Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday night that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “deserves to be impeached” and defended a GOP case that has been criticized by the left and right.
“From his first day in office, Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and consistently refused to comply with federal immigration laws, fueling the worst border catastrophe in American history. He has undermined public trust through multiple false statements to Congress, obstructed lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, and violated his oath of office,” Johnson wrote.
“Alejandro Mayorkas deserves to be impeached, and Congress has a constitutional obligation to do so … Since this Secretary refuses to do the job that the Senate confirmed him to do, the House must act.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) described the impeachment articles as not containing “a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds.”
Republicans in the articles accuse Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law,” claiming he violated immigration laws by failing to detain a sufficient number of migrants.
But no administration has ever detained all migrants, and immigration law experts who have weighed the claim determined Mayorkas did not violate any laws and is making the same tough choices past administrations have grappled with about whom they have the resources to detain.
Similarly, GOP claims he lied to Congress rest largely on testimony he’s given where he’s maintained the government has operational control of the border, which Republicans dispute.
Republicans have 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.
“I do, and congressman, I think the secretary of Homeland Security would have said the same thing in 2020 and 2019,” Mayorkas said in a 2022 exchange when asked if he met the standard.
In a July hearing, Mayorkas said: “With respect to the definition of operational control, I do not use the definition that appears in the Secure Fence Act. And the Secure Fence Act provides statutorily that operational control is defined as preventing all unlawful entries into the United States. By that definition, no administration has ever had operational control.”
Mayorkas has argued the law puts the onus on the secretary to maximize their resources to have the most effective results possible.
Some conservative legal scholars have been highly critical of the GOP’s impeachment case for Mayorkas.
Alan Dershowitz, who represented former President Trump in his first impeachment trial, accused House Republicans on Tuesday of using “double standards” in backing “vague” charges against Mayorkas when they refused to do so for the former president. Any backers, he said, are “distorting the Constitution.”
DHS on Tuesday criticized the passage of the articles.
“House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border. While Secretary Mayorkas was helping a group of Republican and Democratic Senators develop bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security and get needed resources for enforcement, House Republicans have wasted months with this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment,” DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement.
“Without a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds, and despite bipartisan opposition, House Republicans have falsely smeared a dedicated public servant who has spent more than 20 years enforcing our laws and serving our country. Secretary Mayorkas and the Department of Homeland Security will continue working every day to keep Americans safe.”