicans’ sham process. It’s abundantly clear that they are not interested in hearing from Secretary Mayorkas since it doesn’t fit into their bad-faith, predetermined and unconstitutional rush to impeach him. Last week, the Secretary offered to testify publicly before the Committee; in the time since, the Committee failed to respond to DHS to find a mutually agreeable date,” DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement.

“Instead, they provided this offer of written testimony to the media before any outreach to the Department. [Homeland Security Committee] Republicans have yet again demonstrated their preference for playing politics rather than work together to address the serious issues at the border.”

Mayorkas appeared before the panel in November as part of the annual worldwide threats hearing and in April for a DHS budget hearing. He has testified before Congress more than any other Biden Cabinet official.

But Green has said the secretary has failed to respond to past invitations for testimony, including letters from August and September.

Green said during an interview on Fox News in late December that he would kick off a series of impeachment hearings for Mayorkas, making his formal request for Mayorkas’s appearance in early January. Committees organizing testimony from Cabinet officials often reach out to arrange it several weeks or even months in advance.

In a letter to Green last week, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Zephranie Buetow proposed the two parties try to find a different date, citing a second round of migration talks with Mexican officials in Washington next week.

“In keeping with the secretary’s commitment to cooperate with Congressional Committees, he will make himself available to testify before the Committee,” Buetow wrote.

“Consistent with the customary accommodations process, we look forward to working through the details with Committee staff and agreeing upon the date and structure of the hearing. As you can appreciate, the Secretary’s schedule is quite committed with the work of the Department including hosting Mexican Cabinet Members next week to discuss border enforcement.”

Mexico is a key partner as the U.S. works to stem migration flows from Central and South America.

Mayorkas, along with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, last month visited Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City for a first round of bilateral migration negotiations.

He’s also in the midst of negotiations with Senate leaders over a possible immigration reform package.

But Green previously blasted Mayorkas for “putting the interests of Mexico ahead of the American people.”

“Apparently, he needs to be reminded that Congress is a co-equal branch of government, and our Committee, not Mexico, has oversight over his department,” Green wrote last week on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Green’s committee last week held its first of several hearings to examine a possible impeachment of Mayorkas, though Green previously said articles of impeachment have already been drafted and are expected to be marked up shortly. The hearing offered no new evidence to back Republican assertions that Mayorkas should be removed from office over his handling of the border.

While some Republicans such as Green have claimed Mayorkas is derelict in his duty to manage the border, it’s not clear that is an impeachable offense or even a legal term outside its use in the military. 

Republicans have also accused Mayorkas of lying to Congress — a claim that largely rests over testimony he’s given where he’s maintained the government has operational control of the border, which the GOP disputes.

Republicans have mainly pointed to his testimony about the Secure Fence Act, which defines operational control of the border as a status in which not a single person or piece of contraband improperly enters the country. 

No secretary of Homeland Security has met that standard of perfection, but GOP members have accused Mayorkas of lying by asserting his department has maintained operational control of the border.

Mayorkas has argued the law puts the onus on the secretary to maximize their resources to have the most effective results possible.