Republicans in the House of Representatives release impeachment charges against Mayorkas

Republicans in the House of Representatives on Sunday released two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, accusing President Biden's top immigration official of refusing to enforce the law and betraying the public's trust in his handling of a wave of migration at the American border. Mexico.

Leaders of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee laid out their case against Mr. Mayorkas ahead of a meeting on Tuesday to approve the charges, paving the way for a quick vote in the House of Representatives early next month to depose him. It would be the culmination of Republicans' attacks on Mr. Biden's immigration policies and an extraordinary step given the growing consensus among legal scholars that Mr. Mayorkas' actions do not constitute high crimes and misdemeanors.

The push comes as Republicans in the House of Representatives, egged on by former President Donald J. Trump, oppose a bipartisan border compromise that Mr. Mayorkas helped negotiate with a group of senators that Mr. Biden has pledged to will sign. Republican Party lawmakers in the House of Representatives have dismissed the deal as too weak and argued they cannot trust Biden to crack down on migration now, having failed to do so in the past.

The charges against Mr. Mayorkas, if approved by the full House, will almost certainly die in the Democratic-led Senate, where Mr. Mayorkas will stand trial and a two-thirds majority will be needed to convict and remove him. . But the trial would make for a remarkable election-year political spectacle, effectively putting Biden's immigration record on trial as Trump, who has made the border crackdown his signature issue, tries to to win the Republican presidential nomination to run against him.

The first article of impeachment essentially labels the Biden administration's border policy an official crime. It accuses Mr. Mayorkas of willfully and systematically ignoring laws requiring the detention of migrants by implementing a “catch and release” policy that allows some to remain in the United States pending legal proceedings and others certain to flee war-torn and economically ravaged countries to live. and work temporarily in the country. Immigration laws give the president wide latitude to do both.

The second article accuses Mr. Mayorkas of lying to Congress about whether the border was secure and obstructing lawmakers' efforts to investigate him.

“These articles make a clear, convincing, and irrefutable case for the impeachment of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas,” Rep. Mark Green, Republican of Tennessee and chairman of the House Homeland Security panel, said in a statement. “Congress has a duty to ensure that the executive branch implements and enforces the laws we pass.”

The Biden administration and Democrats have defended Mr. Mayorkas for acting legally and truthfully, arguing that he fully complied with the Republican Party's investigations even before they opened an impeachment inquiry. They have also dismissed the impeachment as a political exercise, accusing Republicans of scapegoating Mr. Mayorkas as a favor to the far right, rather than working with them on bipartisan solutions to what leaders of both parties see as a border crisis, to alleviate it.

“This unserious impeachment is evidence of partisan politics over rules and reason,” Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the senior Democrat on the panel, wrote in a letter to Mr. Green, urging him to “do better.”

The charges are being rolled out as leading Republicans and Democrats scramble to save the bipartisan border security deal emerging in the Senate. This would make it harder to apply for asylum, increase detention capacity and force a freeze on border crossings if encounters with migrants rise above average. of 5,000 per day for a week.

Mr Biden has pledged to “close the border” if Congress sends him the compromise, while Mr Trump has pressed Republican lawmakers to oppose it as insufficient. Speaker Mike Johnson has said the deal is likely “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives, promising instead to set aside the articles of impeachment against Mr. Mayorkas “as soon as possible.”

House leaders have been threatening for more than a year to hold Mr. Mayorkas personally responsible for a wave of migrant crossings and drug trafficking across the southern border with Mexico. Their efforts have accelerated in recent weeks, after months in which Republican leaders seemed unable to muster enough support within their own ranks.

The shift came after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, tried to force a quick impeachment vote, a move that failed when a group of more mainstream Republicans and Democrats voted instead to refer the case to the Homeland Security panel .

The committee rushed through impeachment proceedings this month, holding just two hearings and interviewing no federal officials — including Mr. Mayorkas himself — before Republican members unanimously recommended moving forward with the indictment.

The articles attempt to blame Mr. Mayorkas for the wave of migrants arriving at the southern border in recent years and trying to enter the United States without a visa. They accuse him of bringing even people with criminal records into the country and refusing to deport those with deportation orders, while misrepresenting the situation at the border by telling Congress that his department had “operational control.”

Mr. Mayorkas has previously explained that Border Patrol agents use a different definition of “operational control” than the law provides. He has defended his policies, saying the department is detaining and removing unlawful migrants to the extent limited resources allow and using paroles to humanely manage unprecedented pressure at the southern border.

Republicans went through the investigation without ever issuing a subpoena to Mr. Mayorkas to testify in his own defense. They withdrew the invitation for him to appear in person after a scheduling disagreement and instead ordered him to submit a written statement within 10 days of the final hearing. on January 18.

The GOP said the deadline would expire on Sunday, but Democrats and representatives of Mr. Mayorkas argue he has until Wednesday, the day after the panel is expected to approve the charges against him.

Democrats say the impeachment trial is riddled with cuts by Republicans, whose witnesses included grieving mothers of victims of brutal crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and three attorneys general who are prosecuting Mr. Mayorkas. And they reject the substance of the charges against Mr. Mayorkas, noting that legal experts argued during their testimony before the panel that the complaints against him amounted to a policy dispute, not constitutional crimes.

“Nothing about this sham accusation is consistent with House precedent,” Thompson said in his letter. “Everything has been done to achieve the predetermined outcome that you promised your donors last year.”

House Republicans have rejected the criticism, arguing that the Constitution's instruction to impeach for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” does not constrain them.

“His lawless conduct was exactly what the framers gave us the power to fix,” Mr. Green said of Mr. Mayorkas.

Should Mr. Mayorkas be impeached, he would become only the second Cabinet secretary in American history to suffer that fate. The last, William W. Belknap, the Secretary of War under Ulysses S. Grant, was impeached in 1876 on charges of corruption and participation in a kickback scheme. He was later acquitted by the Senate.