Watch Dwell: Home committee holds first impeachment listening to for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Washington — Home Republicans are transferring ahead with their effort to question Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his dealing with of the state of affairs alongside the U.S.-Mexico border, holding their first listening to on the matter Wednesday morning.

“As we speak is a solemn event as this committee begins official impeachment proceedings within the matter of Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and his dealing with of America’s borders since taking workplace in February 2021,” GOP Rep. Mark Inexperienced of Tennessee, the committee’s chairman mentioned. “Our proof makes it clear: Secretary Mayorkas is the architect of the devastation that we’ve got witnessed for practically three years.”

Home Republicans argue that Mayorkas has did not carry out his duties and uncared for to behave in accordance with legal guidelines handed by Congress. The impeachment push additionally comes because the GOP has made border safety a central theme forward of the 2024 elections, in search of to capitalize on the problem after an unprecedented quantity of migrants crossed the southern border on the finish of final 12 months. 

Attorneys normal from Montana, Oklahoma and Missouri testified at Wednesday’s listening to to focus on the impression of migration on their states below Mayorkas’ management. The secretary didn’t attend. The Division of Homeland Safety known as the impeachment effort “baseless and pointless” and known as on Congress to reform the nation’s immigration legal guidelines.

The Mayorkas impeachment listening to

Inexperienced argued in his opening assertion that impeachment was designed not solely to take away officers “engaged in legal conduct,” but in addition these “responsible of such gross incompetence that their conduct had endangered their fellow Individuals, betrayed the general public belief or represented a neglect of obligation.” He prompt that Mayorkas’ dealing with of the state of affairs on the U.S.-Mexico border had met the usual.

In the meantime, Democratic lawmakers decried the impeachment effort, calling it a political train with no affordable foundation. 

“It’s now marketing campaign season and Republicans lately rolled out their impeachment proceedings towards the secretary like a pre-planned, predetermined political stunt it’s,” mentioned Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the highest Democrat on the committee. “This isn’t a legit impeachment.”

Thompson mentioned Home Republicans are pushing the impeachment inquiry “to distract from their very own failures,” whereas highlighting that some are opposing funding for the border within the White Home’s supplemental funding request regardless of their push to boost border safety.

“Democrats wish to strengthen border safety. We wish to maintain fentanyl off the road. We wish to maintain communities protected,” Thompson mentioned. “This circus side-show impeachment does none of that.”

The attorneys normal railed towards Mayorkas’ management on Wednesday, testifying that the state of affairs has grown dire of their states below the secretary’s tenure, attributing native drug and trafficking incidents to the move of migrants on the southern border.

“The Trump administration overcame fierce opposition at each flip and was capable of acquire management of our southern border as no earlier administration may. However all of that progress has been destroyed,” Montana Lawyer Normal Austin Knudsen mentioned. “Secretary Mayorkas is the architect of that destruction.”

Missouri Lawyer Normal Andrew Bailey accused Mayorkas of facilitating an “orchestrated lack of enforcement” of the nation’s immigration legal guidelines, which he mentioned has led to the impeachment proceedings. 

“Reasonably than discover methods to safe our border, Secretary Mayorkas has been busy enacting insurance policies to make it simpler to enter our nation illegally,” Bailey mentioned, including that states are “compelled to bear the large value of Secretary Mayorkas’ failure.”

Frank Bowman, a professor on the College of Missouri’s regulation college, appeared earlier than the committee on the invitation of Democratic members. He careworn that impeachment “will not be presupposed to be a routine instrument to resolve peculiar public coverage debates.”

Bowman defined that the Structure defines impeachable conduct as treason, bribery or different excessive crimes and misdemeanors, and argued that coverage disputes between Congress and a Cupboard secretary don’t rise to that stage.

“Essentially the most generally encountered classes of impeachable conduct are official corruption, abuse of energy, betrayal of the nation’s international coverage pursuits and subversion of the Structure,” Bowman mentioned. “There isn’t a critical allegation of which I am conscious that the secretary has executed any of these issues.”

Republicans’ impeachment push

The listening to comes after Home leaders final 12 months stalled an effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to drive a vote on impeaching Mayorkas. The Georgia Republican pulled her impeachment decision after she mentioned she obtained assurances from Home leaders that her earlier effort would transfer ahead on the committee stage. 

Greene’s decision accused Mayorkas of violating federal regulation and the Structure by failing to “keep operational management of the border” and forestall an “invasion.” 

Some Republicans voiced doubt about impeachment on the time, saying Mayorkas’ actions didn’t quantity to impeachable offenses. Others mentioned they wished to attend for the committee’s investigation to be accomplished earlier than holding an impeachment vote. 

Inexperienced, the committee chairman, mentioned final week that the panel lately concluded a virtually yearlong investigation into the state of affairs on the border. 

“Our investigation made clear that this disaster finds its basis in Secretary Mayorkas’ decision-making and refusal to implement the legal guidelines handed by Congress, and that his failure to meet his oath of workplace calls for accountability,” he mentioned in a press release saying the listening to. 

Home Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana led a delegation of greater than 60 Republicans to the border final week. He known as the journey an “eye opener,” saying they bought a “first-hand have a look at the injury and chaos the border disaster is inflicting in all of our communities.” 

Even when the GOP-controlled Home impeaches Mayorkas, it’s extremely unlikely that he could be convicted in a trial within the Senate, which has a Democratic majority and would require a vote of two-thirds of senators to take away him from workplace. Nonetheless, his impeachment could be historic, on condition that he could be the primary Cupboard official to be impeached in nearly 150 years. 

Throughout a go to to the border on Monday, Mayorkas known as on Congress to take motion to repair the nation’s immigration system and mentioned accusations that he has not enforced the nation’s legal guidelines “couldn’t be farther from the reality.” 

“There’s nothing I take extra significantly than our accountability to uphold the regulation,” Mayorkas mentioned, later including that “nearly all of all migrants encountered on the Southwest border all through this administration have been eliminated, returned or expelled — a majority of them.” 

Mayorkas has been a part of talks between the White Home and a small bipartisan group of senators who’ve been negotiating a possible deal on immigration coverage and border safety. 

In a memo launched forward of the impeachment listening to, the Division of Homeland Safety pointed to these talks and contrasted them with the impeachment effort within the Home.

“After a long time of Congressional inaction on our damaged immigration legal guidelines, Secretary Mayorkas and a bipartisan group of Senators are working exhausting to attempt to discover actual options to deal with these challenges,” the DHS memo mentioned. “As a substitute of working in a bipartisan method to repair our damaged immigration legal guidelines, the Home Majority is losing time on baseless and pointless political assaults by attempting to question Secretary Mayorkas.” 

Nikole Killion and Nicole Sganga contributed reporting.