Articles of impeachment were filed against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by a Texas Republican on Tuesday, months after GOP leaders said they would make an investigation into U.S. border security a priority.
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) on Tuesday introduced House Resolution 8, which would impeach Mayorkas for “high crimes and misdemeanors” and was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The text of the bill is currently not available.
Last year, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), recently elected as House speaker, repeatedly called to investigate and impeach Mayorkas while calling on him to resign. In November, McCarthy said that if Mayorkas does not resign, Republicans will probe “every order, every action, and every failure to determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiries.”
After Fallon and other House members were sworn in, the Texas lawmaker vowed to file impeachment articles against Mayorkas, whose agency oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. He again accused the Biden administration of undermining “law enforcement activities at our southern border” and Mayorkas of perjuring himself before Congress during previous testimonies.
But amid the threats, Mayorkas appeared unfazed in a recent interview with ABC News. When asked, Mayorkas said he has not planned to step down from his position following Republicans’ vows to impeach him.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’re going to do it,” Mayorkas said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, saying he would join Biden during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. “We are dealing within a broken immigration system that Congress has failed to repair for decades,” he added. “And there is unanimity with respect to that reality.”
According to Fox News, Fallon’s first article of impeachment alleges that Mayorkas failed to execute the “Secure the Fence Act of 2006” that requires the Homeland Security secretary to “maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States.” The second impeachment article alleges that Mayorkas “willfully provided perjurious, false, and misleading testimony to Congress” during testimony before Congress on Nov. 15 and April 26 of last year.
