The impact on America’s heartland of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s border policies will be the focus of the House Republicans’ first impeachment hearing against him on Jan. 10.
The Homeland Security Committee is set to hear testimony from the attorneys general of Missouri, Montana, and Oklahoma on how their states have been adversely affected by the secretary’s “failed leadership” in addressing the surge of illegal immigrants across the U.S.–Mexico border.
Expected to counter their testimony is the Democrats’ invited speaker, University of Missouri law professor Frank Bowman.
House Republicans failed in November to pass Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) resolution to impeach Mr. Mayorkas, opting instead to refer the resolution to the Homeland Security Committee for investigation.
The findings of the committee’s probe were detailed across five reports, which charged the secretary with endangering the lives of U.S. citizens, empowering the drug cartels, and wasting taxpayer dollars with his “open-borders” policies.
‘Unmitigated Disaster’
Ahead of the planned hearing, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) led a delegation of 64 Republicans to the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, to survey the unfolding crisis.“We would describe it as both heartbreaking and infuriating,” Mr. Johnson said at a Jan. 3 press conference. “Our communities are overrun. We have local resources that are being strapped. We have lethal drugs that are pouring into our country at record levels. And it’s in less than three years that President Biden took office that this has happened, that we have over 7 million illegal encounters at the border.”
Lawmakers spent the day meeting with residents and public safety officials and touring the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility where thousands of illegal border-crossers are processed daily.
“Last month alone, we saw the most illegal crossings in recorded history,” the speaker said. “It is an unmitigated disaster—a catastrophe. And what’s more tragic is that it’s a disaster of the president’s own design.”
President Joe Biden, he noted, stopped construction of the southern border wall, expanded parole authorities, and ended the Trump administration’s Remain in Mexico policy requiring asylum seekers to stay in Mexico until their court date.
‘Broken’ System
Mr. Mayorkas followed up the Republicans’ visit to Eagle Pass with one of his own on Jan. 8, just days before the impeachment hearing.But at his press conference, the secretary made it clear that the administration has a very different perspective on who is to blame for the border crisis.
“We are doing everything we can within a broken system to incentivize noncitizens to use lawful pathways, to impose consequences on those who do not, and to reduce irregular migration,” he said.
“We will continue to do everything we can, and we will continue to enforce the law. But we need Congress to make the legislative changes and provide the funding that our frontline officers so desperately need.”
Mr. Mayorkas reiterated his long-held stance that the historic influx of illegal immigrants at the southern border is due to an overall increase in global migration and a lack of legislative reform from Congress—not a failure of administration policy.
“Our immigration system is outdated and broken and has been in need of reform for literally decades. On this, everyone agrees,” he said, asserting that lawmakers need to “do their part” and approve President Biden’s request for supplemental funding.
The referenced request included $13.6 billion in border security funding. However, the package tied those funds to an additional $61.4 billion in aid for Ukraine in its war with Russia—a sticking point for many Republicans, who say the president lacks a clear strategy in that conflict. And as the legislation included no major border policy reforms, it failed to garner enough support in the Senate.
Negotiations to find a workable solution remain ongoing, though Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Jan. 9 told NTD News, The Epoch Times’ sister outlet, that he was wary of whatever deal might emerge.
“What we can’t do is what Republicans always do, which is try to go cut some watered-down deal that won’t do the job in order to get something else. And that’s what I’m afraid is happening right now,” he said.
“We need to hold the line, fight to secure the border,” Mr. Roy said. “If you want to get Ukraine funding, then pass H.R. 2. You know, if it’s that important to you, then you’ll do it. If it’s not, then move on. But I don’t want one of these half-measures and then claims of victory.”
House Republicans passed H.R. 2 in May, but the bill has been sidelined in the Democrat-controlled Senate. The legislation would implement new restrictions on the asylum and parole processes, among other reforms.
